Kyiv, March 4, 2022. It is dhe 9th day of the war.
The world will never be the same again. The pain of loss is in the air, the smell of fire and blood. The fear covers up the wild tiredness. Eyes hurt from lack of sleep. The morning begins with “How are you?” and the fear of seeing something. Or no, the fear of not seeing anything… The words “We are all alive” are suddenly more important than ever.
Every day there are notifications from the Help Your Neighbor groups where you can help those who are worse off than you, who have no food or water. Each of us should have a plan, what we do for victory, how we see ourselves after the war and in the years after, after victory. There’s no doubt that there will be, the only question is at what price.
Airstrikes destroy homes, schools and hospitals every day. There are photos, videos and reports of people dying and cities collapsing everywhere. They say every war has its rules. In the war between Russia and Belarus against Ukraine, there are none. It is a genocide against the Ukrainian people, against the civilian population. In Cherson, people used Molotov cocktails against tanks. And all died. But they died with dignity. For what purpose have thousands of Russian soldiers come to so brutally crush the Ukrainian people? What was the goal? To prove the size of the empire? I hope that this empire and its rulers will soon be a thing of the past and isolated from the entire world.
Short silence. The silence in Kyiv gives the false impression that hostilities have ended. Sometimes I find myself thinking, “Maybe it was just a nightmare?” A siren wails bring me back to reality.
The whole world has turned its attention to us. Ukraine will no longer be a ‘Where is it on the map? – country”. It will be a country that has amazed the world with its courage and heroism and that continues to fight for its country with fearless eyes. We have worldwide support unprecedented in history. An unprecedented level of expectation, of hope, of responsibility, of attention. But the expectation is not trust, just the hope that we can live up to that trust. We have no right to let ourselves down, to be cowardly, to stumble. We must seize this opportunity to change ourselves for the better, to rid ourselves of our shortcomings, and to show the world a humble yet confident pride. Proud of ourselves, of Ukraine, of Ukrainians, of our heroes!