Talking Points: Ukraine - May 5, 2023. President Zelenskyy visits The Hague, Russia is following the Nazis in both style and action, and more negotiations over the grain deal.
Talking Points: Ukraine - May 5, 2023. President Zelenskyy visits The Hague, Russia is following the Nazis in both style and action, and more negotiations over the grain deal.
Text Edited by: JSgt. Sarah Ashton-Cirillo of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Photo Credit: JSgt. Sarah Ashton-Cirillo of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
1. PROSPECTS FOR THE GRAIN DEAL.
■ The Grain Initiative was launched because of the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine. Before this, the export of Ukrainian products was a normal part of the world’s food chain.
■ The grain deals were concluded in the name of innocent citizens around the globe and became a necessary factor in maintaining global food security.
■ The unblocking of Ukraine's maritime food exports last summer was made possible by the consolidated efforts of the international community, despite being contrary to Moscow's plans.
■ Russia is still employing the threat of famine as a weapon.
■ The Kremlin's accusations of Ukraine violating the terms of the “grain deals” are groundless, and its additional requirements for continuing the deals are unfounded.
■ The possible disruption of the “grain deal” will be Russia's responsibility.
2. WORK ON BRINGING RUSSIA TO RESPONSIBILITY.
On May 4, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited The Hague, where international courts, particularly the International Criminal Court, are concentrated.
■ The Hague is the capital of international law. Zelenskyy's visit is an essential milestone in organizing justice for Russian crimes against Ukraine.
■ The District Court of The Hague has already sentenced Russian terrorists for the murder of passengers and crew of flight MH-17.
■ The International Criminal Court in The Hague has already issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children, which is a crime of genocide.
■ The Hague, where the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia once sat, is a good location for the future Special International Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.
■ An international coalition (The Core Group) is already working on creating an appropriate Special Tribunal, which includes 36 countries.
■ Cooperation with international justice is essential for Russia's return to a civilized international community after the end of the war.
3. THE LESSONS OF WORLD WAR II AND THE MEMORY OF IT.
On May 8, Ukraine marks the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation to honor the memory of all the victims of World War II in 1939–1945.
■ Commemorating the end of World War II in Europe on May 8 (and not May 9) is a European tradition. Ukraine began using this date in 2015.
■ Modern Russia is destroying the international rule of law that prevailed after World War II, behaving not as a guarantor of security i the UN, but imitating the Nazi ideology that destroyed the previous foundations of global relations.
■ As in World War II, there is now a struggle between democracy, the right to life and liberty, on the one hand, and the maniacal desire to dominate and destroy on the other.
■ World War II was a war of annihilation, sparing the lives of neither civilians nor soldiers. This is the kind of war Russia is waging against Ukraine, committing horrific war crimes.
■ Russian propaganda is boundless and without shame in its lies, no different than that of Goebbels's propaganda for the Nazis.
■ The history of World War II teaches that compromises with aggressive totalitarian regimes lead not to peace but to even greater bloodshed. Therefore, Putinism must be stopped and condemned, as was done with Nazism.
There needs to be more done than simply a declaration that Putin and his nazgul are war criminals; though whether the west will have the will to use special forces to seize any so designated remains to be seen. I hope so. The disruption of the grain supplies is also a crime against those deprived of food, and the bombastic threats made in Putin's name should convince world leaders that they are dealing with rabid dogs, not with rational human beings. Because individuals like Putin do not think in the way that most of us do, which is partly, as we know, down to 600 years of alcohol poisoning, brainwashing, lies, corruption, and generally the disadvantage of being Russian, and partly down to the vainglory and ambition of a once insignificant KGB officer who came to power, and whose stock-in-trade to convince his people that he was a strong man was to take off his shirt, to show himself a bohatyr, and because this is a very Cossack thing, he feels he has to subdue other real Cossacks in order to stop them laughing at him. Because he is too small and puny to take laughter. Unlike Zelensky, who can strut about dancing in a ridiculous costume because he knows that laughter is good for people, and because he has cojones of pure titanium. [a figure of speech applicable to all his warriors gender irrespective.]