A guide for anti-war disputes in the family and at work 17 answers to the most common arguments justifying war

Original source: https://doxajournal.ru/anti_war_handbook#rec418563313, this is just a translation from ru to eng.

These days, our main task is to create an atmosphere of complete rejection of Russian military aggression in Ukraine. But in conversations with colleagues, friends, acquaintances and relatives, we are often overwhelmed with emotions that do not allow us to calmly build an argument. We despair of questions and theses: are they really serious? At best, the conversation ends, although it could have prevented a split in relations and promoted a consensus against war.

We have collected the most frequent statements of those who are not ready to unambiguously condemn the Russian military aggression and have responded to them. We interviewed acquaintances, built and tested arguments against each other, rewrote them over and over again until the last moment. Therefore, we encourage you to share both new questions and your arguments.

1. “ Doesn’t the Russian army strike only at military targets? ?

Unfortunately, no. Despite repeated assurances to the contrary by representatives of the authorities and the Ministry of Defense, Russian shells have been constantly hitting residential areas all these days, and have already hit hospitals and kindergartens. On February 25, a ballistic missile exploded near a hospital in the town of Vuhledar, Donetsk region. On the same day in the city of Akhtyrka, Sumy region, a ballistic missile hit a kindergarten. It is not surprising that newborns in the hospital in Dnipro are forced by nurses to shelter from rocket attacks in basements. The day before in the city of Chuguev. In the Kharkov region, Russian shells smashed a residential area. February 26, residential buildings in Chernihiv were shelled. This happens not only in the border areas or in the southeast, but also in the capital. We know this both from the many eyewitnesses and photographers filming what is happening (and from independent human rights and research organizations. We also know this from our friends and relatives who are now in Ukraine. Many of them are scared, they say that they spend part of the day in bomb shelters and hear gunshots.We trust these people and urge them to also talk to their loved ones on the other side of the border, if they are there.This is not just part of normal military operations, but a violation of the laws of war, that is, these are what are called war crimes.

2. “ How can you believe in something? After all, there is an information war going on.”

Finding reliable information is really difficult. Here you can go from the opposite and note what causes the least confidence. The representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in a briefing after the first day of the war announced that the Russian army did not suffer any losses. Similar messages from the Ministry of Defense appear in the following days. It's hard to believe, because not a single military operation is without losses. The fact that Roskomnadzor actually introduced censorship in the Russian media, banning the mention of information about the “special operation” that does not come from the Ministry of Defense, does not increase confidence. Taking into account the fact that the Ministry of Defense gives out very little information, this should be regarded as an attempt to create a bubble of misunderstanding of what is happening in Ukraine. On the contrary, independent Russian media (under the threat of blocking) conduct continuous online with the most verified information - such reports are available, for example, from Meduza and Mediazona. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also makes regular updates of the situation, including those that are unpleasant for their side, which inspires much more confidence than the reports of the Russian side.

We believe that in such a situation it makes sense to trust the above, while always remembering to check the information received in several sources.

3. "And Donbass was not afraid for 8 years? Have other Ukrainians been thinking about them all these years?"

First of all, we need to stop talking about all the inhabitants of Ukraine as a single agent who either did something or didn’t. All these years, people in Ukraine have taken different positions in relation to the war in Donbass. Some voted for more hard-line candidates and parties, others for diplomacy. The program of the current president, for whom the majority voted in the elections in 2019, was aimed at a peaceful settlement, the exchange of prisoners and the withdrawal of weapons.

Someone has been accepting refugees from Donbass in other regions of Ukraine for years and helping them. According to reportsUN, more than a million people from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine in 2014-16 were forced to move to other regions of Ukraine. In 2016, the Ministry for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine was established to coordinate the settlement, assistance and employment of victims of hostilities in the Donbas. There were also those who created projects to help those who remained in the Donbass: Donbass SOS, Vostok SOS, Land of the Free People, Proliska.

At the same time, the process of peaceful resolution of contradictions has a main obstacle - the front line. When shells are flying over the Donbass, it is not surprising that many of the locals want anyone to come and stop what is happening with troops. When Donbass is enshrined in Ukraine’s constitution as part of its territory, although it is actually controlled by “LDPR” and Russian troops, it is logical to expect that the internal dialogue in Ukrainian society will include those who will believe that the government has a mandate to return Donbass by military means.

