Thread by @NikaMelkozerova

Ukraine got what it got, cause we never believed things can be solved by wars. We used to be a not aggressive nation, suppressed by more powerful neighbors. Lithuania was the kindest ruler of our lands, btw. ordinary people didn't care about the army for years until 2014. 👇

Before the war most of us wanted to stay out of politics, secretly thought of Russian culture as superior, thinking of those screaming we need to preserve and flourish our own identities, as crazy nationalists. Russian always dominated our media space.👇

Just imagine if you were ashamed of your own culture? And many of us thought of it, and the Ukrainian language, as "rural and therefore not posh". I remember all of this clearly, I am that old already.👇

This was an ideal environment for our corrupt pro-Russia politicians to sell the army, and weapons, and destroy the national pride as a concept that is dangerous and nationalistic. We were allowed to be Ukrainians but had a strong identity crisis. We knew we were not Russians.👇

At the same time, we couldn't explain to foreigners what was the difference? We all spoke Russian. Those, who heard Ukrainian, were sure it was Polish. We were treated as secondary human beings for ages. Allowed only to have limited access to national culture, limited resources.

It was an ideal time for Russia. Extract all the resources from the former colony, and sell to it, control your biggest competitor in the region by totally erasing its basic national features, denouncing them as nazism

But everything has a boiling point. Yanukovych was soo extremely greedy that he managed even to anger our own top businessmen. They financed the EuroMaidan revolution, joining the people's rage, and supporting the basics of their needs until the end. Even pro-Russian Lyovochkin!

Blinded for ages, we finally saw how screwed we were only when the Russian puppet was ousted. I really hope, other nations, so deeply dependent on Russian fossil fuels won't repeat our fate. This could be prevented by helping us to fight what is now our common war.

I once had a very convo with Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk. He said that concessions he and Kuchma made in the 90s, prevented Russia from starting its war back then. And I said, "Well, guys you postponed the inevitable to have some fun time in power for yourselves."

And I see some Western leaders doing or wanting to do the same right now. And at the same time those who don't want to make concessions, are dubbed warmongers.