We celebrate Independence Day once a year: with celebrations, speeches, toasts. And even fireworks. Almost like a birthday. This year, the conditions for the celebration have changed, emotions too, but everyone has a feeling of the Holiday. As well as pride in our State, and the memory of those thanks to whom he and we have this Day. I know, like all of you, the date of our Independence Day, but I find it difficult to say unequivocally when modern Ukraine was actually born.. Possibly on the Maidan. I mean modern Ukraine, not our thousand-year history. It is important that it has already been born - as a State, a Nation and, as a result, a country. When I listened to Radio-ROKS in the morning, I often heard the beginning of the song of the group “Numer 482”: “Good morning, Ukraine, roll over already, small...”. That's how we feel, and there's nothing more to discuss. The Russian regime all these years wanted to present us as a “failed state” - a failed state, tirelessly arguing that we have no statehood, history, language, culture. The Russian war, on the contrary, proved our statehood and exposed Russia as an empire that did not take place - failed empire - and will never take place. The Russian war against us “launched” the 21st century. The world after her will never be the same as before.. It sounds a little trite, everyone repeats this, often not understanding what, in fact, has already changed and should change in the future. In a short text, it is obviously impossible to talk about everything, so what follows will be about three important things.. Important because our and the West’s future and how the first half of the 21st century will turn out depends on them (the first 20 years of this century are rather about the previous hundred years).

First, it is a fundamental crisis of compromise as a means of politics in general and international politics in particular.. Compromise for the sake of compromise, compromise to avoid escalation at all costs, turns into having to pay an even higher price.. Endless attempts to " “Partnership for modernization” with the EU immediately after the Georgian war, then “reset” of US-Russian relations is all about compromises. Pacifisms, interesting postmodernisms, numerous other post- and numerous -isms have all shown themselves to be discussion platforms, but useless when it comes to fighting.. Moreover, the trolling of Ukrainians, who are prone to clear polar thinking: “Good-Evil”, “Zrada-Peremoga”, has clearly ended.. Where would we be without such a mentality, it's hard to even imagine. Now we must and will troll the West, which, for the sake of comfort and predictability, has stopped calling Evil evil. Reagan could call the USSR an " A large part of today's West is still afraid to make a choice and call Good good and Evil evil. This will cost them dearly, because the world is becoming more and more like a western, in which it is clearly clear who is “good” and who is “bad”. Those who have not decided, the "

The example of Ukraine should make you stop winding and take a stand. Paradoxically, only the Russian war against Ukraine forced the West to act collectively and become the “collective West” again..

Secondly, Good must be armed and toothy, otherwise it has no chance. No one will respect the amorphous Good, which is not able to defend itself and win.. They are inspired by Ukraine and Ukrainians, they are surprised precisely by the fact that they are not ready for capitulation and do not want compromises that take away their future, disgrace them as a State and a Nation. The West cannot remain so toothless and incapable of an adequate response to authoritarian regimes. To bite off a finger now means to lose a hand, and then - and a head in the future.

Why do we need all the conventions and principles of international law, if someone can not comply with them, and he will get nothing for it? Why is recognition of the crime of aggression necessary if there are no effective tools to convict for it Why do we need a ridiculous and impotent UN system, the charter of which is flagrantly violated by a country that is a permanent member of the Security Council? There are a lot of such questions. No one before us even started this discussion seriously.. We must lead it, we have the political and, most importantly, the moral right to do so.. Violations of international law should be punished in the same way as criminal offenses. Speaking of "

The modern West is a space of people and respect for people. And modern Russia is its antipode. This space must win the fight for the best ideas and technologies, and at the same time must be armed and ready to fight for its dominance.. Look at the military budgets of the US and the EU and compare them with Russian or, for example, Chinese. It would seem that the West should be ahead of authoritarian regimes in everything, and above all in military technology.. However, during meetings with other authoritarian leaders, Putin displays pictures of hypersonic missiles and nuclear drones with pride and satisfaction.. Why in these and other areas there is no unambiguous dominance of the West, moreover, there is a tangible lag is not a banal question at all, and it also needs to be answered honestly, like dozens of others..

And, finally, thirdly, the willingness to call Evil evil and the willingness to fight it puts before the question “how to do it? \? Until now, the West has no unified strategy towards Russia. There is a general consensus that the Russian regime should not win in Ukraine, because this will also mean the defeat of the “collective West” and will actually multiply it by zero in further geopolitical alignments. And then public and especially non-public discussions begin: what to do with this Russia now and in the future? The ruling regime there is not only Putin and the Russian elites, it is, in fact, the Russians themselves. In the West, not only do they not know what to do with this monster, but they are often wary of having an open tough discussion. Hence the endless talk about how to avoid the " This position of the West offends us, but the way out should be to work on a common strategy towards Russia. We understand and feel it better, it is we who should propose ideas and work on them. To lead this fight not only on the battlefield, but also in the space of ideas and strategies of the future.

Cato the Elder ended all his speeches with the words: " Many did not believe in this and wanted coexistence. The result is known to everyone from the lessons of history.. There is a legend that the Romans even sprinkled salt on the fields of Carthage to stop them from being fertile.. This is definitely not our goal, but we must honestly tell ourselves that the war will continue as long as the Russian regime exists.. This does not mean that a ceasefire or a truce is impossible, but we will never feel safe having him by our side.. Now the regime is in despair, it is well aware that the period of gray zones is over and Ukraine will be part of the West. The status of an EU candidate is part of the vision of the joint future of Ukraine and the West, and we will reunite with the West as an active, passionate State and Nation. The Russian regime will never put up with this. And, by the way, this part of the West scares. I don’t know if Putin understood that he couldn’t conquer Ukraine, but some of the Russian elites already understood for sure. This means that the Kremlin will try to occupy as much territory as possible, declaring it something like “Novorossia”, and, again, destroy the rest.. If it fails, the Russian regime will be destroyed, and many in Russia are well aware of this.. We are not naive and we realize that this will not happen “at once”, but it will happen. Therefore, we are not satisfied with the ideas that are now actively spreading in the West, such as “let's take a promise from Putin not to move on, but let him do whatever he wants”. The current Russian regime cannot be caged, it will not work.

And in conclusion. Ukraine has a unique chance to become a source of new drive for the West, a kind of energizer. The West has woken up, and it is no longer necessary to write a new song " Unfortunately, we have paid and are paying a terrible price for this awakening.. But now we must constantly sing this song and make sure that the West begins to act in a coordinated manner on the basis of a new strategy that does not yet exist.. The task is super-ambitious, but what only we have not achieved yet! The best and indeed the only guarantee of our security will be rapid and complete integration into the Western world.. The combination of the unique mental code of the Ukrainian nation with Western values \u200b\u200bis respect for people who do not respect compromises for the sake of compromises.. " Ukrainians and Ukraine have a mission - to make it clear to the Western world, and not only to it.

We have a lot to learn from the West, starting with the rule of law. But the West also has something to take an example from Ukraine. Confident people don't have an inferiority complex or megalomania. They are by themselves - for themselves and for the world. This is where the real, our, Independence lies.. We remember and respect all the heroes and move on. A failed empire must be destroyed.

Read more articles by Pavel Klimkin at the link.

[votes id\u003d"