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Russia carries wounds that go back generations. Instead of examining these wounds in order to treat them, the nation has turned to face the abyss. It does not need to be this way. Russia can turn back and take up the work of national healing if the people demand it. But for that to happen, the morbid ideology that demands glorious victory at any cost must be repudiated – by denying the victory.
Russia needs an unequivocal defeat in Ukraine, a seismic event that can knock down the old idols and force a national reckoning.
This must be the end game for the war – and it is why Ukraine’s allies in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere must do everything possible to support Ukraine. If Russia does not break free from the worship of death, peace will remain out of reach.
“
The Bulwark
Kramatorsk, may 2015
photo: Wolf Böwig