Glory to Ukraine
I’ll need some time to gather my thoughts, except to say that I’m praying for the people of Ukraine - and the innocent people of Russia, who will eventually pay dearly for their leader’s madness.
The period since the fall of the Berlin Wall has been tumultuous - 9/11, Great Recession, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Balkans, the election of Trump - but this feels like a chapter of relative peace and prosperity has closed, and we’re now back in an era when countries simply invaded and annexed their neighbors’ territory because fuck you, that’s why.
Or maybe that era ended in 2014, with the seizure of Crimea. It’s not like Putin hasn’t been telegraphing his intentions for a very long time, not unlike - Godwin’s Law alert! - another tyrant who published his fantasies of “living space” for everyone to read, but whom no one took seriously enough until it was too late.
I do recommend subscribing to this Telegram channel, which compiles social media videos from the war zone. It’s mostly in Russian and Ukranian, but the app has a translation feature for iPhones with iOS 15. God knows this isn’t the first time war has come to the European continent, but it’s the first time the people under attack can freely and instantly broadcast it to the world.
Let the whole world see what Putin has done, and let there be real consequences for him.