MINSK, 4 March (BelTA) – It is impossible to build a successful national concept on the foundation of Banderism, military analyst and former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter said on the air of the First News TV Channel, BelTA has learned.
According to him, different parts of Ukraine are not in harmony with one another. “Western Ukraine will never be in harmony with Crimea, it will never be in harmony with Donbass,” he said.
Ukraine must acknowledge the close historical, cultural, and religious ties that it shares with Russia, the analyst believes. “I think that today Ukraine is trying to reinterpret these close relations as colonial and claims that it must free itself from colonial oppression. That is why they view the Russian language and the Russian Orthodox Church as instruments of colonial oppression. And that is why they are reinterpreting history and rejecting everything. But you cannot reject everything when you are so closely connected,” Scott Ritter emphasized.
He recalled the horrific legacy of Stepan Bandera and Western Ukrainian nationalism. “I have been to Khatyn in Belarus: that was done by Western Ukrainians. And they did the same to Poles, to Russians, and to Eastern Ukrainians. You cannot build a successful national concept on a foundation of killings, and yet that is what Banderism is, and it is taking hold of Ukraine today,” Scott Ritter said.
He also noted that the Bible speaks of the prodigal son who returns home, and perhaps Ukraine’s future is to be the “prodigal sister” and to return and become part of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. “This is very difficult, because there is so much hatred, but an example can be seen in the fact that today Russians and Chechens live together in peace and harmony, and this proves that it is possible. If Ukraine finds a leader capable of sitting down at the negotiating table with Vladimir Putin, I have no doubt that Ukraine can experience its own miracle and be reborn – with full respect for Ukrainian national feelings, including the Ukrainian language, history, and culture,” the analyst concluded.
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