A Ukrainian Manifesto
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On 1 December 1991, Ukrainians modified the course of their nation's historical past, and that of the world, by proclaiming the independence of their nation. Immediately, as soon as once more, the way forward for Ukraine and of the world is determined by our alternative. That’s the reason we have now chosen today, 1 December, to publish our Manifesto.
We stay in momentous and troubled instances, when the world stands at a crossroads between thrilling alternatives for improvement and unprecedented threats to human existence. And our destiny, and certainly that of the whole world, largely is determined by whether or not Ukraine will be capable to survive, endure and prevail.
Nearly twelve years of warfare, 4 of them full-scale, have led to fatigue, burnout and despair in Ukrainian society. But we affirm that victory is feasible and attainable. It is very important outline this victory, to light up the trail to its achievement, and to supply well-founded hope.
Our imaginative and prescient of victory have to be clear, life like and comprehensible, impartial of present occasions and swings in public opinion that they provoke.
At the start, we need to affirm {that a} Ukrainian victory is feasible. Russia has failed to realize any of its preliminary plans, and now can’t obtain victory over Ukraine. Regardless of its numerical and useful resource benefits, Moscow has not managed to succeed in any of its strategic targets in nearly 4 years of full-scale warfare.
We perceive that the highway to our victory could also be tough and lengthy. Victory is unlikely to come back as a singular occasion, however somewhat can be achieved by means of a dynamic, multi-stage course of.
Clearly it’s tough to talk of victory when the enemy is mounting unprecedented and at instances profitable floor assaults in a number of areas on the frontline and damaging aerial assaults within the rear. Disregarding insane losses, Russia gnaws away kilometres of our territory, punches by means of our defensive positions, kills civilians in cities and villages on daily basis with missiles and drones, and destroys infrastructure. It’s broadly recognized that many Ukrainian items are understaffed, whereas the heroes serving in areas of lively hostilities threat their lives each minute. On the similar time, regardless of all this, the enemy's plans are largely being thwarted, and the Kremlin's dream of destroying Ukraine stays unrealised.
The scenario is additional sophisticated by the truth that this warfare has already turn into a part of a broader world disaster. Immediately we witness the rise of a worldwide coalition of dictatorships, an ambivalent U.S. overseas coverage, crises of democracy in a number of international locations, a devaluation of worldwide legislation and of the world order as an entire. On this chaotic context, Russia goals to destroy the European safety structure and discredit its key establishments, before everything NATO. This finds assist amongst different dictatorships, permitting Russia, regardless of sanctions strain, to keep away from exhaustion of its assets.
Whereas conserving in thoughts these world challenges, it is very important perceive the contours of our objective. To attain victory, we should grasp its essence and the way in which in direction of it. Traditionally, all victories in protracted wars have been deliberate exactly throughout essentially the most tough intervals of resistance.
From the very starting, Ukraine has aspired to absolute victory in all dimensions, together with an finish to hostilities, the withdrawal of Russian occupation forces, and the complete restoration of the nation's territorial integrity inside its internationally acknowledged borders. Full-fledged victory additionally consists of the return of all kidnapped kids, prisoners of warfare and deported individuals; the condemnation of the Russian regime in a global courtroom with its key figures held accountable for his or her crimes; in addition to reparations for damages brought on. Ukraine should obtain safety ensures and membership within the European Union and NATO with none limitations.
That is victory at its most. We’ve no proper to face down from this final objective as a result of the destiny of hundreds of thousands of individuals is determined by its achievement. In fact, we dream of the entire and remaining defeat of our enemy and the disappearance of the aggressor from the world stage. These desires have a historic foundation: empires usually are not everlasting. However we have to be life like: the disintegration of the Russian imperial mission could also be a long-term prospect. Due to this fact we have to outline the closest level that may mark the start of this path — some extent that may be thought-about a convincing begin of our victory. Allow us to name it a minimal victory. It can’t be captured in a single sentence – our victory has three dimensions:
- The navy dimension: strategic neutralisation of the enemy
- The political dimension: preservation of our sovereignty
- The human dimension: a profitable Ukraine
Solely all three dimensions collectively represent victory. The primary dimension goals to repel the enemy's navy assaults and disable their functionality to threaten Ukraine's peace. The second includes stipulations for the survival of our nation in the long run. Realization of the third dimension will make it unattainable for the enemy to achieve the longer term, even when it is able to pay an especially excessive worth. Beneath, we briefly study every of the three dimensions.
