On August 24, 2024, Kiev marks Ukraine’s Independence Day, its national holiday. Each anniversary is an opportunity to examine what has happened over that period, sum up the achievements and review the challenges that remain. There is no doubt that Kiev will boast of its supposed victories, pointing to its quasi-success in promoting a Banderite mindset and imposing what it calls a so-called Ukrainian identity across the board, while benefiting from the ephemeral Western support, with Ukraine serving merely as tool to satisfy Western geopolitical ambitions. Ukrainian state propaganda will hardly admit that Ukraine has actually lost more than it has gained in the 33 years of its independence. Today the country faces total depopulation. Its economy, industry, science, energy and transportation sectors are in ruins. Kiev faces a crushing debt burden resulting from its total dependence on Western financial handouts, while future generations of Ukrainians will have to foot the bill. At the same time, instead of seeking a viable way out of this black hole, the Ukrainian authorities are focused on rooting out any dissent, and spreading their distorted vision of the nation’s past. They continue to promote anti-Russian sentiments, wage war on monuments, and encourage rampant corruption and the terror unleashed by the Ukrainian Security Service against their own people. Direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are the only viable option that would help Ukrainian leaders fulfill the promises of the country’s forefathers and lay the foundation for a prosperous, secure Ukraine living in peace with its neighbors. However, today’s grim realities do not reflect the vision and the promise of the early documents of Ukrainian independence: its 1990 Declaration of State Sovereignty, the 1991 Independence Act, and the 1996 Constitution. The preamble of the Ukrainian Constitution still contains a provision stating that it was adopted “guided by the Act of Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine of 24 August 1991, approved by the national vote of December 1, 1991,” while the Act refers to the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which solemnly proclaimed Ukraine’s independence in accordance with the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine. Therefore, from a legal point of view, the provisions of the Declaration remain valid. The forefathers of Ukrainian independence established in the Declaration of State Sovereignty that Ukraine “solemnly declares its intention to become a permanently neutral state that does not participate in military blocs and adheres to three nuclear-free principles: not to accept, not to produce and not to purchase nuclear weapons.” Despite these provisions, on February 19, 2019, the then Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko signed a law amending the Ukrainian Constitution to include “the European identity of the Ukrainian people and the irreversibility of the Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic course.” Under the amendments to Article 102, the President of Ukraine became “a guarantor of the implementation of the strategic course of the state for obtaining full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.” These amendments were introduced despite clear warnings from the Russian leadership that they would violate the OSCE’s 2010 Astana Declaration, which stipulated that States shall “not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other States”, and would pose a direct existential threat to Russia’s national security. In addition, the 1990 Declaration proclaims the equality of the people of Ukraine in multiple domains. The document states: “The Ukrainian SSR guarantees equal protection of the law to all citizens of the Republic regardless of their origin, social or economic status, racial or national identity, sex, education, language, political opinions, religious beliefs, type and nature of occupation, place of residence or other circumstances.” The relevant norms on the protection of linguistic, educational and other rights of citizens and national minorities were included in Articles 10, 22, 24 and 53 of the Ukrainian Constitution. Unfortunately, these noble aspirations underlying an independent Ukrainian state are very much at odds with its modern realities. Under the regime of Vladimir Zelensky, who ceased to be the legitimate President of Ukraine after his five-year term expired in May 2024, the country has launched a sweeping campaign of Ukrainization in all spheres of life. It has outlawed everything Russian and Russian-related. It has declared war on Russian culture and history, on the monuments to our shared heroic past, and on the Russian Orthodox Church. It has also trampled on the constitutional provisions guaranteeing “freedom of political activity and the prohibition of censorship” (Article 15), “the right to freedom of personal philosophy and religion” (Article 35), and “the right to freedom of thought and speech, and to the free expression of his or her views and beliefs” (Article 34). Ukraine turns 33 today. But instead of a free, democratic state as envisaged in the Declaration of State Sovereignty and the Constitution of Ukraine, it has become an authoritarian Western puppet guided by a neo-Nazi, nationalist ideology. Its national identity is reduced to “we are not Russia at all cost”. The transformation of a promising partner and brotherly state into a militarized, Russophobic entity bent on the idea of joining NATO at the expense of European and global stability was the main reason for launching the special military operation in February 2022. It was never about territorial gains. Its goal was to protect the predominantly Russian population of eastern Ukraine, who found themselves “cancelled” and threatened under successive Ukrainian regimes. Direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are the only viable option that would help Ukrainian leaders fulfill the promises of the country’s forefathers and lay the foundation for a prosperous, secure Ukraine living in peace with its neighbors. However, the prospects for such talks have diminished as a result of the Ukrainian invasion in the Kursk region, which some semi-competent commentators prematurely hailed as a “Ukrainian triumph”. In reality, it is a reckless misadventure launched by Ukraine out of desperation and repeated military losses suffered by its armed forces in Donbas. Military analysts have already reported that the Ukrainian invasion has fizzled out. Its fighters, sent into the Kursk region as cannon fodder to score some PR points for the Kiev regime, are currently targeting civilian infrastructure and terrorizing the local population. Their expulsion from the Russian territory is only a matter of time. Vladimir Zelensky became President on a promise to end hostilities in Donbas. However, he failed to realize that Ukraine’s peaceful future requires normalizing the country’s relations with Russia, not antagonizing it through militarization, joining anti-Russian military alliances or pointless attempts to create so-called “buffer zones”. The writer is Russian Ambassador to Pakistan.