Projev, ktery jsem dnes prednesl na konferenci National and International Security After the Occupation of Crimea. Poradali ji v Rize poslanci lotyšskeho parlamentu. Ladies and gentlemen, friends, dear colleagues, I would like to start by thanking you twice. The first thank you is for the invitation to Riga. I like Riga, I have visited it many times in the last twenty five years. I observed with pleasure how quickly it changed from a Soviet city to a European city. The second thank you goes to the organizers of this conference for choosing the topic of Crimea and Ukraine. I would personally like to thank Member of the Latvian Parliament Vineta Porina, with whom I have a friendship from when we worked together in the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE. For myself, Ukraine is an extremely important topic. I was lucky. After the dissident seventies and eighties, I left in January 1990 to work as a reporter for the Lidové noviny daily in Moscow. I worked for ten years in the countries of the former Soviet Union, including Russia itself, the Baltic States, the Caucasus as well as Ukraine. Being a journalist in the crumbling empire at the time was an amazing life experience. I also reported from both Chechen wars. They brought me a number of friendships. Among my friends were president Dzhokhar Dudayev, field commanders Aslanbek Abdulkhadzhiyev and Aslanbek Ismailov, Anna Politkovskaya... They are all dead now. They were all killed. In the year 2000, as a journalist I was expelled from Russia. Since then, I am listed by the Federal Security Service as a persona non grata. Since 2004, I worked in the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security as a Czech senator. Since July of this year, I am a member of the European Parliament. All those years I have been interested in the fate of Ukraine. I followed the efforts of the RUKH movement for the independence of Ukraine in the early nineties and the Orange Revolution in 2004. I followed the developments on Maidan Square in Kiev from the beginning. In early August of this year, I visited for several days the liberated areas in the northern part of the Donetsk region (Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Artemivsk, Sviatohirsk). Please allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to formulate some of my findings: 1) Kiev’s Maidan was a peaceful demonstration until the moment when President Yanukovych declared the draconian laws according to which the Maidan demonstration participants were to be punished. It was only then, after several months, that the peaceful demonstration turned into a revolution. 2) From the beginning, Kiev’s Maidan was accompanied by the blatant lie from Moscow that it is a Nazi, fascist, Bandera coup. Yes, there are neo-Nazis in Ukraine, just like in the Czech Republic, in Latvia and in Russia. Political developments, including the results of the May presidential elections in Ukraine prove that neo-Nazi or fascistoid forces in Ukraine are marginal. Maidan was an amazing surge by the Ukrainian people. 3) The February events were then a prelude to the annexation of Crimea. An “unknown” sniper squad massacred more than one hundred people in Kiev. It managed to destabilize the situation in the country. For several days the mass murder diverted attention from the disguised Russian officers, the elite members of diversionary groups, the citizens of the Russian Federation, in Crimea. Before Kiev recovered, the so called Republic of Crimea was proclaimed, and the republic declared its accession to the Russian Federation. I saw the Kiev bloodshed with my own eyes, as at the time I was living in Hotel Ukraine on Maidan Square, where the dead and wounded were gathered. 4) Immediately after, two pseudo republics were proclaimed in eastern Ukraine: the so called Donetsk Peoples Republic and the Luhansk Peoples Republic. Their creation scenario was similar to that of Crimea. Disguised officers from the Russian secret service organized and to this day run the separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine. Unlike in Crimea, Ukraine began protecting its continental territory. The brunt of the battle against the terrorists is borne by proper units of the Ukrainian army (they are subordinated to the Ministry of Defense) and by volunteer battalions (they are subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior). 5) In Artemivsk I visited one of the most famous battalions, the Donbass battalion. It was at the time of the beginning of the operation to liberate the city of Horlivka, which at that time was held by Igor Bezler, nicknamed the Beast. Among the militants of the Donbass battalion are many members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, including students. Their determination to defend the homeland is obvious. The Ukrainians are bravely defending themselves against the occupation. For that they deserve our support. 6) The mayors of liberated cities, as well as soldiers of the Donbass battalion, emphasize that there would have already been peace for a long time, had the border between the Russian Federation and Ukraine been closed. Without the supply of arms from Russia, the terrorists would have already been defeated. International sanctions need to be targeted to the requirement of the non-infringement of borders. 7) According to UNHCR data, there are approximately 150,000 IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in Ukraine today. The number of refugees to Russia is in a similar order. The humanitarian crisis may escalate into a humanitarian catastrophe if the war becomes more widespread. 8) Moscow is trying to convince the world that there is a civil war happening in Ukraine. That is not the case – it is a war that the Russian Federation is leading against Ukraine. 9) The annexation of Crimea and the now open occupation of a part of eastern Ukraine by Russian armed forces is a dangerous violation of the security balance in Europe that was built over the course of seventy years. 10) I have realized what the causes of the Ukrainian uprising are. The protest at Maidan started as a call for the signing of the Association Treaty and for accession to the EU. Increasingly stronger is the anti-Soviet and anti-communist element. Ukrainians do not want into the newly emerging Soviet Union, which has the Eurasian Union as its working title. They still remember the famine, gulags and deportations. In addition, they have also realized that after twenty-five years of an independent Ukraine, they are ruled by the same people who ruled them before. 11) The political and economic pressure on Russia to stop its aggression must be intensified. Even in the European Parliament. I have realized, even in the short time that I am a member of the EP, that members from old countries of the European Union lack the historical experience that we have as countries of the former Soviet bloc. I therefore urge MPs and MEPs from the countries of the former Soviet empire: Let’s join forces to defend the independence of Ukraine against the Russian imperialist mindset and violence. To protect the integrity of Ukraine. Efforts to federalize Ukraine on the basis of Russia’s aggression will lead to its demise. We must not allow any equivalent of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which afflicted your country. We must not allow any equivalent of the Munich Agreement, which afflicted my country. Please allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to express my admiration for the Ukrainians who are defending their homeland. Glory to Ukraine! Jaromír Štětina Member of EP
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 08:46:06 +0000
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