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Army dimension of victory: strategic neutralisation of the enemy
Russia exhibits no intention of ending its warfare of aggression in opposition to Ukraine. It continues to mobilise inside assets and exterior assist from different authoritarian regimes. Warfare has turn into the structural foundation of the Russian regime, the important thing to its survival.
Many mistakenly imagine that negotiations will finish the warfare. This may very well be the case if this warfare have been being waged over territory. It isn’t. Russia already possesses huge territories of its personal, uncared for and underdeveloped, whereas the Ukrainian territories it occupies are being systematically devastated, their financial and human potential destroyed.
In actuality, the stakes are a lot larger: the Kremlin's strategic objective is to erase Ukraine from the political map of the world. For Kremlin strategists Ukraine's eradication is a essential step in direction of restoring Russia's great-power imperial standing and securing a worldwide defeat of the West. For Ukraine, the mere survival of a nominally impartial state isn’t sufficient to make sure our long-term safety. Ukraine wants a method for victory and improvement underneath circumstances of fixed navy strain.
We’re presently in a warfare of attrition. On this warfare, by means of lively defence and the usage of superior applied sciences, Ukraine has managed to disrupt Russian plans and stop Moscow from attaining strategic breakthroughs regardless of its numerical and useful resource benefits. Nevertheless, a chronic warfare of attrition will result in the gradual depletion of Ukraine's human and financial potential. What we’d like now could be a broader and extra lively idea – strategic neutralisation of the enemy.
Strategic neutralisation doesn’t goal to pressure Moscow to barter or to exhaust it by means of maximal losses alone. As a substitute, it seeks, by means of focused strikes, to paralyse Russia's means to realize any significant successes within the pursuit of its navy and political goals.
Ukraine has already demonstrated a number of examples of the effectiveness of strategic neutralisation. Final 12 months, Ukrainian drone and missile strikes compelled the Russian fleet to withdraw from the western a part of the Black Sea which made doable the restoration of the grain export hall. Since 2022 Ukraine has blocked and denied Russian manned aviation entry to our airspace whereas periodically placing Russian air bases deep inside enemy territory. On the frontline, the usage of robotic and unmanned methods and high-precision artillery and missile methods has created "killzones", the place the aggressor suffers important day by day losses and its advance into Ukraine is slowed. Every single day Ukrainian cyber forces disrupt Russian cyber operations . Moscow's info operations have didn’t undermine both our home resilience or Western assist.
These are all partial victories. It will be important that they merge right into a single complete. Collectively they need to render Russian aggression futile; make the Kremlin's warfare plans unattainable and in the end self-destructive.
To attain this, nonetheless, confronted with an adapting enemy, Ukraine should keep one step forward within the improvement of crucial capabilities and applied sciences, successful the military-technological innovation race and always scaling-up new methods. Ukraine should preserve the strategic initiative on this race in order that it’s Russia, not Ukraine, that’s compelled to react and defend.
Russia's full defeat on the battlefield is a type of victory that’s presently unattainable. Therefore, we’re inspired to have interaction in peace talks to freeze the present scenario on the bottom. However Ukraine's strategic objective is to construct a secure, safe, democratic and profitable state even underneath fixed menace. This requires reshaping relations with our allies, guaranteeing their assist not simply to realize hypothetical peace, however peace in the long run.
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Political dimension of victory: preservation of sovereignty
We should as soon as once more emphasise that Russia's true strategic objective is the liquidation of Ukrainian statehood and identification, and the prevention of Ukraine's return to the European civilisational area. With out Ukraine, its largest and most essential former colony, Moscow's empire can’t regain its great-power standing and affect.
That’s the reason the goal of Russian aggression is the Ukrainian inhabitants's identification. This identification is systematically being undermined by means of the destruction of cultural websites, the mass abduction of kids together with their compelled identification re-education, the renunciation of a separate Ukrainian historical past and the appropriation of our cultural achievements in worldwide discourse. Collectively these actions quantity to genocide.
We, Ukrainians, above all want peace and firmly assist efforts in direction of a peaceable decision of the present warfare. However as we see, Russia rejects any proposals that may result in a long-lasting peace and the preservation of our safety and sovereignty.