Was Donbass scared for 8 years? Now we, as citizens of Russia, must ask ourselves about the role of our country in these events.

The Russian Federation has been helping the “LDNR” for many years with both resources and troops, which means that it is already a participant in the conflict and takes a specific side. So we have to ask ourselves how our country could help cease the fire in Donbas as soon as possible? Russia is a party to the conflict in Donbas, but this does not make it a full participant in the internal political process in Ukraine. How could she solve this conflict, and not change the political regime of the whole of Ukraine with a military invasion?

And if the government in Russia were democratic and we could, through real representatives, influence the diplomatic process, the actions of the troops, and the expenditure of resources, what actions would we take? On the contrary, as long as Russia is ruled by a president who is now interested in realizing his geopolitical ambitions (which he explicitly points out with statements about “risks for Russia” and that the sovereignty of Ukraine is a historical mistake of Lenin), he will prioritize these tasks over all others, including peace in the Donbass. The real question is: what happens if we stop solving Putin's problems instead of the Donbass?

4. “And who will protect the Donbass from shelling?”

Now the Russian army is not helping the civilians of Donbass, but is attacking Ukraine from three fronts and aims to completely capture it. As the State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation have already stated, “Voting for the recognition of the DPR / LPR, I voted for peace, not for war. For Russia to become a shield, so that Donbass is not bombed, and not for Kyiv being bombed.” At the same time, Putin and other government officials set out a variety of justifications for intervention: either restoring the “historical unity” of peoples, or restoring historical borders, or as if Ukraine and NATO “created risks” for the “existence” of Russia itself, or about protecting all of Ukraine from neo-Nazis. Assistance to civilians in Donbass almost does not appear in them.

At the same time, an alliance with the LDNR is far from the most obvious way of such assistance. If the resolution of the situation were put at the forefront, and not aggressive plans and their own influence on Ukraine, then the Russian government could spend its energy on cooperation with civil society inside and outside the Donbass. In this regard, we recall the Baza investigation, which he calls one of the main beneficiaries of the war in the Donbass, the fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Sergei Kurchenko, who cooperates with high-ranking officials and security forces from the special services of the Russian Federation. During the conflict in the Donbass, most of the coal and metallurgical enterprises on the territory of the “LDNR” came under his control. While Kurchenko enriches himself, the workers of enterprises in 2021 were not paid for months salaries, and so keeping at the level of 10-20 thousand rubles. It is worth raising the question of why the Russian army in the Donbass and its support for the armed forces of the “LPR” are really needed.

5. “ Where have you (Russian citizens condemning the war) been all these 8 years?”

Some of us were teenagers, some of us had no position or were not interested in politics, and some of us resisted the war with Ukraine. The most important thing is not this, but how we will act now. In Russia, up to 20,000 people, from liberals to anarchists, took part in anti-war protests after the annexation of Crimea in 2014It was from the Crimea, and not the Donbass, that the countdown began - it is important to remember this so as not to confuse an attack and self-defense.

Anti-war slogans were heard at many other actions: for example, at the funeral processions dedicated to Boris Nemtsov - before the pandemic, they recruited an average of 60,000 people each. Renunciation of claims to Crimea and Donbass, a sharp improvement in relations with Ukraine is a position that has never completely left the protest and opposition agenda. Although the main focus has shifted to the large-scale internal problems of Russia - such as election fraud, the persecution of political prisoners, environmental disasters, and pension reform.

Nevertheless, while fighting against authoritarianism in the Russian Federation, we also fought for the opportunity to change the government and abandon an aggressive foreign policy. The ability to stop clashes with Ukrainian troops and sponsoring units fighting with the Ukrainian army. It is this, as well as our full confidence in Ukrainian civil society in solving their internal problems, that could bring peace to the Donbass.

6. " Putin wants to end this 8-year war "

Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly stated that Russia is not a participant in the hostilities in the Donbas. So, from his own point of view, he has declared war, not ended it.

In fact, the Russian army already in 2014 fought with the Ukrainian army on Ukrainian territory, for example, near Ilovaisk. The war has been going on for 8 years.

Ending the war is a great goal. However, it does not explain why one should occupy another country and seek to take control of its political institutions. And Putin has repeatedly raised the question in this way - for example, on February 25, when he tried to convince the Ukrainian military to carry out a military coup: “Take power into your own hands, it looks like it will be easier for us to agree with you than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that settled in Kyiv and took the entire Ukrainian people hostage.”

