We lost Crimea. That is very clear. Putin proved he was not lying when he said he would place women and children ahead of his soldiers to storm Ukrainian military bases. Russian soldiers did exactly that with women (some who volunteered and some who were forced). Russia now occupies all the bases in Crimea and has captured all our ships. The Ukrainian military has been kicked out. Some soldiers, especially native Crimeans, decided to stay and swear loyalty to the Crimean people and serve in the new army and fleet. This is nonsense because Crimea is now another Russian territory and these soldiers will be treated like other Russian soldiers who must swear loyalty to the Russian government. It is a very complicated and confusing situation.
They are already changing the currency to the Russian ruble and people are losing their money and jobs. A friend of mine, Sergei, is a pastor of a church in Crimea. He sold his apartment before the crisis to buy land and save money to build a house. It was all in Ukrainian hryvnias. Now the bank just says it is gone. He lost all his livelihood and savings this way. A similar thing happened to his wife’s family in Soviet times. Her parents sold their house and saved money to move, but when the Soviet Union collapsed, they lost everything. No one can understand how this new system will be in Crimea. Russians are paid while Ukrainians are not. The banking system is not working. People can’t prove their rightful property by new standards. Ukrainian paper means nothing. Sergei’s legal title to his property is useless. We know another man with the same problem.
The new prime minister of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, is a famous bandit whose nickname is “Goblin.” The new Crimean Chief of Parliament has previously used fraud to take money from citizens for housing developments while taking it for his own purposes. Like our former president, Viktor Yanukovych, these men are criminals and should be prosecuted under law. Instead, Putin has given them more power over Ukrainian people. They have formed self-defense units of thugs and criminals, and normal citizens are afraid to go out in the evening because of these polizei (they call them this from the German word for vicious police during World War II).
Putin now needs cities in Ukraine’s mainland to support Crimea. Without this land, it is madness to have Crimea because the peninsula depends on the mainland for fresh water, electricity, and basic transportation and trade. All its roads and trains go throughKherson area, the Ukrainian southeastern city Kherson is the center of mainland most connected with Crimea. Ukrainians can shut off water and power and block roads to the peninsula which has already experienced food shortages. For Putin to supply Crimea with fresh water, he would have to build a pipeline from Russia which would cost billions. It is much cheaper for him to occupy Ukraine, especially when our government has refused to fight against Russians and preferred to lose Crimea. We have lost somewhere between 22-40 billion dollars of military property by leaving our Crimean bases as well as offshore oil platforms and very important natural gas and oil resources in the Black Sea.
A portion of Moldova (a small country between Ukraine and Romania) was also invaded by Russian troops several years ago. Putin used the same pretext of defending Russian citizens. A small strip of land called Transdnistria along the Ukrainian border held a referendum in 2006 and declared independence from Moldova. It has never been internationally recognized as its new entity. Russian influence and troops are strong there and Putin can use this land to connect Crimea across southeastern Ukrainian cities, blocking Ukraine from the Black Sea and continuing to fulfill his dreams to create increasing borders for Russian Empire.
There are at least 100,000 Russian troops just across southeastern Ukrainian borders with tanks, helicopters, and aircraft. In Odessa,Kharkiv, and Donetsk, trained Russian soldiers have been caught from the Russian Intelligence service. One of these admitted who he was and what they were doing there. Up to this point, Putin has primarily sent into southeastern cities Russian thugs and hooligans, many of which belong to various Russian national fascist organizations. They have created riots and upheavals, which have resulted in multiple deaths–two recently in Donetsk and in Kharkiv. Some of these dead were even Russians that still wanted to be part of Ukraine. The Kremlin will continue to use these provoked riots as a pretext for military invasion to protect Russian people in Ukraine, just like they did in Crimea and in other countries.
Putin and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, have declared that they will not hold any negotiations over Ukraine unless Ukraine implements a new constitution making it a federal republic instead of unitary state. It is Russia’s imperative condition to recognize or negotiate with the Ukrainian government. A federal state at this time would create more overbearing rights for the rich and power for those who have already misused it and dealt corruptly. Ukraine would naturally fall apart. Of course, this would allow Putin to prove that Ukraine is a failed state which will become a nightmare to Europe without his Russian intervention. He may ask, would western Europe prefer a new Bosnia or a new dictatorship in Ukraine? Of course, a new dictatorship looks better for immediate European peace. Propaganda works so well. The Kremlin can try to show any case or clash or argument–or even a bargain in the marketplace, and say it is a national split or work of Banderists (or Banderevtsy in Russian).
Russian propaganda uses this label, “Bandera.” It is the surname of a Ukrainian national leader who fought against both the Germans and the Soviets during World War II. Anyone who supports Ukraine as an independent state can be called a Banderist after the movement of this man, Stepan Bandera. Pro-Kremlin propaganda says he was a fascist and if his followers get power in Ukraine, it will be terrible for Europe. They claim if Russia does not occupy Ukraine there will be terrible civil war, riots and horrible damage to western European peace.
It is true we are still trying to recover from a revolution. Ukraine has a new government. Not everyone likes what they are doing. Of course there is lots of discussion, but there is no civil war. We are all still united under one goal–a free and just Ukrainian state. This is our simple and unifying idea. We would like to be a so-called “European state” without corruptions and with a law that applies to everyone. Even members of government must be subject to a higher law without exceptions. We want new forms of taxations, etc. We are trying to build a state by western standards, but the Kremlin does not want this.
Of course, we need prayer. There is still bloodshed in our cities. These Russian thugs (we call them Russian political tourists), continue to create riots and attack, rob, and even kill citizens. Last night a man was killed in Kyiv. They do these things and claim it was Banderists or members of the Right Sector. These Ukrainians (Right Sector) are not fascists and they are not robbing or beating people. They don’t hate people. They just want to have their own country. But because of these Russian criminals who do and say these things, there is more and more division here. The police tried to fight against real members of the Right Sector and very wrongly killed a leader of the Right Sector in Rivne area, OleksandrMuzychko, two nights ago. We are not in civil war, but there are things that could cause it, especially with help from Putin and our Russian friends.
We need to overcome consequences from our revolution. We are trying build on a country that has been robbed and is now operating under a new government with a people who want real change. We need to become a normal and stable country as fast as possible. This is enough difficulty without suffering from invasion and crippling and cancerous Kremlin propaganda, but God is always good.
San Sanych Orlov-Koshchavka, Sr., is Pastor of Rivne Biblical Church, CREC, in Rivne, Ukraine.