Response to “open letter”
These “intellectuals” must have lost their minds
A reply by Denis Trubetskoy, Kyiv
May 1, 2022, 7:21 p.m
The open letter from artists and intellectuals around “Emma” editor Alice Schwarzer is a call for surrender to Ukraine. And at the same time a document of cluelessness and arrogance.
In the past few days and weeks, calls have been made several times for a compromise to be reached in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine that “both sides can accept.” This is what it said most recently in an open letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz published by the magazine “Emma” and signed by numerous German intellectuals and artists. It is also often said that the war must be decided at the negotiating table. While that may sound reasonable at first glance, I have never heard anything reasonable and realistic after such phrases. Rather, these standard sentences reveal their authors’ complete ignorance about the situation in Ukraine, in general in Eastern Europe and about the political system in Russia.
For 66 days Ukraine, which has expressly never posed a threat to Russia, has had to fight not just for its freedom but for its statehood. Not because they want this war in any form, but because there is no other way due to the completely unfounded and unfounded Russian aggression. Although there has not been another round of face-to-face negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations since the meeting in Istanbul at the end of March, negotiations in the format of video conferences continue uninterrupted. There is enough talk, that was also the case before the outbreak of the great war. Only Russia does not want serious negotiations, but a de facto capitulation of Ukraine. Given the current military situation, that is just as unrealistic as the Russian war aim of “denazification” in Ukraine.
Not “denazification” but de-Ukrainization
In the occupied areas in south-eastern Ukraine, this “denazification” is taken seriously. There are “filtration measures” and forced relocations, journalists and politicians are kidnapped, demonstrators are shot at. However, this is not “denazification,” but de-Ukrainization, according to Putin’s speech of February 21, in which he clearly and unequivocally denied Ukraine’s right to exist.
These are the circumstances in which Ukrainians must decide whether to continue fighting and defending themselves. In Ukraine, however, this question does not arise at all. Of course people don’t want war. But they know that their existence is at stake.
With a view to “the level of destruction and human suffering among the Ukrainian civilian population,” the “Emma” letter says: “Even legitimate resistance to an aggressor is at some point in an intolerable disproportion.” Anyone who throws such sentences out of this situation and indirectly but clearly holds the Ukrainian government morally responsible for the suffering of its own people must have lost their minds after the tragedies of Bucha, Borodjanska or Mariupol.
Sorry that Ukraine exists
In addition, there is a breathtaking condescension: The assumption “that the decision about the moral responsibility of the further ‘costs’ in human lives among the Ukrainian civilian population falls exclusively within the competence of their government,” says “Emma” editor Alice Schwarzer and her co-signers “Error”, because: “Moral binding norms are of a universal nature.” In other words: Ukraine’s decision to fight for its right to exist can be corrected by Germany. It seems that not only Putin, but also German intellectuals consider my country to be some kind of colony.
I wish such statements were at least honest and actually had something to do with the fear of a new world war or nuclear war. In reality, however, they are an expression of unbelievable ignorance, but also of the willingness to accept torture, mass murder and rape of Ukrainians. The whole letter sounds as if Ukraine should finally stop being annoying with its struggle for existence. As a Ukrainian, I almost want to apologize to the German letter writers for the fact that the Ukraine exists at all and disturbs their quiet life.
The fact that the “Emma” signatories have still not understood that Vladimir Putin does not need a motive for his criminal actions is so unrealistic that one begins to doubt the term “intellectuals”. Only the man who wages a war of annihilation based on lies against his neighbor can be held responsible for the destruction and human suffering in Ukraine. People talked to Putin for decades, more so in the run-up to the war than ever before. He doesn’t want a “compromise,” least of all one that “both sides” can live with.
Putin will always invent a motive
Therefore, Ukraine has no choice but to seek success on the battlefield. Because what should a compromise look like today because of the Russian demands? It should be clear that Ukraine cannot recognize Crimea and the so-called People’s Republics in Donbass, no country in the world would act differently. Or should Kyiv, in the letter writers’ imagination, accept the separation of these areas while Russia continues its attacks and even plans a “referendum” in Cherson on secession from Ukraine? On what planet would that be realistic? One should not expect answers to such questions from the “intellectuals”, because the signatories obviously did not think beyond standard phrases.
It is clear under international law that Germany will not become a party to the war by supplying arms. From a Russian point of view, Berlin was already there before the war, and Russia sees itself in a proxy war with NATO in Ukraine anyway. In any case, the Kremlin sees Germany at best as a kind of right-hand man for the United States. Whatever Germany does, Putin will always invent a suitable motive for his actions. Spreading fears of nuclear war in order to sow doubts in German society and jeopardize its resolve is probably in his interest. The Germans should not be put off by this and should rather deal seriously with what is actually happening in Ukraine than marginally dismiss the war as an unpleasant problem. At least a few German intellectuals seem to have a lot of catching up to do here.