My name is Artem Oliinyk and I am Ukrainian. I am 21 years old, I have visited many countries around the world and had the opportunity to participate in conferences, summits, meetings and congresses. My soul felt sad after the last Security Conference in Munich, when it became clear that the war would begin day by day.
I could write you detailed arguments, positions of the parties and appeal to the emotional part of every inhabitant of the world, but today I will write about something else. Ukraine is facing a war that is not being waged against Ukraine, but against the whole of Western civilization. Russia is against the whole world in Ukraine, and Ukraine, with the support of the whole world, is against Russia. It is difficult, painful, unfair.
During the first days of the offensive, we lost several hundred soldiers defending us. Hundreds of civilians were killed, thousands wounded and maimed. Among them all stands out the number of children who fell victim to the terrorist country of Russia. Among them were killed by shelling, shot dead and permanently mentally and physically injured. Missiles on high-rise buildings, aerial bombs on the central squares of megacities, jet systems on residential neighborhoods, banned vacuum bombs on our cities, air strikes on houses – all this is about the crimes of the Russian Federation and its war criminal Vladimir Putin. He is a threat to the whole world. We must not hold illusions – we will win terrorists, but before we do that, Ukraine needs:
1. Euro-Atlantic guarantees of integration and security, which cannot be done without the support of the peoples of Europe. Without your support on the streets, squares, web pages, live broadcasts, all this remains a dream.
2. Establishment of an unmanned zone over Ukraine and supplies of air and missile defense. Without it, missiles, bombs, mines and more will fall on peaceful Ukrainian cities and kill women, children and the elderly. Establishing this zone is impossible without the support of the peoples of Europe and America – we need you!
3. The imposition of an embargo on trade with Russia, especially with regard to energy, will deprive the country of even minimal resources and could curtail its aggressive plans against Ukraine.
4. Closure of air and sea services for Russia, exclusion of the country from international organizations, suspension of maintenance of equipment under contracts in this country.
5. Restructuring of Ukraine’s public debt. The military actions against my country do not allow us to pay our financial obligations in the coming years or even decades, so international institutions and creditors must reconsider their policies towards Kyiv.
6. Announcement of a new “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine for post-war capacity building and economic growth.
7. Remaining stable and common on the issues of Ukraine’s territorial integrity: the territories occupied by Russia and Belarus, terrorist organizations in the Donbas, annexed Crimea and Sevastopol are all integral parts of Ukraine. Together we could try to solve the problems of Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, “the Kuril Islands”. All these are territories that do not belong to the Russians.
8. The beginning of UN reform – by its actions, Russia has proved a violation of the UN Charter and the basic principles of international law, so we must deprive Russia of its veto and the status of permanent representative to the Security Council.
9. Adherence to the principle of irreversibility of punishment and holding a military tribunal on war criminals – the current leaders of the Russian Federation in the person of the President, Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, Foreign Minister, heads of special services, propagandists and others. The entire leadership is fully responsible for the tens of thousands of deaths in Ukraine, Syria, Georgia, Moldova, Libya and many other countries. Special attention is paid to the head of the private military company Wagner.
10. Humanitarian aid to Ukraine – medicines, hygiene products, warm clothes, temporary shelters (buildings) for displaced persons, food (rations), fuel and more. We need help for our citizens!
11. Joint efforts to demand reparations by Russia after the war. Mediation in the return of prisoners of war, finding victims and dead. Return of cultural values from the Russian Federation and assessment of tangible and intangible losses caused by the war.
Such steps will not only help Ukraine survive, but it will also help strengthen Europe and strengthen Atlantic cooperation. Very soon the European bloc will be renewed to compete in a completely different world. The old world order is destroyed, we still have to build a new one
