Fifty-five years ago, a half million Soviet soldiers began to occupy Czechoslovakia. Over six thousand tanks rolled over the Prague Spring dream held by a large portion of our citizens. A dream that communism could be reformed and that in countries controlled by Moscow people could look forward to freedom of expression and their opinions would not get them kicked out of school and work or even imprison them.

Until the night of the 20th-21st of August, people were convinced that the Kremlin had no reason to send an army against our government.

Czechoslovakia wasn’t considering leaving the Soviet military and economic pacts and the communist party and its leadership were at peak popularity in the country.

But Kremlin leaders were petrified that citizens in the Soviet Union could also demand freedom of speech, including those in Ukraine, which shared a border with Czechoslovakia. The risky decision to occupy our country, which could have theoretically at the time been defended by over 200,000 soldiers, came precisely from this fear of freedom and its contagion.

Half a century ago, Leonid Brezhnev basically succeeded in this step – although he failed to install a pre-planned puppet government, the Kremlin effectively carried out the coup. The communist leadership of that time decided not to defend the country from the foreign troops, and after the Soviets abducted them to Moscow, the submitted completely.

In the Ukrainian case, today’s Russia still thinks the same way as 55 years ago – it fears freedom of speech, plurality of opinions, and free elections that Ukraine has been honouring for over 30 years already. Vladimir Putin has understood that threats and blackmail will not stop the Ukrainian desire for freedom, and the only option is to crush it by force. He wanted to repeat Brezhnev's success and carry out a coup, quickly occupy the country, and apparently divide it. He did not succeed because he underestimated the Ukrainians, as they have been bravely defending their country against foreign tanks for a year and a half.

Defence has a high price of civilian and military casualties, unfathomable material damages, and almost daily drone and cruise missile strikes on civilian infrastructure.

Ukraine cannot do without long-term military shipments and further Western support; therefore, the seemingly logical question is whether it would not be better for everyone to negotiate peace with the Kremlin in exchange for territorial concessions from the Ukrainian side.

However, such a brought peace would not work.

Also, it would be dangerous for the future of all of Europe.

Russia and other totalitarian countries cannot get used to changing borders by force. It would lead to more wars on the continent. And it would be naive to think that Russia would not continue in its war against Ukrainian independence. After all, from the forfeiting of the Sudetenland to Hitler in the 1938 Munich Agreement, the occupation of Czechoslovakia took place in less than half a year, and the start of World War II took place in not even a year.

Kremlin leaders don’t care about Crimea or eastern Ukraine or even southern Ukraine. This war is not about territory, it is a war about values and Russia’s fear of freedom of speech and free elections. This fear is almost invariable among Russian leaders and cannot be soothed by any territory or concessions.

Our only defence against it is active support of Ukraine and support for its accession to NATO and the EU.  As Russia doesn’t dare to bully stronger powers.

by Jan Lipavský

originally published in Czech language in the newspaper Právo