In the fall of 2013, Ukrainians began a popular uprising, later known as the Revolution of Dignity: the culmination of a decades-long journey from post-totalitarian, post-Soviet fear to God-given dignity and freedom. However, this pursuit of freedom was punished immediately by Russia seeking to reestablish an empire of Soviet proportions. Russia annexed Crimea and occupied the Donbas. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. This war is about people, their longing for freedom, their inherent dignity, and their right to worship as they choose - for all Ukrainian Churches and denominations, and especially for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Source: Harvard Catholic Forum
Imagine a balance scale. On one side lie territories, rare earths, minerals, geopolitical interests, and nuclear power plants. On the other side stand freedom, dignity, independence, human rights, territorial integrity, and fundamental values. The danger in current discussions about peace in Ukraine is that the first pan — the one weighted by territory and resources — threatens to overshadow the second, disregarding the principles of justice and human dignity.
This war is not about territory. Russia is twenty-eight times larger than Ukraine. While Russia spans eleven time zones, Ukraine fits within just one. Before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine had a population of about forty-one million, whereas Russia had over one hundred forty million.
Nor is it about NATO. The alliance did not exist in the eighteenth century when the Russian Empire dismantled the Hetmanate, an early Ukrainian state. It was not a factor in the early twentieth century when Ukrainians sought to restore their independence after the collapse of the Russian Empire. NATO played no role in 1945 when the Soviet regime forcibly abolished the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Ukraine has never been a threat. In the first two decades of its independence, the country reduced its military personnel by ninety percent, shrinking its armed forces from nine hundred thousand troops to just fifteen thousand battle-ready soldiers by 2014, when Russia first attacked. In 1994, Ukraine dismantled the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal — larger than those of the United Kingdom, France, and China combined — in exchange for security guarantees from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Ukraine willingly gave up its nuclear weapons because it was committed to peace.
At its core, this war is not about NATO expansion or territorial disputes. It is about Russia’s refusal to recognize Ukraine as a sovereign nation, free to determine its own future. It is a continuation of Russian neo-colonialism, an attempt to erase Ukraine’s independence and identity.