Finally, instead of the idea of the end of the war, in recent days we have received from the Russian authorities only new excuses for it - see point 4.

7. “ Aren't we saving Ukraine and Russia from neo-Nazis? ?

Who monitors fascist activity in society, more scrupulously than anyone else? Antifascists. It is anti-fascist associations that systematically resist fascist and neo-Nazi organizations. Ukrainian anti-fascists regularly claim that Putin's propaganda grossly exaggerates the influence of the far right on Ukrainian society and the state. Anti-fascists would not downplay the degree of "Nazification". If the Russian authorities and the state media rate it higher than the anti-fascists do - who are in the country and in the context - this is a clear sign that it is the former who are lying. The anti-fascists also said that they will fight against the Russian invasion on the side of the Ukrainian army - obviously they do not consider it fascist.

There are neo-Nazi militant groups that operate against Ukrainian forces and on the side of the “LDNR” and the Russian army, and their representatives have met with Putin over the past years. Examples of such formations are the Rusich and Ratibor detachments. Historian and political scientist Vyacheslav Likhachev, examining (and recognizing) the role of neo-Nazis on both sides of the conflict, wrote: "members of the far-right groups played a much greater role on the Russian side of the conflict than on the Ukrainian side."

Known for its nationalist views, the Right Sector party did not win a single seat in the current Verkhovna Rada. In the election program of Zelensky, for whom 73% of voters voted with a turnout of 61.37%, almost 13.5 million people, there was not a single nationalist slogan. But he was like this: “Everyone who, regardless of gender, language, faith, nationality, simply LOVES UKRAINE should unite!”

Finally, Russia's aggression is condemned by the Taliban, European states, Israel - a very diverse palette of political forces. In Russia, a Leningrad siege girl was detained at an anti-war rally. The people and nations that really suffered from Nazism are not on Putin's side.

8. “ Ukrainians themselves are asking Putin to intervene so that he can save everyone.”

First of all, you need to ask who Putin could save Ukrainian women and citizens from. We mentioned above that threats from neo-Nazi forces are cynically exaggerated by the Russian authorities, who do not say that it is worth, first of all, entrusting anti-fascism to Ukrainian society itself.

Even if there are some letters from worried Ukrainians on Putin's desk, it can be assumed that there are no more such petitioners than Ukrainians who trust Russian media - about 3%. At the same time, the confidence of Ukrainians in their own army is 70%. And right now, on the streets of Ukrainian cities, there are queues for registration in volunteer units.

Ukrainian women and Ukrainians are represented by the current president and parliament. The incumbent president received a significant share of the vote even in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In the first round of elections in 2019, Zelensky received more than 20% of the vote in these areas, slightly losing to Poroshenko. In the second round, he beat Poroshenko and won. Now these Ukrainian authorities are calling for peace and negotiations. The sources of the calls for salvation from outside are unknown. Note that the Kremlin itself does not provide any arguments in favor of the illegitimacy of the current government: neither evidence of the destruction of political competition, nor data on election fraud. Instead, Putin himself simply believes that they are illegitimate, as they are "a gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis."To whom should we trust judgments about the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government - Putin or citizens and citizens of Ukraine?

And even if we imagine that there is a minority in need of urgent and external assistance, then it is more logical to take them out, rather than unleash a war throughout the country.

9. " Putin is just protecting Russia from NATO "

This is a substitution of concepts. Why then is Putin attacking Ukraine and not the NATO countries themselves? Ukraine is not among them. The idea that Ukraine can be attacked for “protection from NATO” is based on the idea that Ukraine is an extension of Russia, just a bargaining chip in the confrontation of empires. This position is inhuman in relation to the inhabitants of Ukraine.

A leader who would like to move the planet towards peace and demilitarization would first of all reject the claims that the sovereignty of neighboring countries is a historical mistake. But Putin - for example, in a televised address on February 21, 22 - did exactly the opposite. Both by imperialist rhetoric and by attacking Ukraine, Putin only strengthens military lobbies in other countries. This only increases the military spending of other countries and moves the whole world away from comprehensive demilitarization.

Finally, even some Russian generals, as Grigory Yudin writes, said that now Russia does not face the risk of a military threat from NATO.