We’re conscious that strain from nice powers could also be employed to restrict Ukraine's sovereignty, for instance by forbidding formal membership in numerous financial, political or navy alliances. Nevertheless, concessions that result in additional lack of sovereignty signify categorically unacceptable pink strains. These embody limiting Ukraine's Defence Forces by way of numbers, armaments, and so forth, in addition to legalizing the return to Ukraine of Russian political, cultural, non secular and media organisations – an act that may entail the continuation of warfare by different means.
Ukraine's accession to the European Union additionally can’t be a bargaining chip. Our return to Europe by means of EU membership, and our remaining exit from the "Russian world", has been the hallmark of our political improvement over current a long time. Ukraine's accession to the EU addresses the strategic query of safety and wellbeing for us, our youngsters and grandchildren. Ukraine will strengthen the European household as a dependable participant in a brand new European safety structure and as a novel provider of sensible information relating to tips on how to confront fashionable types of aggression and threats.
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Human dimension of victory: a profitable Ukraine, prosperity and happiness for our citizenry
Sustaining world voice and nationwide safety requires home insurance policies geared toward constructing a rustic of alternative, based mostly on the rule of legislation and an efficient system of public governance.
Ukraine should turn into a rustic of alternatives – a rustic value dwelling in, value returning to, value investing in; a spot to boost kids; a lovely area for creativity, innovation, improvement and entrepreneurship; a rustic with world voice, developed human capital, enthused by a tradition of entrepreneurship and innovation. For this to occur, home insurance policies should concentrate on strengthening the rule of legislation, broadening financial freedom, improvement of schooling and tradition, and human-centredness in all spheres of life.
In such a Ukraine, the state is human-centred – a service state with inclusive political and civic establishments, the place the state is "owned" by society. A human-centred state prioritises human rights, cares for individuals who can’t take care of themselves, ensures equal alternatives for all.
In such a Ukraine, residents are in a position to take accountability for their very own improvement, wellbeing, schooling and their household's well being. The nation has a mature, self-reliant and horizontal civil society, the place dignity and initiative are valued and all residents are equal earlier than the legislation. Human-centredness manifests itself within the wellbeing and happiness of each particular person and household.
Within the navy sphere, human-centredness means constructing a military that strives to protect the lives of its troopers as a lot as doable. In such a military, service members can totally realise their potential, have applicable safety, and their households are safeguarded and supplied for. In Ukraine, residents don’t shirk their navy obligation; underneath circumstances of warfare, the precept of social solidarity reigns supreme: everybody carries the burden of protection based on their skills and means.
Within the cultural sphere, human-centredness means to start with recognising the strategic significance of tradition because the area the place identification is fashioned, new breakthrough meanings are created, and Ukraine's affect and voice on the earth are expanded.
This can be a nation the place justice is a public good. A rustic the place zero tolerance for corruption is embodied within the day by day actions of each particular person.
This can be a nation of sturdy native self-government, the place each group and each area is self-sufficient, and but collectively we type a harmonious and integral state.
This can be a nation with an export-oriented, free financial system that draws funding because of clear, clear "guidelines of the sport". A rustic of enormous, bold tasks of world significance in numerous fields – from agriculture and biotechnology to drone and rocket engineering, from logistics to synthetic intelligence, digital property and different promising progressive sectors. On the similar time, small enterprise thrives in Ukraine, and each particular person has the chance to turn into economically self-reliant.
Ukrainian resilience, entrepreneurial spirit, flexibility and flexibility are a serious aggressive benefit within the new world. Boldness in concepts and scaling, ingenuity, and the constructing of horizontal connections – the whole lot we already know tips on how to do – is more and more in demand within the world financial system, enterprise, politics and community-building. Beneath such circumstances, Ukraine ceases to be an issue and turns into a part of a worldwide answer to the challenges confronted by humanity.
And that is exactly what provides us grounds to lastly cease making an attempt merely to catch up. We’re prepared to begin shaping a brand new actuality – at house and overseas.
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Every little thing described above is achievable. We’re satisfied of this by the examples of dozens of different international locations on totally different continents which have already walked this path of fast improvement and transformation: the Netherlands and England within the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries; the USA and France within the 18th–nineteenth centuries; Germany, Italy, Israel and Poland within the twentieth century. All of them share three frequent traits: the transition took a number of a long time; political elites had the need to vary the destiny of their nation; and nearly all the time their transformation was accompanied by warfare and revolution.
