Valeriya and Alex shed the light on the resistance of their people in Ukraine and Belarus:
“Despite everything, we believe that the resistance will achieve victory.. This is the only possible solution”!
By Tamer Khorma
In the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the young Ukrainian Valeria (23 years) and her Belarusian husband Alex (28 years old) continue their peaceful struggle against the enslaving ambitions of Vladimir Putin’s regime in the former soviet countries.
Emerging from a chauvinistic ideology, and relying on the legacy of the military arsenal, the authoritarian regime in Moscow continues its’ attempts to subjugate these countries, in the context of the Russian imperialistic projects, which expresses itself today in the invasion of Ukraine, after its success in suppressing the popular uprising in Kazakhstan last January as well as saving the regime of Alexander Lukashenko from the people’s revolution in Belarus in 2020.
The Sunday demonstrations, which take place in Tbilisi every weekend, in support of the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion, represent a political outlet for Alex and Valeria, in which they actively participate, to express the will of their people and their aspirations for a better future for the countries of the region, away from the hegemony of Moscow and its military arm represented by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
The young couple were also participating, during this writing, in the mobilization for a demonstration that was scheduled to be organized in front of the Belarus Embassy in the Georgian capital, on Friday, March 25, on the occasion of the country’s independence day, to denounce the policies of Lukashenko, Putin’s puppet.
“As soon as I heard the news of the invasion, I called my friend in the city of Mariupol, a soldier in the Ukrainian army, to confirm the authenticity of the news… I asked him directly: Did the war really start? His affirmative answer left me in a state of shock that lasted for three days,” says Valeria, who had left , with her husband, her grandmother’s house in which they reside in the city of Lviv, Ukraine, to visit his family in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. She adds: “I called my 80-year-old grandmother to check on her. The situation was generally stable where she resides in the west of the country. Anyway, she was exceptionally strong. As she was one of those who had to leave her hometown in Siberia to escape Stalinist oppression at that time, and today she is witnessing the war waged by Putin against my country, Ukraine!”
Valeria continues, in a voice of anguish: “In the early days of the war, I lost my school friend, Vitaliy Skakun. The situation is miserable .. We hope this war will end soon.. But I can not deny frankly the possibility of using weapons of mass destruction by Putin who is likely to commit a genocide massacre.” She added, however, “Despite everything, we believe that the resistance will achieve victory.” Here, her husband Alex intervenes commenting firmly: “This is the only possible solution… the victory of the resistance.”
Because of the war, Valeria and Alex were unable to return to Ukraine, so they decided to leave Minsk to Kazakhstan on the eighth of March, and two days later they headed to Georgia, and engaged in activities against Putin and Lukashenko’s policies, denouncing this unjust war and the authoritarian regime in Russia, which continues to support and protect the dictatorships in neighboring countries. “Here we can express ourselves freely, unlike in my country, Belarus… I remember how the “Omon” forces suppressed the demonstrations in Minsk in 2020!” Says Alex. He adds: “My wife and I were participating in those protests, despite the fact that I was worried about her! I do not forget the shock I felt when the Russian forces entered the country, nor how Lukashenko gave parts of the country, free of charge, to the Russian army!” And he continues: “We do not have democratic laws in Belarus, and there is no dialogue between the government and the people. Only Lukashenko can decide everything. Whenever people demonstrate, he eliminates the opposition, and this happened recently with the help of Putins’ forces. He saved the dictator!”
Alex asserts that unofficial statistics, believed by the people in his country, indicate that 97% of the population reject Lukashenko’s staying in power, as well as they reject Moscow’s interventions in the former soviets countries. He says that activists in Belarus are working on a daily basis to gather every available information about the mechanisms and military sites of the Russian forces in Belarus (which were mobilized in the context of the war on Ukraine), to be delivered to the Ukrainian resistance via “Telegram”. The young activist stresses that “Belarusian people unconditionally sympathize with Ukrainian people and their resistance against the Russian invasion.” And regarding to the possibility of the Belarusian armys’ intervention to help Putin’s forces in Ukraine, Alex says: “If this is ordered, the Belarusian soldiers have no choice but to turn, and point their guns towards Lukashenko’s regime. Activists in Belarus prove daily their absolute support for the resistance in Ukraine. We have the same destiny. Putin’s forces must be defeated. This is our only option! “.
“My political awareness began to be formed when I was fifteen…when the events of the Maidan started, prior to the occupation of the Crimea… I started thinking about what I should do to preserve the independence and territorial integrity of my country,” says Valeria emphasizing, in the same context, the unity of the fate of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples in the face of Putin’s regime and its agent Lukashenko.
She continues: “Today they want to seize the lands of Donbass, which is an Ukrainian region. Whoever wants to live under Putin’s regime from the separatist forces, supported by Moscow, can go to live in Russia.. But Donbass is Ukrainian, and it shall remain so!”. “The Russian forces started this war… and now they are killing our people. The Russian people do not know the truth. They are misleading because of Putin’s media, which claims that they are fighting “terrorism” to “protect” people from the “Nazis.” This is just nonsense! I have many friends in Russia who know the truth… but they are afraid of speaking because they will be suppressed with imprisonment and murder!”
Valeriya adds, before she draws a conclusion, by saying: “We do not hate the Russian people. Our resistance is against Putin and his forces and all those who support him. I also refuse for my country to join the NATO in the future, because NATO abandons us today!”.
Note: Photos by Alexandre (Alex) during his participation with his wife Valeriya in the demonstrations in Tbilisi in support of the Ukrainian resistance
