“Fight on and You Will Prevail,” Shevchenko (Ukrainian poet)
It’s dark when I jolt awake. Where am I? What is happening? I need to hide. No, none of that is true. I am in Woodland, in my own bed, and my tiny dog Daisy is breathing easily, not at all disturbed.
It’s that dream that woke me – that dream that’s been circling the last few nights. It’s Kyiv as I remember her from 30 years ago, when I helped launch the Peace Corps program there. I see the cracked sidewalks, the stores with empty shelves, the high-rise apartments standing like aging sentinels from the former soviet union days. I hear the mistrust of outsiders, the truth about the harsh realities of life in the city, yet I also sense the hope of something much better to come. The ring of pride-filled voices saying, I am Ukrainian rings in my ears. It’s the gunshots in my dream that woke me, the devastation of all that has been built in the last 30 years.
The Ukraine I knew is no longer. The buildings, the streets, the people, the infrastructure have been leveled by three years of unrelenting war. Let’s remember the facts amid all the history rewrites submitted by the current US President, some of the press, and even some people on the street.
On February 24, 2022, while people were sleeping, Russian troops and tanks rolled into Ukraine and missiles poured down in what U.S. military analysts called the largest military operation in Europe since WWII. We all had news coverage with videos to watch in real time as President Putin announced a “military operation to protect people who for eight years now have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime.”
What have we witnessed over the last three years? We witnessed people fleeing their homes trying to get away from the invading Russian soldiers and missiles, soldiers standing up to fight for their country, a leader who had been a TV personality take on the responsibility of leading an invaded democratic country. Many of us took in Ukrainian refugee women and children who fled the country while their men stayed to fight; we offered up prayers and support as we could.
Today I am bombarded with information about the current U.S. President creating a new world order. As David Brooks, New York Times columnist, says, “He sees the world as a place where ruthless mafiosos get to do what they can. In Trump’s world, there are three ruthless mafioso countries: Russia will have hegemony over its regions, we will have hegemony over our region, and China will have hegemony over their region.”
This same president has sent his “cracker jack” national security envoys to Saudia Arabia to meet with Russian officials to address “irritants to the U.S.-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.” Ukraine was not invited.
The encounter included Lavrov and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov – two veterans who have spent a combined 34 years in their current roles – negotiating with three Trump aides in their first month on the job – Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff.
“The American team has almost no experience in high-level international negotiation, no regional expertise on Ukraine and Russia, and no relevant foreign language knowledge,” Timothy Snyder, a Yale University professor and Russia expert, wrote on X. “Not true of the Russians, to put it mildly. Round 1 to Russia.”
I easily recall my discomfort when meeting with the Russian bureaucrats to launch the Peace Corps program. The offices felt massive, furnished with dark, heavy desks, large chairs for the “boss,” straight-backed, uncomfortable chairs for visitors, and heavy brocade curtains. Words were few, distrust was evident, and disdain for meeting with American women clogged the air. I always took a deep breath before entering and after exiting. All we really needed was approval to visit the villages. There we were greeted by individuals wanting to host a Volunteer.
Today, I feel quite sick to my stomach as the current US president and his minions bully Ukraine and the Western world. The latest ploy is to press for access to Ukraine’s critical minerals ($500 billion) with the possibility of cutting the country’s access to Elon Musk’s vital Starlink satellite internet system.
This isn’t the “world order” I have spent my life nourishing and thriving within. This does not speak to human dignity, human rights, community, shared values of compassion and care. I humbly realize my deep personal feelings about Ukraine are but one piece of a much larger, more dangerous, and hurtful picture.
I read with deeper understanding and feeling Shevchenko’s “Fight on and You Will Prevail.”