If Putin seized Mykolaiv Oblast, it would change the world order — Timothy Snyder`s speech on YES

American historian, Yale University professor and specialist in the history of Eastern Europe Timothy Snyder believes that the main reason for the war for Russia is that Ukraine plays the role of a key supplier of agricultural products on the world stage.

He said this during his speech at the Yalta European Strategy in Kyiv, «NikVesti» writes.

According to the historian, the Russian authorities, starting a full-scale war, did not have a reasoned ideology, because the only lever for the Russian occupying forces is the use of force.

— Russia is not waging this war based on any ideology. They fight based on the idea that nothing is true. Nothing matters. This is not a war in which the aggressor has a vision of the future. Rather, on the contrary. For them, everything is black, and the only thing that matters is power. What can't Russians tolerate in Ukraine? An alternative to their vision. Because people have a different idea of what is better. This war is about civilization. And Russia wants to seduce us that nothing matters. And when you accept this idea, it is very difficult to fight. The second meaning is philosophical, historical. It consists in the distribution between cities and villages. That is, someone produces food, and someone receives a profit. And civilization begins when there is specialization between the city and the countryside, because someone produces food for you. It is the countryside that has made life possible in recent years. Everything associated with Hellas, the language of this philosophy, came from Ancient Greece, which was an agricultural client of the Black Sea coast, since there was a connection between Athens and the Northern Black Sea, which was where Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv are now. And there was a synthesis between the Scythians and Greece, which made this culture possible. There were those who fed. If we jump forward to the present day, we will see that this is the role this land has played for the past 500 years.

Food products were of great importance to both the Mongol-Tatars from Asia and the Vikings from Europe. This is also related to Stalin's project on sources and lands, which explains the Holodomor. And the entire Second World War was an attempt by Germany to seize these fertile lands. This was Hitler's first goal. Both Stalin and Hitler tried to transform the world order based on the control of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. These territories were the axis of the attempt to change the world. And this is happening even today. I bring you to something that is quite fundamental in this war in terms of the effect on civilization. Ukraine plays the role of Hellas for the world. Ukraine feeds many countries of the world. Especially in Africa, Asia. It allows other people to flourish. This, in fact, is the meaning of this war, when Russia flooded the most fertile territories by blowing up the dam. When they killed one of the leading farmers — it's the same. When they attacked the ports, it all concerned food supply chains, — he said.

Summarizing his report, Timothy Snyder said that the other day he visited the south of Ukraine, in particular the Mykolaiv region. The historian talked to a local farmer who gave him a watermelon.

— Ukrainians are surviving, but they cannot feed the world if they do not win this war, — emphasized Snyder.