Dear CCI Friends and Colleagues:
We are on a search to find new voices to bring to you on the subject of US/Russia relations and the world events that affect them. The article below is by a young Polish journalist who witnessed the events of 2014 in Kiev and Donetsk first hand, and who has made obvious and not-so-obvious connections between those events and those we are witnessing today in the Middle East.
We will be very interested to hear your views on his conclusions.
The Directors
Center for Citizen Initiatives
“Gaza, Odessa, Donetsk”
November 12, 2023
By Konrad Rękas
We are all shocked by the images of genocide suffered by the people of Gaza. Despite attempts to censor the truth about Israeli crimes, that truth breaks through to Western public opinion, arousing spontaneous opposition what we have seen in the last couple weeks on the street all over the world, but I remember very similar crimes that I saw with my own eyes nine years ago.
How the War in Ukraine Has Started
In May 2014, as a Polish journalist, I observed the presidential elections in Ukraine. I also went to Donetsk to see the first manifestations of the Russian-speaking population of Donbas, which, immediately after the pro-Western coup, was deprived of the right to use the Russian language in offices, schools and all social life. Just after the election day, I was at the railway station in Donetsk, observing the daily bustle. There were no protests that day, just crowds of people got off the trains to get to work. Then Ukrainian helicopters arrived. Without any warning, without any summons, Ukrainian soldiers started shooting at people in the streets, had fun flying low, chasing people away from the buildings they wanted to hide in. They fired rockets onto the rails, aiming at trains that were hastily trying to leave the station with panic crowds on boards.
With my own eyes, I saw the dead bodies of women, children, and workers who did not attend the schools, didn’t go to the factories that day, did not start their shift in the mines, and did not return home. Throughout the day there was chaos in Donetsk, with bodies lying everywhere, there was not enough space in hospitals, and Ukrainian troops and Nazi militias attacked Russian speakers throughout Donbas. In the evening, we listened to the speech of the newly elected President Petro Poroshenko, who announced the launch of the “Special Anti-Terrorist Operation”.
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