National Review interview with Patr. Sviatoslav on Ukraine, Russia, etc.

quote:

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George Weigel: Approaching the first anniversary of the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” in Ukraine, how would you assess the country’s situation?

Patr. Sviatoslav Shevchuk: I would say that Ukraine is under social reconstruction and under foreign aggression. After the “Revolution of Dignity,” President Viktor Yanukovych left what was almost a destroyed country, with no state institutions in the real sense of that term. There was no army; the national treasury had been plundered. All the departments of police and state security were paralyzed and discredited. The office of general prosecutor had deteriorated; the justice system in Ukraine was completely destroyed; and the economy of Ukraine was near to state default. Then the foreign aggression started: first, with the annexation of Crimea, and then with military actions in southeast Ukraine, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Yet in those tragic circumstances we are witnessing the rise of civil society and the birth of a new Ukraine that includes not only ethnic Ukrainians but Russians, Jews, Crimean Tatars, people of Polish descent, Belarussians, Armenians, and Georgians; Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers; Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims, and Jews — in other words, citizens of Ukraine, who, irrespective of their origins, have expressed their desire to live in a free and independent country. And we are witnessing the emergence of a new form of Ukrainian patriotism, never before known in our history: a patriotism in which love for our motherland enables us to risk our lives for our freedom and independence.

In these critical circumstances, we were able to have two kinds of elections in the past year. We elected a new president and a new parliament. That is the democratic way to create state structures that will defend human dignity, not annihilate it.

Ukrainians have made a free choice. We have chosen a European perspective on the development of our country. We have chosen European and Christian values. We have rejected the post-Soviet heritage and any sort of extremism or violence.


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Weigel: Is it possible for Ukraine, essentially unaided, to resist continuing pressures from Moscow and its allies in the Donbas?

Shevchuk: It’s very difficult, but it is possible. We have been resisting these aggressions for almost a year. Our people understand very clearly that no one will come to defend us, that no one else will underwrite our existence, and that no one from the outside is going to reconstruct our country. We understand that. But it is also crucial for the world to understand that Ukrainians are giving their lives for European values today, values that Europe itself is getting less and less able to bear witness to and defend. To support Ukraine today means to support democracy and a stable international security system.

Today, Ukraine is fighting, not only for its own freedom and dignity, but for freedom and dignity as such: freedom and dignity not only in Europe but elsewhere in the world. This struggle is for our freedom and for your freedom. If the West, in its negotiations over Ukraine, takes into account only economic matters — if money again prevails over human dignity and freedom — then the great Western powers will have betrayed their own citizens and the cause of human dignity. And “European Union” will be an empty word.

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