Since August 24, 1991, when my first article on the proclamation of a new Ukrainian state was published, I have already written 20 such articles. Over the years, from an ardent young man who was watching with amazement and joy from the gallery of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR for proclaiming independence, I turned into a middle-aged man, convinced that even the purest intentions could be distorted and crossed out with public indifference. And the state, about which I dreamed, never took place - there was only a soulless shell, like a dried cocoon, from which, it seems, the butterfly will never fly out