Who is Winning the War in Ukraine?
By Carlos Alberto Montaner
The quick answer is Ukraine, as Faared Zacaria and Thomas Friedman cleverly said, each on their own. But it’s winning at the cost of the demolition of a few cities, which makes reconciliation between the two countries impossible until several generations have passed.
There are at least five reasons to suppose that Ukraine is “winning.”
First, the Russian narrative has failed miserably. Alleging that it was a matter of de-nazifying the “small” neighboring country comes up against the fact that Volodymyr Zelensky, elected president of Ukraine by an overwhelming majority, is Jewish. One of his grandparents was burned alive with his village by the SS during World War II.
There is, indeed, a military unit in Donbas that sympathizes with ultranationalism, and that unit has symbols that resemble those displayed by the Nazis, but this fact does not deny the hundreds of units of the army forged to defend democracy. As an old journalist claimed, the French Resistance during World War II included people of all ideological stripes. There would be time to resolve these differences through democratic procedures. The first thing was to defeat the Nazis. Today, the first thing is to defeat the Russians.
La respuesta rápida es Ucrania, como inteligentemente dijeron, cada uno por su cuenta, Fareed Zacaria, Thomas Friedman y Francis Fukuyana. Pero a costa de la demolición de unas cuantas ciudades, lo que hace imposible la reconciliación entre los dos países, hasta que transcurran varias generaciones.
Mariela Castro (
The one to blame is the third generation. “Industrious father. Millionaire son. Spendthrift grandson,” Álvaro sentenced. It was a conversation among four people in which there was almost total agreement. Peruvian Álvaro Vargas Llosa, Argentine economist Gerardo Bongiovanni, Cuban Linda Montaner – my wife – and this unfortunate scribbler.
La culpable es la tercera generación. “Padre laborioso. Hijo millonario. Nieto botarate”. Sentenció Álvaro. Fue una conversación a cuatro voces en la que hubo un acuerdo casi total. El peruano Álvaro Vargas Llosa, el economista argentino Gerardo Bongiovanni, la cubana Linda Montaner -mi mujer-, y este desdichado escribidor.
Volodymyr Zelensky has made the rounds of NATO parliaments. One of the first virtual visits was, of course, to the “American friend”. He used a video and talked about Pearl Harbor, that vile surprise attack against an American naval base. All people in the US know that the “day of infamy” happened when Japan tried to destroy the American fleet anchored in Hawaii without a previous declaration of war. In Ukraine the targets have been civilians. The aggressors have been much worse, more treacherous and devious. They chose to destroy the spirit of resistance of the Ukrainians. Fortunately, they have not succeeded. Putin has achieved the opposite, to reaffirm Ukraine’s nationalism.
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