The last word of Darya Kozyreva in the Petrograd court of St. Petersburg
— Only the enemy who laughs… / Laugh, fierce enemy!/ But not too much, because everything perishes, / Glory will not lie down; / It will not lie down, but will tell…
Prosecutor Mikhail Russkikh interrupts: Your Honor! We have a process in Russian, can it be in Russian? I understand this is some kind of poem…
— Yes.
Prosecutor: Can you do it in Russian? Our legal proceedings are in Russian.
— Our thought, our song / Will not die, will not perish… / Here, people, is our glory, / The glory of Ukraine!
If Taras Grigorievich accidentally found himself in our time, here, perhaps, a phrase is expected from me that he would be quietly amazed. No, he would not even be surprised — not at all. The picture would be too familiar to him. Moscow is climbing again.
Of course, the war did not start in 2022, and even in a narrow sense, the starting point should be considered 2014. In 2014, the same Russians started it, guilty of every drop of spilled blood. In a broad sense, the war has been going on not since '14, but for hundreds of years.
An amazing feature of Russian history. No matter what regime prevailed here, it seems as if the religion of this regime does not allow simply taking and leaving Ukraine alone. The tsars, the communists, no matter what clothes they tried to put on, were no different from each other.
It would seem that over so many centuries they could have understood: just leave it alone, leave it alone. Yes, Moscow won, won a lot, but it never saw a final victory. And it will not see it. The Ukrainian people will not allow it. They have had enough.
But the lovers of occupation never understood this. They are not the smartest, no matter how much they would like to be. No one gave them a say regarding the past and future of Ukraine. They do not understand that Ukrainians do not need any older brother, especially not a triune Russian people.
Ukraine — is a free country, a free nation, and it will decide its own fate. If someone broadcasts the narratives of the invader, then Ukrainians will hate them. And there is no need to talk about Ukrainian nationalists. They brought it upon themselves.
If someone invades Ukraine, they will be beaten. And, possibly, painfully. I sincerely wish the Russians to just remember these basic truths. Ukraine, once again, is a free nation. It will decide for itself which path to take. It will decide for itself whom to consider a friend and brother. And whom — a fierce enemy. It will decide for itself how to relate to its history. And even more so, it will decide for itself what language to speak.
I seem to be stating obvious things, but they are not obvious. It is clear that Putin cannot comprehend that Ukraine is a sovereign nation. He has a lot, however, that he cannot comprehend. Like human rights, democratic principles.
But even those who seem to be against Putin's regime do not always understand this. They do not always understand that Ukraine, having paid with blood for its sovereignty, will decide for itself what to do. Of course, I want to believe that with the advent of democracy, sooner or later, this attitude will change. I want to believe in such a wonderful future where Russia has abandoned any imperialism, predatory and bloodthirsty, or hidden, concealed in people's thoughts. God willing, just God willing.
I already mentioned in the debates that mentioning shackles in the context of Ukraine's current situation would look very ridiculous. Well, Ukrainians will no longer allow themselves to be shackled. And they did not allow it now. But in the times of Taras, shackles, alas, were a harsh reality. In his work, therefore, you will not find battle calls to beat the Muscovites. Well, not the time, not the hopes.
His patriotic work — is a lament. A lament for the bitter fate of Ukraine. A lament for the forgotten glory of the Cossacks. A lament for the mistakes and defeats that caused Ukraine to lose its will.
He believed, of course, that one day the former glory would return, that the ghosts of the great hetmans would rise from the centuries, that Ukraine would finally throw off the enemy chains. He could not know exactly when this would happen. He could not know that in just half a century the Ukrainian People's Republic would appear on the map, that the same Ukrainian peasants, once enslaved, powerless, voiceless, would finally raise the national flag, that they would take up arms and go to fight the Bolsheviks and volunteers, led by Petliura.
Unfortunately, the Bolsheviks won. Moreover, unfortunately, not only for Ukrainians, for many peoples. And Ukraine ended up in the hands of a fierce executioner for another 70 years.
Judge Dmitry Ovrakh: I have to interrupt you again, this is not a history lesson.
— Now about modernity. Today the shackles have long been thrown off. No one will put them on Ukraine anymore. The people have shed blood for their freedom for centuries. They will not give this freedom to anyone anymore. Ukrainians remember, remember well, how their ancestors once fought.
And I want to ask only one thing. Does the eastern neighbor remember the same? There are no more communists, fortunately, no tsars either, but the imperial traditions seem to remain.
Yes, as I already said, it seems that Putin cannot comprehend Ukrainian sovereignty. He would, in principle, be quite satisfied with a compliant, voiceless Little Russia, preferably a Little Russian province, which has no will of its own, which obeys his every word, which speaks a foreign language, gradually forgetting its own, native one. Somewhere there was definitely a miscalculation.
Well, it was hard for Putin to believe that Little Russia would never shine for him again. Ukrainians simply will not allow their country to be turned into it. Putin tried, persistently tried. He annexed Crimea in 2014, he ignited a war in Donbas for the same purposes.
In '22, he apparently decided that it was time to finish what he started. It was a good plan. Blitzkrieg, Kyiv in three days. Unsurprisingly, three years were not enough, and three decades would not be enough.
The enemy was quickly driven out of the outskirts of Kyiv, forced to flee from under Kharkiv, driven out of Kherson. The occupiers not only did not reach the capital, they still do not fully control ORDLO. Part of Ukrainian land, yes, is still occupied. Perhaps it will be occupied for a long time. It is sad to admit, but alas.
However, Moscow failed to conquer Ukraine. The heroic Ukrainian people stood up to defend their homeland. And at the cost of many, many sacrifices, they defended their country. The national flag flies over Kyiv and will wave forever. Even being pushed back from the capital, then, at the beginning of 2022, the occupier was simply left with nothing.
I dream, of course, that Ukraine will regain every inch of its land, including Donbas and Crimea. I believe that one day my dream will come true. Someday history will judge everything fairly. But Ukraine has won already. It has already won. That's all.