Invited to speak in Brussels about the situation in Ukraine, in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) plenary session on Tuesday, 29 April, at the invitation of EESC’s president Henri Malosse, the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko gave an exclusive interview to New Europe, in which he started with a warning addressed to Europe:
Viktor Yushchenko: I warn our European friends and partners not to look at the conflict that is taking place in Ukraine as simply a bilateral conflict between Ukraine and Russia, or a mere local, regional conflict. This conflict is actually of a geopolitical nature.
Look at was has been going on for a long time: 20 years ago - 20 % of Azerbaijan’s territory has been annexed; then followed 20% of Moldova’s territory; only several years ago, Georgia has lost as well 20% of its territory… and some months ago, a similar thing happened with Ukraine, which lost part of its territory.
The problems at the root of this are not of an ethnic, or linguistic nature. The only problem is Kremlin’s imperial drive. Some time ago, Putin said that the biggest tragedy of the XXth century was the collapse of the Soviet Union. But what was the Soviet Union, if not the same Russia under a different name?
That is why the restoration of the Soviet Union is today Putin’s ultimate goal and mission. This would be impossible without Ukraine. A new Soviet Union cannot exist without Ukraine. Russia’s Customs Union makes no economic sense without us. The so-called “Free Trade zone” is a nonsense without Ukraine.
New Europe: But can Ukraine itself live without Russia?
Viktor Yushchenko: We are a sovereign, independent country. We are one of the oldest nations of Europe. We are used to solving alone our own problems. Unfortunately, we do not live on an isolated island. We have dynamic relations with Russia, but we want to deal with it on equal terms. European nations are self sufficient. The same should apply to Ukraine.
New Europe: But when you say “Ukrainian nation”, you certainly keep in mid the fact that an important part of it consists of Russian speakers.
Viktor Yushchenko: 95% of Ireland’s citizens, who consider themselves to be Irish, speak English, but nobody doubts the existence of Ireland. The Queen of England does not send troops to protect the English-speaking population of Ireland. If someone in Ukraine uses the Russian language in day-to-day life, it doesn’t mean that that person is devoted to Putin, or that it is a Russian patriot. For 350 years, we did not have our own state. A significant part of Ukraine, especially the Eastern part, has been a colony of Russia. Our church was split between several denominations. Our language and culture were taken away.
A large process of Russification has been put in place. That’s why we have Ukrainians who speak Ukrainian and Ukrainians who speak Russian. Language is only a tool for communication, not something that divides us.
New Europe: So, if it’s not the language, what is it that makes a Ukrainian be Ukrainian?
Viktor Yushchenko: Our identity. Two thirds of Ukrainians use their mother tongue. We have our own Ukrainian church, our culture, our nation, our memory and heroes, traditions and customs. As I said, we are one of the oldest nations in Europe. We have a beautiful political history of national statehood, beginning in the XIth century. That is what Russia has tried to destroy during the 350 years of occupation: to deprive us of what makes us be Ukrainian.
New Europe: Given that a military solution to the present conflict does not seem possible, what is your answer to Russia’s proposal concerning the federalisation of Ukraine?
Viktor Yushchenko: 76% of our citizens consider themselves to be Ukrainians. We have always been a united, unitary nation.
We had our own state. That is why a majority of the population does not share the idea of federalisation. 76% of the population stand against federalisation and insist on one state language. Ask also the French, Italians, Spaniards or the Portuguese, ask any nation with a long history. That’s why you have a state: to protect everything that makes you a country.
BIO: The tribulations of a moon-faced president
Moon-faced… In Viktor Yushchenko’s case, this popular expression takes on a totally different meaning. Yushchenko is the man who escaped an assassination attempt, and who will forever bear the scars on his face, which now looks like the face of the moon, with deep craters and crevasses and everything that poison can do from inside to a man’s appearance.
In September 2004, during his presidential campaign against the other Viktor, Yanukovych, the handsome and charismatic Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin. Sent urgently to a Vienna clinic, it was discovered that dioxin levels in his blood were 6,000 times above normal. He survived, jaundiced, bloated, but remained disfigured forever, pockmarked but still smiling. He won the elections.
That was also the victory of the “Orange Revolution”, openly backed by the West, especially by the USA. He was 50 years old (born in 1954) and had run his campaign as independent. Popular enthusiasm was mitigated (he won with 52%), but he was given the benefit of the doubt. Vaclav Havel came to his investiture. He started installing his trusted people at all levels of the executive branch, then he appointed Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister. She was to become his bitterest enemy.
Disaster was soon to come: sworn into power in December 2004, on September 8, 2005, Yushchenko had to fire his whole government, led by Yulia Tymoshenko, after serious claims of corruption. Less than one year later, in August 2006, Yushchenko appointed his former opponent in the presidential race, Viktor Yanukovych the man suspected to be behind his poisoning, to be the new prime minister.
Then, as economy continued crumbling, he twice dissolved the parliament, under dubious legal provisions and entered a no-holds-barred fight with Yulia Tymoshenko’s Bloc.
At the following elections, on January 17, 2010, Yushchenko gained only 5.45% of the vote, and was eliminated. His result became the worst result for any sitting President in history. Then, in the 2012 elections, Yushchenko headed the election list of Our Ukraine; the party won 1.11% of the national votes and no constituencies and thus failed to win parliamentary representation.
Nevertheless, as a former president he still commands respect, and in December 2014 Yushchenko joined his two predecessors, former presidents Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma, for a message in support for the protests that had hit Ukraine capital Kiev against the Yanukovych regime.
Yushchenko advocates NATO membership for Ukraine and is against promoting Russian as the second state language in Ukraine.