by Natascha Janssen:
My mother was born in the Soviet Union, in Ukraine, where my sizable family is a mix of Russians and Ukrainians. I therefore feel compelled to give my view on developments in Ukraine.
With my Russian/Ukrainian roots I love both peoples dearly, for centuries brother peoples who mixed with each other. If you asked my Ukrainian-born mother if she felt more Russian than Ukrainian, she replied, ‘That’s a weird question that I don’t have an answer for. There is difference in our language, our music and dancing but our hearts are one…’
And that’s how I was raised and for 40 years I experienced the most beautiful holidays of my life, in love and togetherness, in Russia and Ukraine, in the Soviet Union.
Nice that everyone in the Netherlands is now speaking out against waging war, who is in favor of that?
But why only now? Why was everyone silent when that war started 8 years ago?
Why was everyone silent about the massacre of thousands of civilians in Eastern Ukraine?
Why was everyone silent about Ukraine’s non-compliance with the Minsk agreements and now uses the word rule of law.
Where was everyone who looked away when 52 people were burned alive in Odessa.
Where was everyone who thought it was fine that in 2014 an elected government in a major European country was overthrown and a bunch of neo-Nazis seized power.
Where was everyone when the Ukrainian regime deprived the Russian Ukrainians of their basic human rights: Speaking Russian was banned, the right to pensions disappeared for Russian speakers and children who spoke Russian and had Russian names were no longer welcome at school.
When torchlight marches were organized by neo-Nazis with slogans like ‘Russians on the gas’…
And finally, where was everyone who was silent when large parts of this beautiful country, once the breadbasket of Europe, were sold for an apple and an egg to banks and investors for exploitation for genetic manipulations of Monsanto and the cruelest mega factory farms in Europe.
My cousin in Ukraine saw such a mega stable appear in front of her house. The screams and screams of those piled up animals, and then those great ominous silences… Mind you: in Ukraine there was only a small-scale cattle ranching, before the land came into the possession of western grazers.
Ukraine has become a western province for 8 years now. A colony. And all this at the expense of people, animals, nature and the environment.
So why only now, that compassion for the people, that anger against the war? The Ukrainian population has been at war for 8 years, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already fled to Russia. So are my relatives, such as my niece and her family.
Of course I know that most people have no idea about this side of the story because our news supply gives a one-sided picture of the situation.
I am now providing that information from the other side.
Do what you want with it, but silence is no longer an option for me.
Furthermore, I can only hope that peace will come soon for ALL Ukrainians, Russian and Ukrainian speakers.
Finally: I was a member of the Party for the Animals for 14 years.
With a heavy heart and a great illusion poorer, I have just canceled my membership of the party.
I joined because of the view that the interests of people, animals, nature and the environment always prevail over the pursuit of profit through the exploitation of people, animals and nature.
Unfortunately, in the last 8 years I have heard little or no word about the violations of human, animal and nature rights in Ukraine.
Therefore I have no choice but to withdraw myself, if I still want to be able to look myself straight in the mirror. And I don’t want to wrong my deceased mother posthumously.
After all, from her I learned everything about respect for every person, regardless of his origin, and respect and love for animals and nature.
Russia will gain the East Dobnbass, and better still also the South and Odessa. To clean the rat’s nest out in Kiev will not be easy but if it’s NATO it has to go, and by whatever means necessary .
Oh Natascha, I don’t think anyone in New Zealand knew about what has been going on in your beautiful country, so how could we be anything but silent. I feel desperately sorry for all the people who are suffering, yourself included. But please don’t blame us for not knowing; our MSM only tells us what the ones in power want us to know. There is so much going on in the world now we can’t keep up with it, and it is only going to get worse. Evil is everywhere. May God keep you and your family safe. I send you my love.
US, CANADA, UKRAINE AND RUSSIA 2022 DISPUTES – HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND SEQUEL TO FR. PETER MORELLO’S COMMENTS: (1) US, Canada, Ukraine and Russia are Caucasian-European nations by ethnic majority and nominally Christian nations by religious majority; (2) Ukraine and Russia are also Slavic nations and neighbors with similar laws (limits) on abortion and LGBT; (3) Russia was US’ supporter in the American Revolution at great cost to herself – the island of Menorca; (4) Russia was US’ supporter in the Civil War when US’ opponents were Britain and France, prompting US Secretary of Navy, Gideon Welles to say “God bless the Russians”; (5) US (western Alaska) and Russia are neighbors, and Canada (northwestern Yukon) is closer to Russia than to Britain and France or Mexico; (6) US and Russia were never at war, not counting the Cold War or proxy wars, as compared, for example, with the “G7” nations; (7) US, Canada, NATO and Ukraine have disputes with Russia since the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and militarization of countries neighboring Russia which was invaded over the centuries by NATO members Britain, France, Germany, (Mussolini’s) Italy, Romania, Lithuania-Poland, Turkey and by others including Sweden and the Mongols who inflicted on Ukraine and Russia death and destruction with hardly any parallels in world’s history – Germany also helped Lenin to impose psychopathic and deadly Marxism on Ukraine and Russia in 1917, while Ukraine and Russia, mostly by themselves, prevented Poland’s annihilation by Nazis and saved Europe from Nazi Germany and Mongols; (8) Ukraine and Russia have a border dispute, and a military conflict-war since the violations of the February 21, 2014 all-Ukrainian political agreement in Kiev and the violations of the 2014-2015 Minsk Peace Agreement signed by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France (in the future, a joint venture by the Minsk signatories in securing Ukrainian segment of “Pan-European” gas pipeline might be a “win-win”) – by February 23, 2022 the war took some 15,000 lives and produced thousands of refugees as well as widespread material destruction in eastern Ukraine; on February 24, 2022 Russia escalated the war and invaded Ukraine resulting in many more deaths, refugees and material destruction across Ukraine; (9) US and Russia can destroy each other and the world with their nuclear weapons in an hour; (10) the irreplaceable way forward for resolving these issues are the eternally-valid biblical principles reflected in President Washington’s Farewell Address in which he called religion-morality the foundation of domestic well-being and peace with other nations and in President Lincoln’s last Inaugural Address “… with malice towards none, with charity for all … among ourselves and with all nations”, as well as in Pope Francis’ 2022 call for prayer and political talks centered on “human brotherhood instead of partisan interests”, all the while keeping in mind the 2022 Lenten message “Remember thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return” and “Repent and believe in the Gospel” which also includes “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” and the parable of “the speck and the log” – moral principles given to us by Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace and the just Judge of the world, principles ignored at one’s great peril.
See also https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/03/14/expel-evil-spirit-of-war-from-ukraine-with-prayer-and-fasting-urges-catholic-leader & https://paxchristiusa.org/2022/02/24/pax-christi-usas-statement-on-russians-invasion-of-ukraine.