Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko penned a piece for The Guardian that was released today, in which he detailed what he believes is the one and only way Russian dictatorial President Vladimir Putin can truly be defeated in his ongoing, devastating war against Ukraine — and it makes so much sense.
“As shocking as these stories are to hear, this is exactly what we should expect from the savage Russian army led by the dictator Vladimir Putin,” Yuschenko wrote in his piece. “My own history with Putin goes back to 2000, when we were both prime ministers of our respective countries. It was only when I ran to be president of Ukraine in 2004 that he actively campaigned against me. The extreme lengths he was willing to go to in order to get what he wanted became clear. I could not allow this to deter me; after I won, I realised that I needed to try to keep a workable relationship with him as the leader of our neighbour in the east. But the Putin I dealt with then no longer exists. He has since become a completely isolated and brutal despot who cannot stand any opposition.”
Yuschenko asserts that the only thing that even stands a chance in bringing Putin and his violence down is “international solidarity” against his war. “This is something that really bothers him,” the former Ukrainian president explained.
As it stands, NATO has united against Putin’s war efforts, at least for the most part, and now numerous countries, including those who have remained infamously neutral such as Switzerland and Finland have begun making moves to join the alliance against Putin’s Russia and his heinous war — lending the international alliance the possibility of becoming even stronger.
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“I strongly believe that victory for Ukraine is inevitable. When ordinary Ukrainians give everything up to fight for their freedom and dignity, victory is the only option,” Yuschenko’s piece concludes. “I cannot wait for the day when this war is finally over and Maksym and his colleagues will be able to open their theatre and stage new plays written by brave and defiant playwrights who will focus not on propaganda, but on their own voices and ideas. Today, we fight for freedom. Tomorrow, we will watch the plays of our authors who won this freedom, defining what it means to be Ukrainian.”
You can read the former Ukrainian leader’s full piece here.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/The Presidential Press and Information Office, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
