Ukraine did not want war. It neither provoked it nor wanted it. And yet, on February 24, 2022, Russian tanks crossed its borders, missiles ripped through its skies, and the brutal violence of a resurrected imperialism descended on civilians trapped in history.
What Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation” is a grotesque euphemism for an armed invasion, a flagrant violation of international law, and an act of contempt for the sovereignty of a free and independent state. Behind the Kremlin’s cynical rhetoric lies a crude desire to rewrite borders with bombs, to revive imperial nostalgia at the expense of peace.
It has to be said loud and clear: Russia was not provoked. Ukraine was not threatening its neighbor. On the contrary, the Ukrainian people were seeking to emancipate themselves, to look towards Europe, to build a modern democracy. It was precisely this desire for freedom that condemned them in the eyes of an authoritarian power that does not tolerate independence on its own doorstep.
The human consequences were tragic. Thousands dead, towns razed to the ground, children torn from their homes, a diaspora in exile. Marioupol, Boutcha, Kharkiv… these names resonate today like open wounds on the conscience of the world.
But in the face of barbarity, Ukraine put up exemplary resistance. Its people did not collapse. They rose up. They fought, not just for their territory, but for a universal idea: that no nation should be crushed by force.
It is imperative not to give in to media fatigue, not to trivialize this war. For every day of occupation is an insult to law, freedom and human dignity. And every silence, every ambiguity in international discourse, reinforces the arrogance of a regime that bets on oblivion.
Ukraine did not want war. But it is courageously fighting for peace. And this fight deserves more than our compassion: it deserves our unwavering solidarity.
