Three years have passed since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. Can it be ended and how can this be achieved, and will the map of the world change… Assoc. Prof. Olena Chmir, a lecturer at Kiev University, spoke to FACTI. She is among the famous Bulgarian scholars in the world. She is a co-author of the Bulgarian-Ukrainian dictionary together with Ivan Stoyanov.
- Mrs. Chmir, do you expect the military actions in Ukraine to end soon. How do you see things as of today?
- Look, I'm not a political analyst, I'm a lecturer in Bulgarian and Ukrainian. My expertise will not be political science, but I will simply tell you how I see things. It is unlikely that a final end can be put to this war, but I very much hope that at least by the end of this year it will be concluded with active hostilities. But this, as I said, is not a scientific expertise, this is my wish. Otherwise, this war cannot stop, because Russia's task is to completely erase Ukraine, to swallow it, to destroy the Ukrainian identity.
- Aren't you a little extreme with these words?
- Why… That is the goal. I am by no means extreme with these words, because I know our history well. The history of over 300 years of being part of the Russian Empire first, and then the Soviet Union. On this occasion, I will share something. I don't remember exactly what year it was, but it was somewhere around the 90s, Zbigniew Brzezinski was visiting Kiev. (B.R. - Zbigniew Brzezinski is an American political scientist, sociologist and civil servant of Polish origin. Advisor and member of the board of directors of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the USA). He gave a lecture in Kiev and made interesting conclusions. He developed a thesis that currently - in relation to the 90s - we are witnessing the process of the collapse of the last European empire - the USSR, and this is very important for the civilized world and for the whole world in general. His second thesis was that without Ukraine, Russia will never be able to be an empire again. You understand me, right? That is why I do not think that I am extreme. This is Russia's task.
- In fact, history is at the heart of this desire of Russia to expand. Is that so…
- Yes. I tell my students that this war is being fought for the heritage of ancient Russia. To talk about all these things, we need to be aware of how the appropriation of foreign history, which the current leader of Russia talks about a lot, takes place. This state, which existed, say, from the 9th to the mid-12th century, was called Rus. The suffix Kievan Rus was added only in the 19th century and entered all European languages. Starting only from the terminology, everything is not going where it should go. Somewhere in 2015-2016, a monument to Vladimir the Great was built in Moscow - on or around Red Square. And at that moment, when this monument was built, Russia was waging a war against Ukraine!? Yes, not so full-scale and not with such a wide invasion of soldiers, but the war was going on... Vladimir the Great was a Kiev prince. And I ask myself - why is such a monument being built in Moscow? What does this mean in cultural and political terms? When I saw the monument to Admiral Ushakov (b.r. - Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov was a Russian naval commander, commander of the Black Sea Fleet (1790 - 1798); commander of the Russian-Turkish squadron in the Mediterranean Sea (1798 - 1800), admiral (1799), known throughout the East as the invincible "Ushak Pasha". At the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787, he was commander of the battleship "St. Paul". He commanded the Black Sea Fleet from 1790, brilliantly defeating the Turkish fleet in the Battle of Kerch. At Tendra Island and Cape Kaliakra, he resorted to creating a new maneuvering tactic, which differed from the linear tactics adopted at that time) in Kaliakra, I also had different thoughts. But let's return to the monument in Moscow. I was wondering why they are building a monument to the Kiev prince in Moscow, since at that time, when he was a prince in Kiev, Moscow did not exist. So the war is really being waged for historical heritage, for the erasure of Ukrainian identity.
- Do you expect that when the hostilities stop, it will be along the front lines of Kherson, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv regions. And Crimea, respectively. Will the map of Ukraine be redrawn?
- The map will not be redrawn under any circumstances. These territories can be temporarily occupied, even for decades, but not forever. The civilized world should not recognize these areas as Russian, just as the occupation of the Baltic states before World War II was not recognized, just as the division of Germany after World War II was not recognized. The map of the world cannot be changed under any circumstances. There may be a freeze, there may be negotiations, something like that, but all Ukrainian territories must be returned to the borders of Ukraine.
- And do you think that American President Donald Trump can play an important role here. How do you view his position and what he is doing…
- It is difficult for me to comment on the actions of the American president. It would be strange for me to see how he will make America great again, as he says, but the country will be closed to its own continent. So I do not believe that the hostilities will stop on Trump's initiative. Look, I know that we - Ukrainians - will continue to fight. This is my point of view. This is also in the interest of America. I wonder why Trump has started to express such a thesis. Maybe he himself, I am sure, has such totalitarian-dictatorial attitudes, but the democratic world - I really hope especially for Old Europe, will not agree to a new drawing of the world map. Ukraine will certainly not agree. I somehow regret that we have already lost so much time - over 30 years, and that we have handed over to Russia these missiles with which they are now firing at us. And one more thing is important. No nation in the world has experience in the transition from a totalitarian system of government to democracy. Apparently, this must be experienced. I do not see how the occupied territories will remain under Russian rule forever, I do not see how the map of Ukraine will change.