The world is learning to pronounce the unusual names of Ukrainian cities. Mariupol... Kharkiv... Bucha... Having suffered defeat on the battlefield, the "denazifiers" are playing out their revenge on defenseless civilians. How many lives were buried alive under the ruins of the Mariupol Drama Theater? The theater was hit with a rocket with great aim, because on it was written in arshin letters: "Children", visible from a bird's eye view. Mariupol residents, mostly mothers with children, found their last refuge in the theater's basement... And this is just one episode from a whole month of targeted destruction of the city's residents. They are not allowed to bring in food and medicine, they are not allowed to leave the city - they only make their way in their own cars, because buses, you see, are not allowed to take people out. But they are taken out "voluntarily and forcibly" to Russia.

The world media had no time to recover from the next Mariupol tragedy when Bucha thundered to the whole world. What they found there after the "liberators" left could only be compared to the "clean-ups" in the villages of Chechnya. The territory of Chechnya was liberated from its people using exactly the same methods. Then the crimes of the Russian punishers were met with deathly silence, and they, intoxicated with impunity, decided to apply the "proven" method to the peaceful inhabitants of Ukraine. So far, more than 300 peaceful inhabitants of this town near Kiev have been brutally killed - raped, tortured - but the search is not over yet. And in addition to Bucha, crimes were committed in all other cities, towns and villages of the Kyiv region - in Gostomel, Irpen, Borodyanka...

However, this time the world reacted. US President Joseph Biden called Putin a war criminal. Finally, the word has been spoken! Irrefutable evidence is being collected, the chain of command is being traced. It has already been established which HF was stationed in Bucha – the 64th Motorized Rifle Airborne Division.

New sanctions are tightening their grip on the Russian economy. This time, the US has banned any investment in the Russian economy; frozen the assets of Putin's daughters and his mistresses, as well as Sergey Lavrov's family; and stopped all transactions with four Russian banks. However, the EU is unable to impose an embargo on all Russian energy sources: some EU members are too dependent on them, especially on gas, and to a lesser extent on oil. But Lithuania and Latvia have declared an embargo on Russian gas! Why can't Germany and Hungary get off the Russian gas hook?

Have the prices of oil and gasoline increased? Indeed, such prices have never been seen at American gas stations. In Silicon Valley, in particular, where prices are always higher than the US average, a gallon of the cheapest gasoline costs almost $6. However, is this such a terrible sacrifice compared to the price Ukraine pays for the right to its own life?

After all, this war means the same thing for Ukraine as the war of 1948-1950 meant for Israel. The Russian top leadership does not hide the goals of its “special operation”: “denazification” and “de-Ukrainization”, that is, openly declared genocide. With such a formulation, any concession of Ukrainian territory will mean creating a springboard for continuing the war until the complete destruction of Ukraine as a state. And Putin, after Bucha and Mariupol, has no way to retreat – an international tribunal awaits him and all those involved in war crimes.

Unfortunately, Ukraine will have to fight until complete victory, otherwise it will suffer the same fate that befell it in the 20th century.

However, the West has finally begun to realize, at a bitter price, that the fate of Western civilization is being decided in Ukraine. Assistance to Ukraine will increase depending on the successes of the Ukrainian defenders. And our job is to help in every possible way. 

Author Nadiya Banchyk