While we in craven silence gazed
Like dummies, only scratched our pates.
Oh treacherous, accursed breed
When will you pass? When will we greet
Our own George Washington at last
With the new law of righteousness?
Oh, there’s no doubt that day we’ll see!
T. Shevchenko
On September 11, 2001, instead of bright glimpses of the autumn sun, a curtain of concrete and steel fell on you from the sky. A bright, rainless day turned into impenetrable darkness, and the long-standing idyll of the American fortress ended up in the smoke of collapsed skyscrapers. Your sky turned black, and it wasn't a flash of lightning that did it. The visible space above the earth darkened from the planes attacking America from the air.
Thousands of innocent people who were still drinking coffee at 8:45 a.m. went to work or school going to the store froze a minute later: the many years of building peace collapsed.
After 60 years, Pearl Harbor 2 has knocked on your door again, and today it is coming at us with daily and powerful blows. For Ukrainians, September 11 has been going on for almost a year, and a flock of rashist crows never stops attacking us from the air, hitting us from the sea and land. An imperial monster rises from the ashes, and memories of terrible events become a ghostly reality.
Think back and imagine your little girl Christine, two-year-old Christine Lee Hegson – the youngest victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, who, unfortunately, was with her parents on board the killer plane on that fateful day. What would she be like today? On that bloody day, her family had a completely ordinary dream: they wanted to visit Disneyland and bring into Christine’s life a real children's fairy tale.
Ukrainian Iryna, the mother of little Liza, also wished her child fairy tales. She wanted to teach her daughter to read independently. On July 14, 2022, on the way to the speech therapist, the child was physically killed by a rashist missile, and the mother died mentally along with her.
Historically, we are separated from you by geography and time, but not a fate that repeats itself. And the current war of the Ukrainian people and the state of Ukraine for freedom and independence has many parallels with you. Even the American Revolutionary War directly parallels our struggle because you, like us, were not recognized and denied. You persevered, did not submit, and won. And we want the same!
Ukraine is a state in the heart of Europe that aspires to be independent, sovereign, democratic, and European. But for this, above all, the country needs to ensure a peaceful future. As noted by Zbigniew Brzezinski, an independent Ukraine is a vital pillar of security on the European continent, which plays a key role in the context of Russia's ability to threaten Europe, as it did during the Cold War. The war in Ukraine concerns not only Ukraine. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine destroyed the more than fifty-year-old system of international standards that regulated international relations in Europe for many years. In addition, the USA and Ukraine are strategic partners and parties to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, under which the latter renounced strategic nuclear weapons in exchange for international security guarantees.
Why should you help Ukraine? For Ukrainian children to be able to go to school and learn freely, without fear of the shrill sounds of sirens, explosions, and rocket attacks. For Ukrainian students to be engaged in scientific research and professional improvement, and not in the study of maps of bomb shelters. For the Ukrainian military to use their knowledge for international exercises and training and not for combat operations with the enemy, which put their lives at risk every minute. So that Ukrainian doctors did not have to save the lives of children and adults who were pulled out from under the rubble of a house hit by a Russian missile. Ukrainians deserve a chance for a decent future and a peaceful life.
Support for Ukraine and political and economic sanctions are ways the West can signal to Moscow that its flagrant terrorist activities will have decisive consequences. The more the West helps Ukraine regain and restore the territory it needs for economic and military stability now, the less Ukraine and Ukrainians will need Western help in the future. Aid to Ukraine today is an investment and an insurance policy, not a handout.
As John Herbst and Jennifer Cafarella noted, “the extraordinary Russian offensive served as a necessary wake-up call for the United States and the West to prepare for the ugly needs of this new era of great power rivalry. Ukraine's heroic resistance to Russia's invasion gave the West an invaluable opportunity to correct these mistakes."
No absolute evil, no terrorist should pose a threat to humanity in today's world when calls to support democracy and protect human rights are louder than ever on all international platforms. Today, it is most important to put these calls into practice and turn slogans into actions. Isn't that what the whole civilized world is fighting for after the Second World War? Wasn't that the purpose of the United Nations when it was created?
It hurts me that thousands of innocent people will not celebrate our victory. It hurts me that the life of every Ukrainian has been divided into before and after. But for us to have this after, we need support and help.