Kyiv, September 9, 2014. Leading Ukrainian intellectuals and members of the civil initiative project Pershogo Grudnya [First of December – Ed.] have called for the international community to re-examine its policy on Russia in the midst of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. This was stated by Vyacheslav Bryukhovetsky, Yevgen Sverstyuk, Myroslav Popovych and Vadim Skurativskiy. All four individuals are Ukrainian intellectuals who are well-known throughout the country and have an international reputation. Yevgen Sverstyuk, for example, is a Ukrainian philosopher and former political prisoner under the Soviet regime. The four speakers announced the statements of social movement Pershogo Grudnya regarding the current events in Ukraine, and hope that the international community will come around to taking the Russian threat against Ukraine and international order seriously.
Vyacheslav Bryukhovetsky, a linguist and the honorary president of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, read the statement on behalf of the entire group. Pershogo Grudnya announced that the Russian Federation has launched a large-scale war against Ukraine, and that the international community needs to take stock of this reality. The “hybrid” Russian war that combines the use of proxies with the soldiers of the armed forces of the Russian Federation is supported by the Russian government’s highly coordinated propaganda campaign. The campaign, which includes both Russian media and even media sources in the West, is based on fear and xenophobia and portrays Russia as the victim of conspiracies led by the United States. “The key to the security of any European country is not the policy of not noticing the threat, and separate agreements with the aggressor, but solidarity in opposing these policies,” stated Bryukhovetsky on behalf of the organization. “If Ukraine is ruined, the entire world culture will suffer,” he stated.
At the same time, the speakers emphasized that Pershogo Grudnya greatly respects Russian culture and the Russian people. It is the Russian government that the organization opposes, as it is the “Putin regime which has ruined the soul of his country, and made the people fear the whole world.” Unfortunately, many people around the world, including citizens of the West, have not yet grasped that the nature of his regime. Russia continues to augment its intervention in Ukraine, all the while hoping that the international community will become used to its aggression as it did after Crimea’s annexation.
The speakers emphasized that Pershogo Grudnya is a social movement without political ambitions. The organization is not seeking seats in the Ukrainian parliament, nor do its members envision gaining political power. Instead, Pershogo Grudnya is addressing the entire world to pay attention to what is happening in Ukraine.
