Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, more than 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Ukraine’s Friend of the Week: James Mattis, former U.S. defense secretary
By Illia Ponomarenko
When U.S. President Donald J. Trump vowed to deploy the armed forces to contain mass protests that swept the nation following the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, it was perceived by many as an outrageous abuse of power. A strong reaction also followed as police and National Guard violently dispersed a peaceful protest close to the White House — only to clear the way for Trump’s photo op across the street.
But the real bombshell exploded on June 3 with the voice of none other than Jim Mattis, the iconic retired U.S. Marine general and Trump’s former secretary of defense.
In his headline-making address, Mattis crushingly decried Trump’s bold move to apply military force on American soil, rarely seen in the nation’s history, as contradictory to very basic values America was built on.
“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” the retired general stated in his first public say months leaving the Pentagon after numerous clashes with Trump.
“Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens.”
America must reject any thinking of its cities as a “battlespace” that the U.S. military is called upon to “dominate,” he added.
“Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict— between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part.”
During his time in the Trump administration, Mattis was always the voice of reason rising against his boss’ defiance toward NATO and America’s global peace-enforcing involvement. It was he who resisted Trump’s bid to leave Syria and abandon Kurds to their fate. And it was Jim Mattis who warned against Trump’s pro-Kremlin sympathies and insisted on rendering more military aid to Ukraine in its proxy war with Russia.
The situation in which Trump threatens to apply military forces under the disguise of restoring law and order is very much a reminisce of what was happening across Ukraine during the 100-day EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014.
Early peaceful manifestations in the Maidan Nezhalezhnosti square in late November 2013 were broken up by a brutal police attack, which left many injured and arrested.
The Ukrainians responded with massive nationwide protests against authoritarian oppression — and the regime of Yanukovych did not hesitate to throw heavily armed riot police units and interior forces supported with armored vehicles against protesters.
It is known that, on the brink of a disastrous defeat to a winning popular uprising, the regime even resolved to apply the armed forces. In the last days before his escape to Russia, Yanukovych ordered to deploy elite airborne formations to “restore order” in Kyiv. But the military never came to fight the EuroMaidan — reportedly, because then-time Chief of General Staff Volodymyr Zamana refused to obey Yanukovych’s order.
So by decrying Trump’s threat, Mattis showed his life-long commitment to values that were absolutely fundamental to the Ukrainian revolution.
In his address, Mattis also demonstrated an excellent example of an honorable moral code of military service and a truly reasonable view of the military as an institution loyal to its people rather than the immoral will of authoritarian politicians.
As he preaches dignity and honor, national unity, and service in the name of the community, Mattis once again proves himself a true friend of Ukraine and the values of Ukrainian democracy.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week: Louis Marinelli, co-founder of Yes California separatist movement
By Matthew Kupfer
Sometimes social media can really catch you off guard.
On June 3, the official, blue checkmark-approved Twitter account of Yes California separatist movement announced: “The future Independent Republic of California will be holding bilateral talks with the People’s Republic of Donetsk tomorrow morning via video conference. Among issues to be discussed: establishing a California embassy in Donetsk.”
For Kyiv Post journalists, it was truly a shocking announcement. That’s not because the Calexit movement — as it is also known — is something we follow attentively. Rather, it’s because the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, a Russian-backed unrecognized statelet on the territory of Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, has immiserated millions of Ukrainians, reducing what was once among the most prosperous Ukrainian regions to a ruined dystopia.
That any aspiring separatist entity should want to tie its cause to the Donetsk militants and their failed non-state is actually quite remarkable.
So why then did the Donetsk militants appear on Calexit’s radar? The answer is likely straightforward. Louis Marinelli, co-founder of Yes California, lives in Moscow, Russia. He even briefly opened an “Embassy of California” there in 2017 and has tried to court Russian support for California separatism.
As an individual, Marinelli appears to be attempting to ride two horses at once. On the one hand, he’s a leader of a movement to make California an independent country. On the other, he proclaims on his blog — which is mostly dedicated to documenting his experiences traveling around Russia — that he wants to stay in Russia and eventually become its citizen. Most recently, he has fashioned himself as independent California’s future representative to Russia.
If Marinelli wants California to be an independent country, he has the right to his opinion. If he wants to live in Russia and get citizenship — and Russia will have him — that’s also his right.
But when he chooses to ally his movement with the Donetsk militants, he has gone too far. Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts are Ukraine, something even Moscow admits at this point. And Russia’s invasion of the Donbas region and its more than six years of war with Ukraine have brought about the deaths of more than 14,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. They have left the population of the occupied territories living in political limbo and grinding poverty so that a group of corrupt militant leaders can cosplay the Soviet Union.
We can’t say that holding talks with the Donetsk militants and attempting to open an unrecognized “embassy” there necessarily “legitimizes” the self-proclaimed statelet — after all, legitimacy comes from other legitimate states.
But any person who takes part in a simulation of an independence movement alongside militants who have done severe damage to Ukrainians is Ukraine’s foe and deserving of the Order of Lenin.
