An interview with Maryna Morin-Adeline, the Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Seychelles.
August 24 is the day when Ukraine proclaimed its independence from the USSR in 1991. This year the Independence Day will be celebrated in the midst of the war, in which Ukraine has to defend its independence yet again. In the following contributed interview the Honorary Consul of Ukraine to Seychelles, Maryna Morin-Adeline, speaks about the significance of this day for her country in 2022.
A: Before we start, let me say how deeply shaken and horrified we are by the events that are unfolding in Ukraine at the moment. We pray that this war ends soonest and the lives of innocent people will be spared.
Maryna Morin-Adeline: Thank you very much for saying that, your support means a lot to us. We could have never imagined that such brutality and destruction can happen in the middle of Europe in the 21st century, let alone to be invaded by the closest neighbour, long term ally and economic partner. Nevertheless, the war will soon reach the 200-day mark, millions of Ukrainians had to leave their homes, hundreds of thousands are being killed and injured needlessly.
A: We listen to the international news agencies daily and hear a lot of conflicting information. For a foreigner, especially one located so far, it is hard to fully comprehend the nature of this conflict. Would you please share the prerequisites to the war and military goals of each side.
Maryna Morin-Adeline: I do imagine it being difficult to understand the conflict history and more importantly, the goals of both countries. Last year Ukraine celebrated the 30th anniversary of its freedom from the USSR. Since then Ukraine has come a long way in the development of its democracy and self identity. As a long term political course Ukraine chose the values of democracy, human rights, free economy and was well on the way to joining the democratic western world. The goal of my country is to continue its social and economic development in peace and harmony with the democratic world.
There are no illusions about the long term goals of the Russian Federation. With any opportunity the head of the Russian Federation speaks about reinstatement of the USSR and rejoining its former republics under his leadership. In 2021 a staged referendum has allowed Mr Putin to stay in power for another three presidential terms which seals his imperial ambitions. On the contrary, since its independence Ukraine held six fair presidential elections, only one president served two terms. This signals a fair electoral process and freedom to choose our leaders.
In 2014 an Association Agreement was signed between Ukraine and the EU. In 2019 the Ukrainian people were granted visa-free entry to the Schengen Zone, later that year the Ukrainian Orthodox Church gained its long awaited independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Ukraine has not participated in any military activity until 2014 when Russia staged a military coup in Donetsk and Luhansk. Meanwhile, Russia has directly initiated or partake in seven local or international military conflicts:
Occupation of Transnistria (1992-1993);
Abkhazian war (1992-1993);
First Russian-Chechen war (1994-1996);
Second Russian-Chechen war (1999-2009);
Russian-Georgian war (2008);
Russian invasion of Syria aiding Bashar al-Asaad (2015-2022);
Russian-Ukrainian war (2014-2022).
I will not go into the long detail about each of them but if you are interested you may read more about each conflict here: www.ukrainer.net/russian-wars
In 2014 Russia invaded the Crimea and immediately annexed its territory. Invasion of Donetsk and Luhansk followed. Kremlin owned media will tell you that it was a civil war but as someone who was born and raised in the Donetsk region, it can’t be further from the truth. Kremlin propaganda used the narrative of protecting the Ukrainian citizens’ right to speak the Russian language. As a native of Mariupol, a completely Russian-speaking city of 500,000 residents, I can say that I attended the only existing school teaching its students in Ukrainian language. All documents, street signs, newspapers, absolutely everything was in Russian.
Donetsk was the richest city after Kyiv. Salaries and the quality of life in the Donetsk-Lugansk region were on par with the capital. Joining Russia, who’s quality of life in any city out of Moscow and St Petersburg was so much lower, was a dream of only a handful of Russian citizens living on that territory. By staging the coup Vladimir Putin planned to annex that territory as well. That is how 2014 became a starting point of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. It is a mistake to say that this war started on the 24th of February this year. It has in fact started in 2014 and has not stopped since. The second stage of this war started in 2022.
A: We are hearing a lot of Ukraine’s intention of joining the NATO and the NATO’s threat to invade Russia. How true are these allegations?
