A Ukrainian author, who mentions George Orwell and the ‘Newspeak’ in his articles, has to be chastened. It has been used and quoted so many times that Orwell’s books began to hold a firm position in the bestseller lists of our country.
In my opinion, Orwell is not illustrative for us. Ukrainian reality has long been ahead of any writer’s fantasies regarding the level of absurdity. After all, the war is called hybrid precisely because the enemy came here in sheep’s clothing and openly accuses the sheep of sharp teeth and utter aggression.
So it is no wonder that the war in Ukraine has lasted for five years now, that Russia invaded a part of our territory, attacked it with its army and navy, arms terrorists and vagrants, continues to kill Ukrainian soldiers, plans and commits acts of terror, bribes our politicians, keeps our people in its jails, torments them and ruins their health, systematically defames the image of Ukraine in the world, falsifies our history, uses its own puppet church against us, confiscates our property and causes enormous losses, while the Treaty on Friendship between Ukraine and the Russian Federation remains in force. It is beyond Orwell’s wildest dreams!
On December 6, 277 deputies of the Ukrainian Parliament voted to terminate the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation (it is the official name of the agreement). But is there a cause for celebration? I believe that it will not change anything: Russia will keep violating all possible laws and arrangements anyway and life in Ukraine will not change from adopting this law either.
Some people tried to receive political dividends from this decision: say, we are so patriotic, we did it, we will no longer be friends with the Russian Federation! But it is ridiculous – where have you been all these years of war then? Meanwhile, others examine the results of the voting to find out who is against the termination. What a discovery! As if nobody knows that the Opposition Bloc is the Kremlin political power and that is why they voted against the termination of the treaty.
Same thing with Tymoshenko: she was absent when the voting took place, so what? Does it still surprise you that a politician with the highest presidential rating is trying to run between the raindrops? She could have really been absent for a good reason, or one of her advisers could have recommended her to escape from the Parliament before she annoyed her potential voters from eastern Ukraine once again. Does it make any difference after all if everybody has already decided how patriotic or pro-Russian Tymoshenko is? It is a shame that our voters do not compare their political preferences with the results of the vote on the Parliament’s website.
But even though the termination of the Treaty on Friendship will not change a thing, this event has a symbolic meaning: the last day of this agreement being in force (March 31, 2019) is also going to be the day of the next presidential elections in Ukraine. The coincidence is random but telling, because these elections will, in fact, be a test on ‘hybrid friendship’ with Russia.
In this context, I recall a brilliant book A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. This novel can be considered anti-war due to its title that seems to call ‘no more weapons and wars! World War I was a catastrophe. It is time to stop!’ It was published in 1929, ten years before the launch of World War II, an even greater disaster. People did not stop – they ground the knives instead.
The same is with the Treaty on Friendship: the termination of this document does not mean that we can all relax and forget about the ‘Russian World’ now. On the contrary, this murderous ‘friendship’ with the Russian Federation can boomerang back to us on March 31 as a result of the presidential election.
So it is too early to say “Farewell to friendship”.
The real battle for the farewell to Russia is still ahead.
Andriy Lyubka