Each of us, as a child, loved fairy tales. We loved fantastic stories about a hero who saves the world. No matter his path's difficulty, a noble goal always leads to victory. And even in a moment of hellish despair in the face of the greatest evil, a miracle always happened. A wizard would appear and give the hero a magical sword to defeat the antagonist. However, we are no longer children, and our reality is far from being a fairy tale.
On the night of February 24, 2022, the world changed. When Kyiv woke up from the first explosions, Pandora's box was opened - and horrors that the world had not seen since the days of Auschwitz and Dachau, Aleppo, and Rwanda were unleashed. Millions of broken destinies, thousands of deaths, hundreds of raped women and children. One night, the world turned into humanity's worst nightmare, which had not ended for almost a year. And trying in vain to wake up. It is our reality; this is the world of a new age.
On the morning of February 24, 2022. The beginning of a new era. Perhaps only some understand it, but nothing will remain the same as it was before. The Rubicon has been crossed. And this is not Ukraine`s reality only. This is the reality of the entire world: from New York to Tokyo, Lima to Seoul.
The war in Ukraine started in 2014, but what happened on the night of February 24 marked a bigger event. It was the beginning of the Third World War or what I call: “The war of ideologies.” This war was chosen only by one nation that could not overcome its imperial complexes, while the rest of the world is forced to fight to survive and to save itself. Ukraine has become a fortress that protects Europe and Western values by default (as in a real fairy tale, where the hero does not choose his destiny but must fulfill it).
Humanity has seen such a war before. On March 5, 1946, in the American city of Fulton, Winston Churchill, during his famous speech, said that an iron curtain had descended across Europe "from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic." The threat of a nuclear attack had been lurking for years, reminding people that no matter how thick the walls were, nuclear radiation would penetrate even through them. Metaphorically, Ukrainians would love to have such an iron curtain between them and their eastern neighbor, but, unfortunately, even it would not help against cluster shells and cruise missiles.
The Cold War has never ended, and optimistic (or rather naïve) political scientists were wrong, assuming that such a bloody empire as the Soviet Union could simply disappear without leaving cancer cells behind that would kill millions by destroying the primary determinant of a human being – the soul.
On the evening of February 24, the main squares of the world's largest cities were crowded. Millions of people went to the streets to show that the world did not leave Ukraine alone. But attentive observers could recognize something more in those many-thousand marches – they could see the awakening of humanity in the hearts that had been sleeping for a long time. Many of those who came out on the square had never been interested in politics before, and many knew nothing about Ukraine. At that moment, something more significant happened. The world structure of the entire humanity was shaken. Without understanding this feeling, everyone felt like animals before a flood or a tornado, that something terrible, inevitable, and fatal had happened. Something that changed the world they had known before.
This war is not only about Ukraine. Now the fate of all humanity is at stake. The outcome of this war will be prophetic for the whole world. Some foreigners do not understand what Ukrainians are fighting for; why do we simply not sit down at the negotiating table? They still haven't understood that there is something worse for all of us than death. It is the evil that lurks on the eastern border. What will prevail: justice or impunity, democracy or tyranny, freedom or slavery, humanity or brutality? The answer to this question will depend on specific people, on political programs, on votes in Congress and the European Parliament, on you, and me. When people ask: "Why should we support Ukraine?", I want to answer them: "You are not supporting Ukraine. You are saving your future."
If Ukraine falls, Europe will be next, and Western civilization will fall. Many believe that this is only hyperinflation, a game of emotions or a game of words. Chamberlain also did not take Hitler seriously, believing that Czechoslovakia would be able to quench the thirst of the Third Reich to its heart's content. But we know the history, what happened next, and how the policy of appeasement ended. It's time to learn a lesson and stop the cycle of history.
By supporting Ukraine, humanity is manifesting a victory of common sense over insanity, a victory of rationality over the post-truth world, and, it seems, a victory over the post-humanity world. Supporting Ukraine is an investment in the future of your children and grandchildren in a world of freedom and justice, where George Orwell is just a famous writer and not a foreseer of terrible modernity.
Each of us, as a child, loved fairy tales. But my six-year-old brother is no longer fond of them. He instead prefers computer games. But when he asks me if the war will ever end, I always say it certainly will because a wizard will appear and give us a magic sword to win. After all, we all love fairy tales.