[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written and submitted by a verified resident. It represents the opinion of the author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of South King Media or its staff.]
Don’t give up on Ukrainians – they are dying for Democracy.
I heard a news story today about Ukraine that wrenched my heart.
Today, a city in Ukraine that I have such wonderful memories of, Sloviansk – in the frontline Donetsk region – that was living, thriving, the epicenter of our humanitarian outreach across all of eastern Ukraine back in 2014 when Russians first invaded, a city of 200,000 inhabitants back then, is reduced now to 20,000 people, and drones are buzzing, like the Kamikaze flies they are, at any hour, day and night. (I would be terrified out of my mind if I heard one there, because they are heatseeking – when they sense your body even from a long distance, you will be dead within a minute or two, or have lost a couple of limbs, like many of the men I have met in rehabilitation centers.)
I don’t know if you can imagine a town you have known and enjoyed, alive with cafes, restaurants, open markets, all the shops you needed, people catching buses and trams, all the officemates you worked with, the taxi drivers you joked with, the youth organizations you admired – all of that – dead. A ghost town of destruction and poverty. The only people left – they have no money to get away, they don’t know where to go, they are desperately clinging to the only thing on the planet that makes sense to them – their “home.”
Many of us are euphoric that better leadership is on its way in the US – we hope prices will come down, the war in Iran will end, and authoritarians will be held to account. But what now for Ukrainians who are dying for Democracy?
I’ve asked this question of every person I know knowledgeable on Ukraine-US policy. Answers are precious few.
I’m asking you, my friends, to keep the faith.
We must go the distance with these people because they, with no exaggeration, are giving their all – their sons, their daughters, their money, their future – their lives, their limbs – they are not giving up.
Let’s go the extra mile, to walk with them till they eke out this victory, big or small, of continued proud existence as a nation.
– Irene Danysh
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