Since gaining independence in 1991, Ukraine has travelled a tough and lengthy highway from a former imperial colony to a state that has withstood extraordinary crises and warfare, and has carried out many reforms whose goal was to exit the "Russian world". Regardless of Moscow's newest makes an attempt to pull Ukraine again into its embrace, and regardless of our personal inside failures that threaten to drag us again into the previous, we imagine that Ukraine has the power to leap into the longer term.
Success isn’t assured. The long run isn’t predetermined. Historical past is made by individuals – by us and by you. However we firmly imagine that Ukraine will survive, endure and prevail.
Our remaining exit from the "Russian world" and return to Western civilisation can be a historic victory not just for Ukraine, but additionally for the West itself and in the end for the entire world: a world with one much less aggressive predator and another giant and free state. A world with extra safety, freedom and prosperity.
Because the founding fathers of the Ukrainian nationwide motion, the members of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood wrote: Ukraine was the stone that the builders of the empire rejected – but it could actually turn into the cornerstone of a brand new world.
Co-authors
Andrii Dligach, Physician of Economics, Professor at Taras Shevchenko Nationwide College of Kyiv, Chair of the Board of the Coalition of Enterprise Communities for the Modernization of Ukraine, co-founder of the Kyiv Foresight Basis
Yaroslav Hrytsak, Professor of Historical past, Ukrainian Catholic College
Pavlo Kazarin, journalist, essayist, Sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Svitlana Khyliuk, Dean of the School of Regulation, Ukrainian Catholic College
Ihor Koliushko, Chair of the Board, Centre of Coverage and Authorized Reform
Nataliia Kryvda, Professor at Taras Shevchenko Nationwide College of Kyiv, Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Cultural Basis
Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Middle for Civil Liberties
Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, Director Common of the Mystetskyi Arsenal Nationwide Artwork and Museum Advanced
Valerii Pekar, adjunct professor on the Kyiv-Mohyla Enterprise Faculty and the Enterprise Faculty of the Ukrainian Catholic College
Oleksandr Starodubtsev, founding father of ProZorro
Olena Sotnyk, Head of GrandStrategyUA, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine (2015–2019)
Oleksandr Sushko, Government Director, Worldwide Renaissance Basis
Victoria Voytsitska, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine (2014–2019), board member of the assume tank We Construct Ukraine
Myсhailo Wynnyckyj, Assoc. Professor Nationwide College "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy"
Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Chair of the Board, Centre for Defence Methods
Lana Zerkal, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, member of the Coordination Council of the Ukraine Facility Platform
Supported by
Maria Berlinska, Head of the Centre for Assist of Aerial Reconnaissance and the Victory Drones navy expertise improvement mission
Alina Frolova, Deputy Chair of the Board of the Centre for Defence Methods, founding father of the Invictus Video games in Ukraine
Myroslav Hai, veteran of the Russian–Ukrainian warfare
Oleksiy Haran, Professor on the Nationwide College of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Analysis Director on the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Basis
Mykhailo Honchar, President of the Centre for World Research "Technique XXI", Editor-in-Chief of Black Sea Safety journal
Roman Hryshchuk, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine
Yurii Hudymenko, Chair of the Public Anti-Corruption Council on the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
Viktor Kevlyuk, Reserve Colonel, skilled on the Centre for Defence Methods
Oleksandr Khara, diplomat, Director on the Centre for Defence Methods
Vsevolod Kozhemiako, volunteer
Yuliia Marushevska, co-founder of Frontline Reforms
Myroslav Marynovych, Advisor to the Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic College, former Gulag political prisoner
Sevgil Musaieva, Editor-in-Chief of Ukrainska Pravda
Lesia Ogryzko, Director, Sahaidachnyi Safety Middle
Yuliia Paievska (Taira), servicewoman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, poet, psychologist
Serhiy Prytula, founding father of the Serhiy Prytula Charity Basis
Serhiy Sternenko, civic activist, volunteer
Taras Stetskiv, Member of the Ukrainian Parliament in 5 convocations, Head of the Zarvanytsia Civic Initiative
Volodymyr Viatrovych, historian, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine
Yaryna Yasynevych, civic activist, member of the Board of the Reanimation Package deal of Reforms Coalition, Program Director on the Middle for Analysis on the Liberation Motion
Yaroslav Yatskiv, Academician of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Volodymyr Yermolenko, thinker, President of PEN Ukraine
Serhiy Zhadan, author, serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Yosyf Zisels, Initiative Group "First of December", Chair
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