During military service, one of my best army comrades was a Bashkir. The other day I was looking at the statistics of the losses of the Russian occupation troops in Ukraine. This prompted the writing of this text - a kind of appeal to my friend and the entire Bashkir people.
I am the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Today, my task is to create conditions for the Ukrainian defense forces to effectively destroy the enemies of my country. Including the Bashkirs, if they are part of the army of the Russian occupiers.
But in the current situation, I see a reason to think for the real leaders of the Bashkir people - one of the most numerous in Russia.
The Republic of Bashkortostan ranks 7th in terms of population among the subjects of the Russian Federation and 10th in terms of GRP.
However, at the end of 2022, the region was in 20th place in terms of quality of life and in the third ten in terms of family well-being. And this is against the background of abnormally high incomes of the Russian Federation from the sale of oil and petroleum products.
After the introduction of sanctions against the oil sector of the Russian Federation, the situation for the residents of Bashkortostan will worsen significantly.
At the same time, according to Russian data, I emphasize - not Ukrainian, but Russian, Bashkiria shares the 4th-5th place among all regions of the Russian Federation in terms of the number of soldiers of the Kremlin's occupying army killed in Ukraine. And it ranks first in the Volga Federal District. The deadweight losses for 4 months of 2023 have already significantly exceeded the number for the whole of 2022.
The number of dead, missing or disabled is in the thousands. You know this better than me.
The question arises: why are the Bashkirs dying in Ukraine - far from their homes?
Are the Ukrainians the enemies of the Bashkirs? No.
Are Ukrainians trampling on the civil, national and cultural rights of the Bashkirs? No.
Ukrainians interfere with the development of the Bashkir language? No.
Ukrainians encroach on the historical lands of the Bashkirs? No.
Do Ukrainians appropriate the wealth that the land of the Bashkirs gives? Also no.
All this is done by other people. And they do not live in Ukraine.
And in Moscow.
Maybe the Bashkirs are fighting so that the fictitious "Ukrainian Nazism", which is broadcast on Russian television, does not take root in Ufa, Sterlitamak or Salavat? I'll give you an analogy.
One of the most prominent figures of the Bashkir people is Akhmet-Zaki Validi Togan. A well-known historian, orientalist, leader of the national liberation movement. Which the Bolsheviks forced to leave their native land, live in exile for half a century and die in a foreign land.
In Soviet times, they tried to discredit his name, called him the ideologist of the "bourgeois-nationalist opposition." Like-minded people of Zaki Validi were subjected to repressions. This was done on the basis of charges fabricated by the Chekists.
It seemed that the black page had been turned. The good name of Ahmet-Zaki Validi was restored, and his merits were finally appreciated. In particular, the Center for Turkic Studies of St. Petersburg University was named after him, and a museum was created. And on the territory of the university in 2008, a bust of him was installed, donated to St. Petersburg State University by the Ministry of Culture of Bashkiria.
However, in 2021, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation called this attempt to pay tribute to the outstanding son of the Bashkir people “the glorification of the acts of accomplices of Nazi criminals.” Which allegedly "has a negative impact on students and is unacceptable."
University employees were forced to make excuses. And the installation of the bust, at the opening of which was attended by a high official delegation of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the leadership of St. Petersburg, was declared ... arbitrariness.
In 2021, they also removed and "lost" the bust of Zaki Validi in the city of Sibay, in Bashkiria itself.
This looks very offensive. A worthy man, 50 years after his death, was turned into a "Nazi criminal" and "extremist". Why? Only because he spoke about the rights of the Bashkir people, including self-determination.
The memory of Zaki Validi was abused for the sake of the cannibalistic policy of Moscow, which is trying to eradicate everything that does not fit into the essentially imperial and Nazi concept of the "Russian world". Today they are destroying the archaeological heritage of the ancient city of Bashkort. And tomorrow they can make Salavat Yulaev an "extremist".
In the same way, the Ukrainians "did not fit" into the "Russian world". The people were called "fraternal" for decades, and then they became objectionable. The whole thing. From small to large. Only because we decided to determine our own destiny, without Moscow.
Russian propaganda has turned us into enemies who need to be "denazified". The Russian army has already killed hundreds of Ukrainian children, tens of thousands of civilians, destroyed many cities...
Today, Ukrainian soldiers demonstrate mass heroism. And ordinary people support the army with everything they can.
Because we know what we're protecting.
Their houses. Your loved ones. The legacy of our grandfathers-great-grandfathers. The future of our children in our land.
In the center of Kyiv there is a temple - the Hagia Sophia, which was built a thousand years ago by our Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise. Inside there are frescoes depicting his family, and on the walls there are inscriptions that our ancestors left for centuries. Modern Ukrainians can read them. We have over a thousand years of continuous history before our eyes.
We are fighting for ours.
We will not give up a centimeter of territory. And everything that is temporarily occupied will be returned.
We want and will live freely, in abundance, independently making decisions. Our warriors fight for it, we honor them as heroes.
Miningali Shaimuratov died in 1943 in the Lugansk region, fighting against the Nazis. Now the whole free world and the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition believe that the main adherents of Hitler are in Moscow.
So why are Bashkir youths and men dying in Ukraine, including those from the Shaimuratov battalion?
They will die - and the Bashkirs will have more rights in Russia? No.
Will you send your people to their deaths and get more respect for the Bashkir people? No.
Will you bury them, and there will be more Bashkir language lessons in schools? No.
Website of the Bashkir State University - in five languages. But Bashkir is not among them. Will he appear there if you pay in blood?
Finally, the Bashkirs will receive more funds from the oil industry, and these funds will be distributed fairly? So that your youth can realize themselves, and the old people live comfortably? No.
Do you understand this?
So what are you fighting for?
Victims in Ukraine will not improve the situation for the Bashkir people. They will only worsen. Because now you are collectively responsible for the crimes. Your people have been turned into assassins. Several generations of Bashkirs will pay for the greed of the Moscow madmen. And for the weakness of your leaders, who are afraid to resist the pressure of the Kremlin.
The situation will change only in one case - if you change Moscow's policy towards the peoples of Russia.
Ukrainians absolutely understand the desire of the Bashkirs to determine the fate of their homeland and achieve good for their people.
But it is necessary to fight for this not in Ukraine, but in Russia, against the Kremlin.
This is true. Whoever refuses to see her betrays his people.
Take your people out of Ukraine. Give us the war criminals. And then we will become allies in building a better future for our peoples.
The Kremlin has already lost this war. Together we will force him to give up his imperial ambitions.
The sooner this happens, the more lives can be saved. And the sooner you will be able to get on the path of creation.
mil-in-ua.translate.goog
Pentagon confirmed that 250 Ukrainian tankers will travel to Germany next week to begin training on the M1A1 Abrams MBT. At the conclusion of their training, they'll be sent back to Ukraine alongside the 31 Abrams' that USA has committed.
