“Last year we were able to hit the heart of the Russian economy for the first time,” emphasizes Yushchenko, referring to the destruction of oil terminals and refineries. There are already fuel shortages in dozens of Russian regions due to the Ukrainian attacks. Because important oil and gas revenues have collapsed, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin has had to revise the budget three times this year. In addition, Ukraine is currently receiving deliveries of types of weapons that were withheld from it by its allies two years ago, such as artillery or armored vehicles.
Yushchenko made the comments on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Austria Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES), where he called on top politicians and diplomats in Vienna on Friday not to be afraid of the Kremlin boss. Russia is much weaker than Ukraine and its allies. One should not be impressed by nuclear threats either, he adds in the APA interview. “The day of the use of nuclear weapons would be the last day of Putin and his regime. It would be like Hitler, who shot himself in the head (given the hopeless situation in the Second World War, note).”
Yushchenko clearly warns against territorial concessions in order to achieve a ceasefire. This tactic had not proven successful during the Munich Agreement with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in 1938. “Back then, Europe chose a naive version of peace, a peace with a fascist. The result was the greatest war in human history,” Yushchenko refers to the Second World War. Ukraine is currently Europe’s protective shield. If it falls, Europe will have to take on Russia alone, he emphasizes. But already “the war with Russia is also your war. If Ukraine loses democracy and freedom, we will return to the politics of the Middle Ages.”
Yushchenko criticizes that Putin has shown “complete incompetence” with his military activities in various countries. Countries such as Abkhazia, Transnistria, Armenia and Syria were plunged into misfortune by their alliance with him. Accordingly, the oppressed peoples of the Russian Federation were currently fighting on the side of Ukraine. Peoples like the Buryats, Tatars, Bashkirs and Yakuts would demand their self-determination as soon as Russia was defeated. “The last colonial empire in Europe must disappear. I think that if Ukraine and the world community win this war, the last indigenous peoples in Europe will gain independence.”
Yushchenko also does not see a rosy future for the Russian ruler himself. “Putin’s regime will exist as long as there is fear in Russian society. If he loses the war, this fear will disappear,” he expects. Russia’s path to a free society therefore leads through the military defeat of the regime.
Yushchenko was the standard-bearer of the pro-Western Orange Revolution in 2004, which thwarted electoral fraud in favor of pro-Russian forces. After narrowly surviving a poison attack during the election campaign, Yushchenko came to office as a result of a re-election forced by mass demonstrations.
In the current wartime, Yushchenko doesn’t want to know anything about elections. “We have to end the war first, and then we can talk about it,” he says, supporting President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose five-year term in office was scheduled to expire in mid-2024. Presidential elections “would be just another opportunity for Putin to destabilize our country,” emphasizes Yushchenko. “Some politicians will not understand my strong views on this issue. But I tell them: your time will come after we have overcome the greatest challenge, and that is the Russian occupation.” In addition, Putin has been in power for 25 years, “and there are still people who consider him a legitimate president,” Yushchenko notes ironically.
The former head of government clearly positions himself on the question of his country’s neutrality. “That would have been a possibility sometime in the 19th or 20th century,” he emphasizes. While only seven percent of Ukrainians were in favor of joining NATO when he took office in 2005, the percentage is currently 85 percent. The pro-European and transatlantic orientation is now part of the Ukrainian DNA. “If they test our blood, you will see that we are European and pro-NATO,” he says with a wink.
He understands Austria’s neutrality, but sees no place for it in the current struggle with Russia. Russia is “pure evil” and threatens everything the free West stands for – human rights, democracy and media freedom. “There is good and there is evil. Being passive in the face of evil is not how one should behave. God would not like that. God wants evil to be pushed back or defeated and good to be promoted,” emphasizes Yushchenko, whose father was interned in the Auschwitz concentration camp as a Soviet prisoner of war.
Nevertheless, the former Ukrainian president describes the Alpine republic as a “role model” for his country. Yushchenko emphasizes that he is grateful to Austria for a lot, “more than people generally know.” Apparently he doesn’t just mean that Viennese doctors saved his life after the dioxin attack in 2004. Rather, he points to the important role of Austria in the survival of the Ukrainian nation in the Russian Empire. Ukrainian was one of twelve recognized languages in the Danube Monarchy, which also included parts of what is now western Ukraine. “All the founders of modern Ukrainian literature and culture who wanted to write in Ukrainian found refuge in Austria-Hungary, while Russia pursued a deep and brutal policy of Russification in our country.” While the 71-year-old rejects his own political ambitions, citing his date of birth, he wants to come to Vienna more often in the future. “Absolutely. We love Austria.”
(The interview was conducted by Stefan Vospernik/APA)
