Researcher Melanie Mierzejewski-Voznyak: Ukrainians fighting for their existence are now participating in the defense in every way.
The Russian invasion has led to horrors in Ukraine. But despite the threat of violence, Russian troops have repeatedly faced resistance from the population in the occupied territories.
This has manifested itself in protests in which the local population has fearlessly demonstrated against Russian forces. Sometimes these have even been made to back down.
The mood of the Ukrainians also manifests itself as a working spirit. In Kharkov, for example, taxi drivers have begun clearing traces of missile strikes.
– We will repair and restore everything, and we will never forget what has been done to us, says the volunteer who joined the clearing group Marina Shumarova In an interview with a Ukrainian broadcaster.
Blue-yellow flags have defied the attacker
Investigator Melanie Mierzejewski-Voznyakin according to the civil resistance says the Ukrainians are fighting for their existence. The people are involved in the defense of their homeland at all levels.
Mierzejewski-Voznyak attributes this to the fact that there has been repeated civilian resistance in Ukraine.
– A woman in Konotop cannot fight in the front line, but she shows her disapproval of a Russian soldier sitting on top of her armor, Mierzejewski-Voznyak describes.
– Or in Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region, civilians have protested for their hometown.
According to the researcher, these unarmed protests also tell the order of importance. Ukrainians put the protection of their country and people before the destruction of the enemy.
Mierzejewski-Voznyak, who specializes in research on Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe, is a visiting lecturer in the Alexander Institute’s Ukraine program. interviewed him via email.
Is raw violence rolling into civil resistance?
The besieged Mariupol already had time to become a symbol of war, until images of the massacre in the town of Bushan, west of Kiev, spread to the world’s attention.
Researcher Mierzejewski-Voznyak points out that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the aggression on its soil are already war crimes under international law for which the Russian regime should be held accountable.
At least 40 countries have already appealed to the International Criminal Court, and Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has registered thousands of war crimes since the start of the war, says Mierzejewski-Voznyak.
The most egregious attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine stand out. Many of these have targeted the most vulnerable groups.
The list of suspected war crimes is long
Mierzejewski-Voznyak lists the worst suspected war crimes: a maternity hospital was bombed in Mariupol on March 9, and a couple of days after that, Russian armor fired at a nursing home in Kremina in the Luhansk region.
The theater that served as a civil defense in Mariupol was destroyed on March 16, and the art school – which also served as a civil defense – was bombed by the Russians a little later.
Mierzejewski-Voznyak believes that in addition to the attacks, war crimes include the starvation and siege of the population of Mariupol, as well as the deportation of more than four million people.
The tragedy of the war is exacerbated by the fact that the Russian attack is on the Ukrainians, formerly known as the brothers of the Russians.
The attack confronted the two Slavic peoples
Ukraine has been experiencing Moscow’s aggression for eight years since the start of a Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine, and the president Vladimir Putin captured Crimea over Russia.
But it was not until the large-scale war launched by Russia that nations were confronted in unprecedented ways.
The attack pushed aside the historical connections and kinship of the two Slavic peoples.
The beginning of the Soviet era marked a famine for Ukraine, known as the Holodomor, which killed millions of people. However, after the Second World War, a close network of contacts was formed between the nations, which was strengthened by the migration of Soviet citizens in search of work or study. Countless families and clans lived scattered throughout the ruled kingdom of Moscow.
Even after the attack started, it no longer mattered. Residents of Ukraine have tried to tell their relatives in Russia, who are living in information blackouts, about the reality of the war – often unresponsive.
Both Ukrainian and Russian speakers are victims of the war
Melanie Mierzejewski-Voznyak recalls that the attack launched by Russia without cause is against the Ukrainians, regardless of their national identity or mother tongue.
– Putin did not understand that today all Ukrainians share the experience of a common free and independent Ukraine. It unites them in the defense of their homeland.
The use of the Ukrainian language has increased since the 2014 revolution. According to Mierzejewski-Voznyak, language still does not define present-day Ukraine.
The war started by Russia has united the Ukrainians. The researcher believes that the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine is involved in this development.
According to Mierzejewski-Voznyak, both the Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking populations established themselves in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty after the illegal conquest of Crimea in 2014.
– Patriotism has risen, but this should not be confused with Ukrainian nationalism, says Mierzejewski-Voznyak.
– Putin’s attack has further strengthened the unity of Ukraine, because now the Ukrainians are defending their homeland.