From Selling Out Czechoslovakia to Surrendering Ukraine?
By Andres Kogan Valderrama
HAVANA TIMES – As if Donald Trump’s colonial appropriation plan for the Gaza Strip weren’t enough, he now thinks there’s nothing better than handing Ukraine over to Vladimir Putin on a silver platter, after suggesting he will meet with the Russian tyrant to end the war behind closed doors, without the presence of Volodymyr Zelensky.
Therefore, beyond the recent conference in Munich, where US Vice President J.D. Vance told Zelensky that Trump wants a lasting peace, at its core it is a complete surrender of Ukraine to Russia, reminiscent of the surrender made to Hitler of Czechoslovakia.
A historical parallel that again shows the complicity of the United States in supporting tyrants and a Europe entirely subordinated to imperial logics, draining the content of liberal democracy and any possibility of living in a world that respects international law.
This should also be seen alongside another historical parallel, that of the complicity of certain leftists, who, just as with the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, continue to remain silent and justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, thus reproducing a binary Cold War discourse that only harms the peoples of the world.
As a result, the abandonment of Ukraine, just as with the abandonment of Czechoslovakia by various sectors of the right and left, only shows us a bleak future, unless the structure of the United Nations is reformed and a Security Council controlled by the great imperial powers with veto power is addressed.
Therefore, due to the structural weakness of the United Nations, we must raise our voices more than ever for the Ukrainian people, with the same strength that we do for the Palestinian and Syrian peoples, as they too have had to endure the destruction of their country for mere imperial interests.
The numbers are clear, showing the tragedy in Ukraine over the last three years, reflecting the suffering of an entire nation, even though some may not want to see it: 15 million need humanitarian aid, 10 million have had to leave their country, 122,000 alleged war crimes by Russia, and 20,000 children have been kidnapped by the Russian occupiers (1).
In the face of this harsh reality, ideological fanaticism will not lead us anywhere; it only strengthens figures like Trump and Putin, who pride themselves on their alpha male bravado at the cost of humiliation, disdain, and the deaths of thousands of innocent people who need our solidarity, urging us to take action for them in some way.
Remaining silent in the face of this not only makes us complicit in the Ukrainian humanitarian tragedy, it also opens the door for any country to be invaded by another, with any excuse or pretext to impose their dominance, thereby normalizing the law of the strongest, to the detriment of a global institutional framework that protects us as peoples.
This is why it is so important to pressure for Ukraine to be an active part of the negotiations that Trump is clumsily conducting with Putin behind closed doors, because if this is not the case, the Ukrainian people will be completely subordinated to the Russian empire and its colonial logics, which will be their end as a country.
Having said all of the above, we shouldn’t leave the Ukrainian people alone as if their suffering didn’t matter and was just another episode in their history, standing by as passive witnesses to how Russia and the United States once again divide the world before our very eyes.