Historian and serviceman Borys Cherkas: "We need to prepare for a long confrontation with Russia"

What is Russia's main goal in the war against Ukraine? Is it worth hoping for agreements with such an aggressor? Why is it always relevant to know your past? How long will the war last and why can't Ukrainians afford to get tired of it? How to overcome the mobilization crisis? All this was explained by the leading research fellow of the Department of the History of Ukraine in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine, and now also our defender, Doctor of Historical Sciences Boris Cherkas in an interview with the publication "Ukrainian Week." About the importance of historical analogies: "For a historian, the main thing is to find analogies with the past. It is easier for me because when I see a problem, I automatically start looking for analogies with the past, with historical events. One way or another, something similar has already happened—from the perspective of the development of weapons, military tactics, engineering, human behavior. Based on this, one can model the behavior—whether of an individual or a collective—or the events that will happen next. <…> How the [war] with Russia will end, we can only guess because we have many unknown factors. But I understand one thing: regardless of the names, all rulers of Russia are incapable of agreements. For them, everything around is Russian, and they do not recognize Ukrainians as a separate people. Any agreement with them will be temporary. Plus, if we know the history of this country's coexistence with its neighbors, we should note that it has always violated treaties and devoured those neighbors. <…> In the 1990s, the West deliberately or unintentionally conducted a unique experiment. It gave Russia the opportunity to live very well. They opened the world to them, gave the most modern technologies. Plus, epidemics showed that money must be massively invested in healthcare. By the logic of a healthy person, this country should have built hospitals, bought up all the best doctors, created powerful hubs for the development of innovative technologies. Instead, they built tanks, attacked Georgia, then us. Russia is interested in continuing the war. We all just need to understand that Russians will fight anyway. No matter what you do, how you build your business, or who you vote for in this country, you must subconsciously remember that Russia will sooner or later return and attack again. If you realize this thought and build all relationships inside the country and with your neighbors on this basis, only then will you be protected. <…> Ukraine should be a state where every citizen, first of all, knows that he is a citizen with his rights and duties. Secondly, realizes that the existence of this state is the key essence. It cannot be otherwise. Then it will be much easier to perceive all the threats around: conflicts with other states, economic conflicts, political conflicts, new epidemics. The example of military countries shows that it is easier for them to go through these threats, which will always exist, only their forms will change." About the danger of the illusion of peaceful life and the mobilization crisis: "…several generations have grown up in peace. It was a good, spoiled life. War seemed something distant and wild. But no, the war is here: it has been ongoing since 2014, and mobilization should have been ongoing all the time as well. <…> Even if you are in the rear, you must undergo certain courses, learn to shoot down drones, involve high school students in hospital work to help with the wounded. Moreover, you must understand that sooner or later you will end up in the army. But our society—from ordinary people to politicians—still lives a peaceful life. We have a moment of hope: well, another year, another half a year, somehow it will be resolved, someone will agree, maybe Russia will collapse, maybe Putin will die, or maybe Trump will decide something… And the war continues. This is already a launched process that cannot be stopped. And we need to prepare for a long confrontation. There is nowhere to retreat. <…> …in democratic countries, as World War II showed, in the third year of the war, a mobilization crisis begins. Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and the United States experienced it. They had to tighten the screws, catch people. And here the task of the state is to correctly activate punitive mechanisms. The problem is that we, as post-Soviet people, imagine shootings at the word 'punitive,' but in fact, there are many other mechanisms by which the state can perform its functions. Secondly, we have already gone through a moment when people got tired of the war and wanted to negotiate with either side just to end it. This ended with the Hetmanate ceasing to exist, the same fate befell the Ukrainian People's Republic, and then came famine, repression, terror, genocide… The next point: people must remember that Russians say on all talk shows: 'We will come—and Ukrainians will be destroyed.' When they appeared on our land, they really did this—raped, killed. That is, people need to be openly talked to and periodically reminded: if we lose, it will be even worse. And this moment of crisis… we need to look at how the British or Canadians coped with it in their time. Because this is no more than another problem on our path. <…> As for Russia, it will always hate us and try to conquer us. And as long as it exists in its current form, nothing will change. 'Carthage must be destroyed.' I do not believe in good or bad Russians, democrats. They just change surnames, but the strategy remains the same." What are the scenarios for the future? Ideally, I would like there to be an ocean there. They will break up into small states so that we have a buffer zone along the border, great. If they do not break up—we will continue to work." FULL TEXT OF THE INTERVIEW VIDEO RECORDING P.S. Doctor of Historical Sciences Boris Cherkas also believes that for Ukraine, the current war against Russia is a war for Independence. "The Kremlin hides nothing, it warns and threatens. And only the weak-willed, naive, and foolish can hope that these are just words. The Kremlin clearly states that Ukraine never existed and therefore should not exist further; they directly deny the existence of the Ukrainian people. And they do everything so that these ideas are accepted by the masses of the Russian Federation—which, it must be admitted, they have achieved considerable success in. Moreover, as a historian, I know that the Russian state and its policy have always been like this and could never be otherwise," the scholar reminds in his blog on the "Ukrainian Week" website. "We see the embodiment of this ideology in real life. The entire civilized world knows about the mass terror against Ukrainians: killings, rapes, deportation of children, forced mobilization into the army in occupied territories, bringing in population from Russia and allocating housing taken from Ukrainians. Ukrainian territories are declared part of Russia and introduced into the Russian legal field. <…> What else is needed to understand what we are fighting for? And that our lives are at stake? For Ukrainians—all Ukrainians, whether from Lviv, Lutsk, Vinnytsia, Kropyvnytskyi, or from Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Chernihiv—there will be no place or chance to survive in the newly formed Russian empire. Their only chance to live is not to allow this empire to be born. <…> …we will survive only by winning the war for the independence of our state. Because only a solidary and consolidated state policy will protect Ukrainians throughout the territory." "When I communicate with fighters, I, as a commander, must clearly and understandably explain what they are fighting for, what this war is about. <…> To the warriors going into battle, we can say only one thing: this confrontation with Russia is our WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. This definition is the clearest for understanding the essence of what is happening," sums up Boris Cherkas. "…on the front line, it is precisely in this key that I (and not only I!), as a commander, communicate with the fighters, and this is how we clarify what we risk our lives for every day." Full text of the publication