10. " Putin Protects Russia from Ukraine's Nuclear Threat "

The 1994 Budapest Memorandum commits signatory countries (including Russia) to "respect Ukraine's independence, sovereignty, and existing borders in exchange for the country's nuclear disarmament." To date, there are no nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Vladimir Zelensky only announced the possibility of its appearance in February this year. Why? Russia already violated the promise to respect the “existing borders” of Ukraine, and back in 2014, by annexing Crimea. (Even if 2014 in Russia is not considered by everyone as such a violation, Ukraine evaluates it that way for 8 years). And in 2022, recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed republics. And conducting military operations on the territory of Ukraine - starting from 2014 and now. This means that it is obviously impossible to justify the Russian full-scale invasion that is taking place now by violating UkraineBudapest Memorandum. And only now - and only as a possibility - she said that she could have a nuclear weapon. We, the citizens of Russia, should primarily blame the aggressive actions of our government for this statement. On the contrary, it is an attack on an entire country, as has already happened in the history of world wars, that pushes the world community to enter into a conflict on one of the sides, and thereby increases the risk of using nuclear weapons.

11. “ It was necessary to bring in troops during the Maidan, then there would be no real war.”

The troops were just introduced. The Russian military raised the alarm for the exercises, and ended up in the Crimea and the “LDNR”. The Russian military in the "LDNR" removed the symbols of the Russian army, as well as the military in the Crimea. Located in the Pskov region in Russia soldiers graveyard. All of them died in 2014, most likely in the south-east of Ukraine. Even then it should have been understood that Ukraine is not an abstract territory in which only the Russian army can restore order, but a country that, despite all the contradictions normal for any society, will defend itself and see the Russian army not as an order, but as an instrument of subjugation to Russian power.

But the main thing is that the war does not happen by itself. The decision on the current attack was made by a specific person - who could not do this if he wanted to.

12. “ Putin may be wrong, but you can’t wish your army to be defeated.”

As the heirs of the country that defeated fascism, we see patriotism in protecting the dignity of our homeland, and not in formally following the rules of officer honour. To preserve our human dignity, we must prevent war crimes and the killing of both soldiers and civilians in a country that does not threaten us. Not wasting energy on solidarity with the army advancing on people defending their country, but immediately working on creating an anti-war movement to withdraw Ukrainian troops is the most direct way to avoid defeat. Participation in such decisions determines civil freedom and the meaning of human life.

13. " Ukraine forbids Russians to speak Russian "

First of all, it is worth saying that it is impossible to justify the seizure of the country by disagreeing with its internal language policy.

According to recent surveys, Russian is used by a significant part of the population: for example, in 2020 in Kiev, Russian was used on the Internet more often than Ukrainian. Two-thirds of Ukrainians talk about the need to continue the current language policy (see the law on the state language), 20% disagree with them. We are not policemen and not mentors for Ukrainian civil society. We must a priori trust the women themselves and the residents of Ukraine to transform their fate in a democratic way., including further language policy. Trust them with her choice, which can suit different regions and groups.

But we can definitely interfere with a peaceful democratic choice if we make sure that the Russian language is automatically associated with the language of the aggressors and occupiers.

14. “ But what about the burnt House of Trade Unions in Odessa - they will do the same with all Russians? ?

The mission of the UN Human Rights Office - its representatives directly observed the events - reports that a detailed investigation into the incident is ongoing. It is known that both sides were armed and showed cruelty, the first to throw Molotov cocktails were the opponents of the Maidan - those who considered that the events on the Maidan would lead to the infringement of the interests of residents and residents of the South-East of Ukraine.

The group opposing them gave a fierce rebuff, forced them to take refuge in the House of Trade Unions. Molotov cocktails and shooting continued to be used by both sides, the building caught fire, and the barricaded people died during the fire.

Here we can only repeat our common position. We, the inhabitants of Russia, are not policemen and not mentors for Ukrainian civil society. We must a priori trust the residents of Ukraine themselves to transform their destiny, including the resolution of internal conflicts, which are possible in any country and in fact can be of a very different nature. The not fully investigated particular case of confrontation between armed groups, none of which were elected representatives of the entire people of Ukraine, cannot be a serious argument for discussing a total threat.

