Member of the Parliament of Ukraine Alona Shkrum: How we became hostages of one person in a shelter very far away?

Alona Shkrum is a Member of the Parliament of Ukraine. She was a speaker of the fourth #UkrainianDialogue, which Aspen Institute Kyiv held with Aspen Institute New Zealand. She highlighted the reasons which led to the full-scale Russian invasion.

Some European countries still do not understand how we got to this point 

Alona stressed that many European countries often are not aware that the war in Ukraine started at the time of the Crimea annexation and Donbas invasion. And it is the point on which we should work for future war prevention:

— I feel that some European countries still do not understand how we got to this point and what led to this point. They think they suddenly woke up on February 24th with explosions, killings of civilians, and something you have seen only in the history books and historical cinema. So, it is crucial to discuss why we have got here and how to get out of this.

She mentioned Churchill’s book about WWII and noticed that the reasons for the war in Ukraine were quite similar to the reasons which have led to World War II: calls to compromise and peace.

— Mr. Churchill said: The malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous. I think it was what we started in 2014. First, we did not put the invasion on the scale, and European countries did not want to hear about it. Second, we were told to find a compromise, to put it to peace. I quote Mr. Churchill again. He said that after WW I calls to compromise became the reasons for a deadly danger for the whole continent.

We want to end this war on our territory

Alona stressed that the Russian war in Ukraine is already global if we talk about the values: 

— We are fighting for the world, for democratic values, the maintenance of security architecture, and international law. Putin is fighting against all of that. We want to end this war on our territory and not spread it further to Poland, Latvia, Finland, the United States, France, and other countries.  

Putin has become the new Hitler of our generation

Alona said that it is scary that today the world has raised up a new Hitler. We should stop Putin as fast as possible before he leads the world to a bigger catastrophe. So, international partners should help Ukraine end the war on its territory.

 — Unfortunately, Putin has become the new Hitler of our generation. It raises the question of how we became hostages of one person in a shelter very far away. And he still pushes the whole world to some agreement with him. And this is somewhere we have to stay strong and united – with united Europe and the united democratic world.

Aspen Institute Kyiv launched the #UkrainianDialogue project in cooperation with Aspen Network international partners. Its goal is to create a platform for leadership dialogue between Ukrainians who fight for democratic values and other countries’ representatives that support Ukraine.

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