Translated with AI
On August 24, Ukraine celebrates Independence Day – a national holiday in honor of the adoption of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine by the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991.
In fact, many believe that 1991 saw the restoration of Ukrainian statehood, for which Ukrainians had fought for many centuries.
In this regard, it is worth noting that the use of the name "Ukraine" dates back to at least 1187. And our first independent state in the modern sense emerged during the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921.
And today, just as a century ago, Ukrainian independence requires defense. Both today and a century ago, Russia disliked the idea of Ukrainian statehood, which both times led to military campaigns against Ukraine.
The Bolsheviks succeeded in suppressing the resistance and incorporating Ukraine into the USSR. However, the struggle never ceased, and was waged not only and not so much through military or guerrilla methods, but through education and culture, which allowed for the preservation of Ukrainian identity.
Ukraine's declaration of independence in 1991 played a decisive role in the collapse of the USSR and the final elimination of the communist totalitarian system. Today, Ukraine, defending its independence in a war against the Russian aggressor, continues a centuries-old struggle.
With its own approach, "Without Ukraine, Russia is not an empire," Moscow itself predetermined the final collapse of the Russian empire, a process that we are now implementing.
From 1991 to 2014, we were proud and happy to have gained independence without war. But independence must be fought for. The Russian authorities have not accepted Ukraine's statehood and, since 1991, have repeatedly attempted to challenge it—either by seizing Crimea, seizing the energy system, or even establishing a puppet regime, which, to varying degrees, led to the loss of sovereignty.
When all political and economic attempts to destroy the new Ukrainian state failed, Russian imperialists resorted to armed aggression in 2014 with the occupation of Ukrainian territory.
Unfortunately, not only Putin's totalitarian regime but also a significant portion of the Russian population, due to conviction or ignorance, have denied the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state and Ukrainians as an ethnic group since 1991. This allowed Moscow to disregard international law and violate bilateral treaties and multilateral agreements by which Russia recognized Ukraine, its borders, and its inviolability.
Even in Tajikistan, where the people are friendly toward Ukrainians, few understand the essence of what's happening in Ukraine. One often hears the opinion that "this is a civil war between brothers…"
This is not true. And this is not a conflict of national origin between representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian ethnic groups. Representatives of different religions and nationalities are working together to defend Ukraine. When we say "Ukrainian," we don't mean ethnicity, but rather the individual's identification as part of the cosmopolitan society of the independent state of Ukraine.
On the aggressor's side, completely different nationalities are also fighting against us (not counting foreign mercenaries), some of whom do not know Russian, which also proves the non-ethnic nature of the conflict.
This is a war between civilization and anti-civilization, a war for values.
In the civilized world, human life, health, and freedom are the highest values. If this were valued in Russia, they wouldn't have gone to war against us.
In our country, today's Russian-Ukrainian war is called the "War for Ukraine's Independence," and this reflects its essence.
By the canons of any religion, we are righteous because we defend our land, honor, family, and property. We defend our freedom and our future. We do not need other people's territories, and we do not impose our principles.
Over the centuries, we have managed to preserve our identity, create our own state, and now we are defending our independence.
By encroaching on Ukraine's sovereignty, the Russian regime has provoked chaos, unbalanced the global security system, and caused negative economic, environmental, political, and other consequences throughout the world.
And now, the fate of many countries, and first and foremost the former constituent parts of the Russian (Soviet) empire in Central Asia, Europe and the Caucasus, largely depends on the outcome of our battle for Ukraine's independence.
Therefore, we call on the entire civilized world to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for independence and freedom!
Valery Evdokimov
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine
in the Republic of Tajikistan
