Musk does not understand what Russia is up to, who Putin is, and why this is dangerous

Elon Musk's proposals did not surprise me, nor am I surprised by the position of people in the civilized world. They think within the value system, in which it is difficult to imagine rocket attacks on kindergartens, grain elevators, or hospitals, which the Russian military does daily in Ukraine.

Most people in the West think Ukraine needs to change to resolve the war issue, which will stop Putin from killing people. This is similar to shifting blame from the killer onto the victim. It's like suggesting that girls wear longer skirts to not provoke a maniac. But that's not how it works. Believe me that longer dresses will not stop the maniac, either. After all, it was not for nothing that he compared Ukraine with a beautiful lady: "Whether you like it or don't like it, bear with it, my beauty." With this explosion of fantasies breaking out from the depths of his subconscious, Putin showed the demons of his gloomy inner world. But wearing rags, smelling of urine, and smearing feces on your beautiful face to be left alone by Putin's soldiers as the recipe for survival in the occupied territories proposed in a blog by a former Russian journalist who once fought in Chechnya call into question the meaning of such existence. Is it worth living in a world having such ideas of honor and freedom? Maybe it's better to stick a blade into the monster's gut instead.

But people in the free world are like small children floating in a fictional world of compromises and reverences. At the same time, the Russians have turned 20% of Ukraine's territory into piles of broken bricks, set up torture chambers in each captured city using the methods of medieval inquisitors, and left graves filled with bodies shot with their hands tied behind their backs. Or they think the problem can be solved by cutting off a leg or an arm (i.e., giving up the occupied territories). Perhaps they believe that a scarred country will no longer be attractive to a serial killer. But that's not how it works. Putin needs all things Ukrainian, including the grain he steals from the occupied territories, the metal cut out in Mariupol and transported elsewhere, the power plants he captures, and the people he needs to draft into his army. Believe me, the gradual cutting of body parts will not stop the Russian dictator. Quite the opposite because the taste and smell of blood make predators even madder.

Recently, I was invited to speak at a Ukrainian-French conference about the war in Ukraine. Many French people were in the audience, and the Ukrainian participants' speeches were broadcast on a big screen. Someone from the audience asked why Ukraine should not become like Belgium, i.e., bilingual. According to the French, it would end the conflict.

Do you still think that the Russian dictator takes an interest in the language issue and protects the rights of Russian speakers? If so, we'd like to invite you to the Russian-speaking cities of Ukraine, such as Mariupol, Popasna, Kharkiv, Rubizhne, Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, and Sumy. We can show you the consequences of the Russian FAB-500 bombings of Chernihiv's residential quarters. I think such examples will explain to our sincere and naive partners that Russians do not care about Russian speakers in Ukraine but methodically kill and mutilate them. Please note that the Russian dictator had declared that the "Russian world" would be wherever they spoke Russian. The problem is that Putin does not need a country like Belgium to border Russia. The Russian fascism ideologues like Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Vladislav Surkov, Sergey Lavrov (speaking about "expanding geographical coordinates in the war with Ukraine," see https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-62235890), and others made it clear they are only interested in Russia "expanding under any circumstances." Whether you like it or not because that is this country's nature.

Haven't you read these pieces? Of course, you haven't because a civilized person does not read anything like Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. Then, let us consider this: for Ukraine to "become like Belgium," it first needs to join NATO to be protected by a collective security system. And it is desirable to locate the Alliance's headquarters in Kyiv. But Belgium will not agree to this, not to mention Putin denying Ukraine the right to join alliances at our own discretion and be friends with anyone except Russia and Belarus.

Anyone suggesting that Ukraine become like Belgium, Switzerland, or Austria, with Crimea and the country's east cut off because of being "Russian-speaking" and already occupied, should realize that to make such analogies viable. It would not be enough to significantly reduce the borders. For this model to work, Russia must become like France, i.e., leave its imperialism in the Middle Ages. And herein lies the problem because today's Russia is not like France but like Hitler's Germany. And the Germans' way from the Third Reich to the present-day Federal Republic of Germany ran through military defeats in the war, post-war ruin, loss of territories, and rebuilding of a new state on a fundamentally different foundation.

Most importantly, this path ran through repentance. Russians have no such catharsis. They are still mobilizing people to kill Ukrainians and destroy Ukraine, or they are fleeing their country. And they are not running away in protest against the invasion and killings but because of losing their comforts. Russia has been killing Ukrainians since 2014. During all this time, those running away from mobilization constituted a more-or-less obedient part of the Putin regime.

By the way, to understand the situation better, you can look at Belarus, from whose territory Putin fires his missiles at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Unfortunately, today's Belarus is the product of a compromise with Russia: the gradual creeping compromise. As a result, because of their Putin-like dictator Lukashenka, the Belarusians had to give up any sign of statehood, language, borders, and sovereignty to not annoy Putin but to negotiate. Dear Europeans, you don't want your countries, including Belgium (which houses NATO's headquarters), to be shelled with Kalibr and Iskander missiles from Ukraine's territory by the Russians, do you?

When I hear naive ideas of reconciliation with an alligator whose mouth is covered in the blood of the people it has eaten, I realize we should not lose patience but methodically explain to those sincerely willing to help us what is really happening here daily. That ought to be clear.

After all, we must act differently in dealing with state-level terrorism. Putin is not a petty terrorist demanding a bag of money and a plane to escape. He has it all, receiving petro-dollars from selling gas and oil and testing your wonderful countries with gas prices, nuclear blackmail, and refugee flows. So how do we stop the madness? With the determination to help Ukraine and understanding the nature of modern Russian fascism, whose ideologues and executors do not care about bilingualism, Ukraine's neutral status, or any concessions and compromises. For starters, it is crucial to understand this to make the right decisions and support Ukraine, which has become the shield for the world you live in.