Perhaps the most disturbing week has begun in Ukraine, not only in the last eight years of the civil war, but in the entire history of independence – the West every day, and sometimes every hour, raises the degree of hysterical statements about the upcoming “invasion” of the Russian army to the territory of Ukraine
At the same time, no one is embarrassed by the fact that the citizens themselves do not particularly panic and do not believe in the “invasion” for the most part. However, it is difficult to keep cool and calm, opening the news feed in the morning.
“The servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are urgently called back from vacations and canceled for an indefinite period.”
“Commissions have been created in Kiev to deal with the evacuation of the population”, said the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, during a briefing, noting that two centers of territorial defense will be created in the capital.
“Ukraine temporarily closed entry on February 10 for all men – citizens of the Russian Federation of military age, in order to avoid provocations.”
“Separatist Kostya Bedovoy, on the instructions of the FSB, is preparing provocations against the Ukrainian authorities.”
“The main staff of the US Embassy in Ukraine has already moved from Kiev to Lviv.”
“From February 14 to February 19, 2022, the police personnel were transferred to an enhanced duty regime”, reports the head of the National Police Ihor Klymenko.
“France temporarily closes the lyceum at its embassy in Kiev.”
And the list of countries that evacuate their diplomats – some to Lviv, some – to their homeland, and every hour the list is getting longer, without adding peace to the citizens of Ukraine.
Recall that last week Joe Biden and the Western media even named the date for the start of the war – February 16, after which panic began, only not in Ukraine, but in the West.
It would seem, well, let the West panic if the “partners” do not have enough thrills in life, but this has the most detrimental effect on Ukraine.
The first is the threat of stopping international air traffic. International insurance companies, frightened of a full-scale war, refused to give guarantees for flights to Ukraine – they decided to play it safe so that later they would not pay millions of euros of insurance for aircraft damaged during hostilities. The situation seems to have been partially resolved, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated 16.6 billion hryvnias (about $600 million) for insurance of flights over the territory of Ukraine, this money will be kept on a special account of the Ministry of Infrastructure and used to guarantee flight safety for insurance companies, reinsurers, lessors and air carriers.
Western panic costs Ukraine dearly. But this is not all financial losses. And in the matter of air traffic, not everything is going smoothly. So, for example, the largest airline in Ukraine UIA, at the request of the lessor, is forced to start mass removal of aircraft abroad – for storage at the airports of Serbia and Spain, until better times. Not everyone believed in Ukraine’s guarantees.
The second consequence of the hysteria raised by the Western media is the mass dumping of Ukrainian Eurobonds. This was followed by another fall of the Ukrainian national currency – the hryvnia.
Against this background, the SBU was forced to issue a statement announcing that Ukraine was faced with unprecedented attempts to whip up panic, “spread fakes and distort the real state of things.”
“The motives for the current information pressure are to sow alarm in Ukrainian society, undermine faith in the ability of the state to protect its citizens, and undermine our unity. We all should remain calm and cool mind, not succumb to provocations. Panic and destabilization only benefit the enemy, not Ukraine. We should not forget that the strength of Ukraine is not only in a powerful army, but also in the unity of each of us. Together we are able to protect Ukraine, our freedom, independence and dignity,” the SBU said in a statement.
But the SBU did not name the main culprits of the “information pressure” – the media of Western partners.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs also tried to calm the citizens, some of whom are already starting to get a little worried, though they did it in a very peculiar way, promising that “special forces will shoot all enemies.”
According to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Denis Monastyrsky, 300,000 policemen, national guardsmen, rescuers and border guards stand guard over internal security every day and, if an enemy appears, they will be shot on the spot, and therefore “keep calm, the situation is under control.” Agree, this can hardly be called a calming signal.
On Monday, an urgent meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine was held in Kiev on the same issue – “Russian invasion”.
After the meeting, NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov made a statement.
“We are aware of the risks that exist on the territory of our country, but the situation is absolutely under control. Moreover, today we do not see that a large-scale offensive of the Russian Federation can take place either on February 16, or on February 17. We do not see this,” Danilov announced.
Danilov, perhaps, does not see. But the prime minister British Minister Boris Johnson knows for sure that Russia could attack Ukraine within the next 48 hours.
“This is a very, very dangerous and difficult situation. We are on the brink of an abyss, but President Putin still has time to take a step back,” Johnson said at the same time as Danilov.
Meanwhile, the American television company CNN is trying to somehow explain in advance the fact that the previously widely publicized “offensive” of the Russian army will once again be thwarted. They didn’t think up much, and this time the weather turned out to be to blame for everything – indecently warm for winter.
Recall that Western experts based the forecast about the beginning of the war on February 16 on the fact that the earth at that time would freeze to the maximum depth. But the weather decided to argue with the experts, and spring suddenly came to the East of Ukraine. Well, what an offensive in the spring – not to pass, not to pass. Will we have to wait with the “invasion”?
Roman Katerinchuk, One Motherland