I had a few hours of relief when on Sunday 10 March I read the Ansa statement «The Pope: Kiev must have the courage of the white flag». Only to learn, a few hours later, that the Vatican spokesperson pointed out that the Pope would never have mentioned the words “white flag”: if the spokesperson points out, it means that it is the voice that points out. Once again, we cannot escape the ambiguity. In addition to relief, I also felt a hint of satisfaction, given that two years ago, precisely on April 23, 2022, we wrote the article here entitled “I’ll tell you why Ukraine must surrender”.
The narrative of these two years has sounded only one note: Putin he invaded a sovereign country and therefore he is wrong; furthermore, since we must prevent any of its ambitions to invade other countries, including ours, we must help Ukraine fight its invasion. This narrative, however, does not take into account the past and, precisely for this reason, has a distorted, imaginative vision of the future. It is not clear what leads one to think that Russia wants to invade the rest of Europe. Russia’s history suggests the opposite. Of course it has expanded around itself, but this has also been true for all the others who have formed their national state. Many of which expanded even further, forming empires. The Russian one was also called an empire, but I would say more because of its immense size: from Eastern Europe to Alaska (including Alaska, then sold for a pittance to the United States). But I don’t remember Russian occupations in Italy, where there were French, Spanish, Norman, Turkish and Austrian occupations. Russia, like everyone else, had recognized the state of Ukraine. It was this, rather, that wanted to exist “against” the Russians: I only quote (again) article 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution of 1991, where the country gives itself Ukrainian as its official language, although 40% of the population is Russian ethnicity. An article prodromal of civil war, if placed in the wrong hands.
It is clear that the disagreements between the Russian and Ukrainian ethnic groups are centuries old. Their history is full of treaties eager to establish mutual friendship and brotherhood – always, needless to say, “indissoluble”. And where there are similar treaties it means that there were disagreements. One of them is the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654, whose tricentenary was commemorated with the donation of Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in 1954. I took the trouble to enter the archives of the Parliaments of Moscow and Kiev. The decree of 5 February 1954 of the Moscow Council of Ministers “advocates the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine and asks the Presidium of the Supreme Ukrainian Soviet to issue a specific decree in this regard”. The decree of 13 February 1954 of the Presidium of the Supreme Ukrainian Soviet «advocates» the same thing and expresses the «sincere gratitude and approval of the Ukrainian people» for that gesture «as a manifestation of attention to the further strengthening (sic!) of the indissoluble bond of friendship and brotherhood between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, and asks the Presidium of the Supreme Russian Soviet to proceed with that transfer.”
Finally, there is the minutes of the meeting of 19 February 1954 of the Supreme Russian Soviet where – at the end of a, it goes without saying, long and heated debate – there was unanimous approval (neither against nor abstentions) of the fateful transfer. In fact it was a formal transfer within the territories of a single state (a bit like when we in 1963, even modifying the Constitution, decided to give an Abbruzzo to the people of Abruzzo and a Molise to the people of Molise). In any case, with the dissolution of the USSR, its Republics should have returned to the original territories they had when they entered the Union in 1922.
But what to do now? Given all the information available, the white flag was the solution that, in my own small way, I had already hoped for two years ago. The Pope now proposes it in a somewhat cryptic way, but not so much, all things considered, but he has raised a hornet’s nest in the head of Zelensky, to read the press releases of various agencies. Instead of “surrender”, another word comes to mind: armistice. Hoping that Zelensky will propose it is hoping too much, tied as he has shown to be under someone else’s orders. It should be explicitly proposed to Zelensky as a third party. I wish it were Giorgia Meloni. This seems to be Joe’s war: Joe come Joe Biden, which cannot stop it until November – to the detriment of other young people who will die. But the only thing that should matter right now is stopping the rise in deaths. If the armistice is followed by agreements and peace, even better. But at least the massacre stops for a while.
Franco Battaglia, 17 March 2024
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The article Ukraine, Meloni brings Zelensky the “white flag” comes from Nicola Porro.