“We woke in a different world today,” said Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday.
Indeed, we did.
Peace across Europe was shattered when Russia launched a full-scale attack on sovereign Ukraine, the most significant military action there in almost 80 years.
Nothing will be the same. Not for Europe. Not for the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made plain his immediate goal: to oust the democratically elected Volodymyr Zelenskyy and install a puppet regime, just as he’s done in Georgia, Ukraine (2010-2014), Crimea and Belarus in his deranged effort to reconstruct his version of a new Soviet Union.
On Thursday, the bombings and shelling began. By noon, scores had been killed and hundreds wounded. On Friday, the capital city, Kyiv, was under siege.
When I watch the video footage of the unfolding war I’m struck by how quickly normal devolves into chaos. Thousands using the subway tunnels as bomb shelters. Traffic jams clogging the highways with people fleeing the cities.
And then this: With bombs thundering in the distance, hundreds were lined up outside of a hospital waiting to donate their blood, proof of their resilience.
Even before Thursday’s violence, Olga Tokariuk, a Ukrainian journalist, about how desperate things had become.
“Because of the actions of a madman, it’s as if we Ukrainians have ceased to exist: We cannot worry about raising children, do the work we love, make plans, build our future. Instead, we are forced to pack go-bags, make evacuation plans and spend our weekends studying how to survive in an occupied city — and learning first aid.”
At a Register staff meeting Friday morning, we took turns giving thanks and in so doing realized we have everything Ukrainians today are on the precipice of losing.
Ms. Tokariuk, age 37, has seen her country gain independence and wage two revolutions against Russian aggression — the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity in 2013. The first was an attempt to rig presidential elections in favor of a pro-Kremlin candidate. The second was when pro-Russian autocrat Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union, and later escaped to Russia.
Because most Ukrainians have experienced both the freedoms of a democracy and the oppression of a tyrant, they will fight Russia with everything they have, Tokariuk said.
“We might have regarded independence as a gift when we were children, but later in life we realized that it was not just given to us; we had to protect it with our lives. We have been hardened but never broken. We might be angry and frustrated, but never defeated.”
It’s imperative that we all speak the truth to what is going on and not mistake “genius” for evil, equate strong for blood-thirsty, or idealize authoritarian as powerful.