Maryna Morin-Adeline: This threat exists only in the mind of Vladimir Putin. NATO is a 100% defensive organization aimed at protecting its members when their territory is under attack by another state. NATO has never and will never try to actively seize another country’s territory, simply because it is not the goal of this organization. Moreover, to put any speculations at rest, Ukraine has been denied membership in NATO numerously, partly due to the active military conflict with Russia since 2014. The hypocrisy of the “NATO threat” propaganda is that Russia borders five NATO members already without any intensions to invade: Norway, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania! Russian citizens or Russian-speaking people live on the borders with every single neighbouring country, where Russian is not a second state language – why didn’t Russia try to invade those countries? Ironically, the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022 has pushed Finland and Sweden to launch the formal process in joining NATO. By his hands NATO is growing larger.
A: What about the claims that Ukraine was threatening Russia with nuclear and chemical weapons? Is there a nuclear programme in Ukraine?
Maryna Morin-Adeline: When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 Ukraine agreed to remove former Soviet nuclear weapons stationed on its territory. In 1992 Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum and in 1994 it joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. By 2001, all nuclear weapons had been transferred to Russia to be dismantled and decommissioned. Sadly, Russia was one of the guarantors of Ukraine’s security, along with the United Kingdom and the United States. Nuclear programme is not something that can be executed in secret, which has been proven by Iran. Accusations of the chemical weapons are as baseless. Kremlin media goes as far as accusing Ukraine in developing Covid-19.
A: It is hard to see the daily reports of unfolding tragedy and humanitarian catastrophe. If someone wanted to play a small part in ending this war, what could one do?
Maryna Morin-Adeline: Every single person, be it Ukrainian, Russian, Seychellois, can do something. It is in everyone’s power to do at least something to help end the atrocities and war crimes. Here’s what anyone and everyone can do:
1 – Share the true information with their family and friends; talk about it. Putin’s regime is based on fear and silence.
2 – Donate money, either to the army or to the victims of war.
3 – Volunteer to raise donations.
If you wish to make a donation, please consider donating for humanitarian assistance or towards the protection of Ukraine through one of the charities and NGOs listed here: https://standforukraine.com. I personally donate to https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/donate. You can donate with your debit/credit card on the website or send a swift transfer. I have also opened a special Seychelles Rupees account to raise donations for convenience of donors who don’t use debit cards or swift transfers (Maryna Morin-Adeline, acc. 0000 0816 256 with MCB). Raised funds will then be accumulated and transferred together on a monthly basis for humanitarian aid.
What is happening in Ukraine now will have long lasting consequences for the entire world. More military conflicts have been emerging in the past month alone – The Russian invasion of Ukraine has set a very dangerous precedent for any power with a claim for its neighbour’s territories. If it is not too late to prevent the 3rd World War, Russian expansion must be stopped as soon as possible.
A: I see that you personally chose to donate towards the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Why is that?
Maryna Morin-Adeline: Usually people choose to donate to the war victims and not the soldiers. People do not wish to be seen as supportive of bloodshed. I understand that. As a private citizen I think that the sooner Ukrainian soldiers end this war, the less war victims there will be. There will be less wounded and disabled to care for, less orphaned children to foster, less cities to rebuild, less animals to shelter. It’s that simple.
A: In your opinion, is peace negotiation still possible?
Maryna Morin-Adeline: Negotiation is not probable. Russia has no legal claim for the territory it is trying to seize. Vladimir Putin is using terror tactics by bombing Ukrainian cities and killing civilians to terrorize the Ukrainian leadership into a peace deal where he keeps all territories his army occupied (20% of our land). Naturally, Ukraine is refusing – there’s simply nothing to negotiate about: no regions will be given up. It’s not just land, it is people too – Ukraine just can’t betray its people by surrendering them to an aggressor, especially an aggressor who has been destroying their homes and killing their family members for six month. So no, peace agreement is only likely on Ukraine’s terms.
A: What would those terms be?
Maryna Morin-Adeline: That would be: deoccupation of Crimea and all temporarily occupied lands; removal of all military personnel and weapons from the territory of Ukraine; release of all prisoners of war.
A: Thank you for your time and we pray that this war ends the soonest.
Source: Seychelles Nation