Let me tell you how people in Ukraine have spent the last four days.
My parents and grandma are running back and forth from the eighth floor of their apartment to the cold and dusty basement to seek safety from the constant shelling of Kyiv. My friends, artists and designers, hide in shelters during the night and prepare Molotov cocktails during the day. Many of them joined coordination forces to help the army and citizens with food and medicine.
A musician I know joined Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces. So did major Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan, popular singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk and film director Oleg Sentsov, who had spent five years in a Russian prison for a fabricated political case.
Others are waging attacks on Russian government websites, drawing anti-war posters and searching for anything to help Ukraine hold on. No one is sleeping. These are the worst days of our lives.
According to Vladimir Putin, the pretext for this war is to “denazify Ukraine.” The same Ukraine that actively fought Nazism and lost more than 5 million people in World War II. Ukraine, whose current president is a Jew. The war hurt every Ukrainian family while its whole territory was occupied. My grandfather was a prisoner of the Buchenwald concentration camp. My grandmother survived famine under Nazi occupation.
Russia started the invasion of Ukraine in 2014, annexing Crimea and occupying our eastern territories using local separatist proxies supported by Russian soldiers, whose presence there the Kremlin denied. Ukraine has been fighting this war for eight years, losing its people daily, while Western media abandoned the topic. Knowing about this war, countries like Germany collaborated with Russia over Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine to supply Europe with gas, thus increasing the chances of escalation.
The West has shown its hypocrisy. Western nations knew what Putin had planned for Ukraine, but none wanted to waive their economic interests to prevent the impending war. Underestimating Russian media propaganda, influence and cruelty led to the ongoing tragedy.
Most recent events have shown Russian forces are not likely to stop unless there is a consolidated response from nations that do not share the Kremlin’s predilection for authoritarianism, reactionism and expansionism. Events have also shown that international law means nothing to Russia.
In 2013-14, during the Euromaidan Revolution, Ukrainians were fighting for so-called European values. We wanted free elections, freedom of speech, human rights and a transparent judicial system. That’s why we called it a Revolution of Dignity. That might sound naive, yet we have achieved a lot since. We have a legitimate president, supported by an actual majority of the nation. Our LGBTQ+ rallies draw thousands of people in many cities. Our news investigations of corruption lead to criminal consequences. Our cultural and club scenes have become legendary in the world. All of this is at stake right now.
That’s why Ukrainians are fighting so fiercely. We are not ready to lose everything we have gained as a society since our independence simply because a deranged leader of a neighboring country is convinced that we, Ukrainians, have no right to exist. Or because the seemingly sane leaders of other powerful nations believe that we should negotiate with a bully on his terms.
We are fighting. People are stopping Russian tanks by yelling at them. A woman approached a Russian soldier and told him to put sunflower seeds in his pockets so they will grow after his body has enriched the Ukrainian soil. A man removed a land mine from a bridge with his bare hands.
But we are losing a lot. Some of our cities, especially in the east, which Putin wanted to protect from the “Ukrainian genocide,” are facing a humanitarian catastrophe. People are dying there without food, water, electricity and medicine. Every city is in constant danger. Ukraine and Europe are at the brink of an environmental catastrophe after Russian troops blew up an oil depot in Kyiv uptown and occupied Chernobyl.
While I am writing this, Russians are destroying museums and cinemas, stealing our cultural heritage. Western sanctions have not worked to stop the war. A slow European Union and U.S. response is costing us too much. Every minute of hesitation supports war crimes and the killing of civilians.
Stop being sad, sorry and concerned. Act! Demand more sanctions for Russia to stop its aggression. Urge international funds to send humanitarian missions to Ukraine. Donate to humanitarian and military aid funds — yes, military, because pacifism is a privilege of those who have never heard a bomb explode near their house.
Share the news about Russian attacks on Ukraine using hashtags #StandWithUkraine and #StopPutin. And stop paying for Russian gas with Ukrainian blood — if you consider yourself a human being.
____
ABOUT THE WRITER
Lisa Korneichuk, an editor and writer from Ukraine, is a Fulbright student at the School of Art Institute of Chicago.
