It's "Mardi Gras" (Fat Tuesday), but there is definitely no Carnival spirit hanging in the air as this is the sixth day of the Russian invasion in Ukraine and the situation is precipitating. Today there were missile strikes on the government HQ in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city; reports state that there is a huge armoured column heading towards the capital, Kyiv, where Russian forces also attacked a television tower.
While cities are under bombs, many civilians are leaving the country: the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) stated that 677,000 people have fled Ukraine since the Russian military invasion started. Poland has so far taken almost 300,000 Ukrainians, but numbers may rise quickly reaching the million in case the invasion continues. Thousands of Ukrainians are also returning to their home country to join the fight.
In the meantime, Ukraine officially asked to enter the European Union and, during an emergency session of the European parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the EU to "prove that you are with us", receiving a standing ovation in the parliament.
In this crisis there is one positive note about Europe: Vladimir Putin's aggression managed to wake up, unite and even strengthen it. Since the invasion started, European countries have unanimously condemned the war, confirming their support to Ukraine, while European leaders pledged unity in their effort of averting war on the continent. Peace talks may resume tomorrow, but resisting the invasion is paramount for Ukraine.
To ponder more about freedom, censorship and resistance, I'm making available a short story I wrote a while back. It is entitled "Third Chaos, Third Communication" and it is divided in three sections, focused on three different events – the genesis of "To Have Done With the Judgment of God" by Antonin Artaud; Serbian radio B-92 being shut down in 1999 and a dystopian future with a pirate radio under a brothel, broadcasting revolutionary messages and building the resistance during a regime. The short story is also conceived as a linguistic experiment with three narrative styles and voices and it's available on Sam Cart at this link.
Comments