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The Truth about the Lies: an Open Letter

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Published on Tuesday, 04 March 2014 11:32

The Russian military aggression in Ukraine is being justified by Kremlin ideologues as the "protection of Russians in Ukraine." But we, a free academic community, loudly argue: no persecution of Russians in Ukraine on the grounds of language, religion, or outlook, has been or is present. Russian Ukrainians, like other ethnic minorities, are presently being terrorized by Russian special forces, who in full combat gear are roaming the streets of Crimean cities and villages, creating roadblocks, and under the guise of civilians are raising a storm about annexing fundamentally Ukrainian cities to Russia, beating Ukrainian citizens opposed to this.

The only ideological "justification" of the outright Russian aggression are the Goebbels-like lies of the Kremlin politicians that for years have flooded both domestic and foreign audiences, and today continue their Niagara Falls-like flow, pouring into the global informational sphere. Show the world at least one resident of Simferopol, Feodosia, Odessa, or Lviv, who is prevented from speaking Russian, or who is required to educate his/her children in a language other than Russian?! No such person can be found! Show the world the television and radio stations, whose broadcasts on the Crimean peninsula or in other areas of South-Eastern Ukraine are forcibly providing Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine with Ukrainian-language broadcasting: where are these stations? Where are these broadcasts? They do not exist! Show the world the Russian books that are prohibited for sale in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian books that have taken their place in bookstalls – none of this exists! The lies are accompanied by Kalashnikov-wielding soldiers, smiling, winking, and prodding: take a shot at me!

To justify their criminal actions, the Kremlin falsifiers and their supporters speak in a frenzied delusion of a "brown plague", while they - the aggressors - are the carriers of the infection. Ukrainian citizens, as was conclusively proven by the multi-national Maidan, were and are free of the xenophobia that the Kremlin propagandists have long and steadfastly cultivated for their own political purposes.

And the world must know the truth about these lies! There is no persecution or discrimination along ethno-cultural or attitudinal lines in Crimea or elsewhere in Ukraine: armed foreigners are now present on the streets of cities and towns. There are no "fascists", but there are deranged Goebbels-like lies about the "brown plague." And there is a brownish tint in the camouflage of the Russian special forces uniforms, along with a silver glow of the barbed wire in place at checkpoints.

And there are the Ukrainian people, who rose up in rebellion against corruption and criminal authorities, seeking freedom, democracy, peace, and a place in the family of free European nations.

Volodymyr Morenets

Viacheslav Briukhovetskyi

Vasyl Ozhohan

Liudmyla Diachenko

Volodymyr Panchenko

Natalia Shumkova

Svitlana Syrotkina