The first aid in such a transformational process is not to interfere. We, as citizens of Russia, must ask ourselves the question: do we want to create new reasons for hatred as against ourselves (which is obviously what Putin is doing now by attacking Ukraine) or not? Do we want to provoke distrust and enmity between the inhabitants of different parts of Ukraine by our actions or not? What we can do right now for internal peace is to show with all our might that the citizens of Russia do not want to use internal contradictions to seize power over any part of the country.

On the contrary, the Russian government simply cynically uses references to the tragedy in the House of Trade Unions in order to win over people who know and remember about it, while among the real and main causes of the war, it repeatedly mentions “risks to the existence of Russia”, created by Ukraine.

15. “ It doesn’t concern me - and my problems are enough ”

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation still does not talk about losses, but the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine claims thousands of killed military personnel from the Russian Federation. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine shares information about the dead, prisoners and wounded (with photos and passport details) so that relatives who do not understand where their sons, husbands and brothers can find out about them. A lot of people in this war are not professional soldiers, but conscripts. A few days ago, they might not have suspected that they would be at war. The Russian command has been trying to take Kyiv for several days in a row at almost any cost, and Putin wants to negotiate from a strong position. If this is not stopped now, such determination will have to be paid for by the deployment of new soldiers. There will be more and more of our acquaintances and relatives who were directly involved in the war.

Russia is part of the world economy. The deeper our regime drags Russia into the war, the more serious the sanctions will become, because foreign countries are ready to use only such (ie non-military) methods in order to force Putin to end the war. The collapse of the ruble will sharply raise prices for all goods in the country, and so growing in recent months. Rebuilding the economy to wage war will mean the end of all the hopes of ordinary people to build their own peaceful life - in science, industry, agriculture, art.

And just as ordinary people, we will meet ordinary Ukrainians for decades - in Russia, in Ukraine, on the Internet, around the world. And to feel their distrust and enmity towards us simply because we are from Russia. By expressing our position today, we both support Ukrainians and save our relations with them for years to come. Ukrainian women and Ukrainians will know not only that the war was unleashed by Putin, and not ordinary Russians, but also that when it happened, we did not care. Only then will we have a chance to respect ourselves.

16. “ Can our opinion affect anything? ?

It is ordinary citizens who are the tool used to justify the war. Putin says he is counting on a “consolidated patriotic position,” while Peskov says that the government should “better explain its position” when someone disagrees. Silence creates the appearance of support, with which the government legitimizes the war. Only active protest can change that. On the morning of the second day of the war, Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Russian citizens who came out to protest on the evening of February 24: “We see you. This means that you heard us. This means you start to trust us. Fight for us, fight against war."Thus, by going to protests, we show our support to Ukrainians and Ukrainian women, and thereby strengthen their strength.

(Not) silence also affects the army. Putin and the leadership of the country cannot state one, clear and concise reason why the war was started. When the enemy is desperately resisting you, when you are advancing on foreign territory, and in addition you don’t know what you are fighting for, then it is much more difficult to fight for a long time. If we add to this the condemnation of the war in their hometowns, then soldiers and officers may become more and more doubtful, and their zeal may begin to wane.

17. “ Going out into the streets is useless. Everyone is dispersed and transplanted. The Belarusians did not succeed.

With an undoubted threat from the security forces, regular and massive peaceful street demonstrations are a necessary lever of pressure on the system. A relatively safe form of protest that also promotes publicity is the #quietpicketactionFemale members and contestants do daily activities in the city with visible anti-war patches on bags or clothing. This draws the attention of others to the war, who may join the protest.

However, street protests are not the only possible tactic. Symbolically getting into the machine of repression is not always the best political action. As activists recall, the massive protests did not stop the war in Iraq. There are other tactics of resistance to war: both open strikes (the right to strike is protected by Article 37 of the Constitution), and simply taking sick leave, which is even easier to do now, during a pandemic (now it is enough to declare symptoms of SARS and go on sick leave for 7 days ). Even spreading critical questions can create tension—and raise the price of military aggression. It is worth joining the nearly 1,000,000 petition signatories to help spread the word.

Among the Belarusians, a peaceful protest faced a brutal forceful reaction and was crushed. However, we should not forget that this happened with the active support of Putin. In Russia, with mass protests across the country, resources to support the security forces will quickly run out. Lukashenka had Putin, Putin does not have his own Putin. Part of the forces of the OMON and the Russian Guard have been deployed to the war. The regime does not have infinite resources to suppress a truly massive anti-war movement.