Tetyana Ogarkova: Vladimir Putin's last war

On 24 February 2022, we were woken up at 5 in the morning by strange noises that could be heard far and wide that sounded very much like explosions. Children were sleeping peacefully in their beds, but phones were buzzing with a constant string of messages. The war had begun. Explosions, which turned out to be missile strikes, were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and other cities around the country.

One of the first strikes destroyed a building on a military site in Brovary, where our older daughter's dance teacher lived. A few hours later, I got in my car to go look for a friend who was no longer answering her phone. I was met with Ukrainian tanks, their tracks leaving traces in the asphalt.

Since the painful wake-up call of 24 February 2022, which forever destroyed the world as we knew it, we have not gone back to sleep. We are looking at our new reality with eyes wide open.  During the first week of the war we saw, for the first time, our friends dying in combat. We also saw that the Ukrainian army was capable of resistance in the face of the "world's second most powerful army". We saw Europeans supply us with weapons and discuss future sanctions.

But above all, we are looking at Russia with eyes wide open. We can't believe the levels they are sinking to: soldiers bragging to their wives about stealing coffee makers, rugs and even washing machines from devastated villages. Their cruelty is beyond belief: shooting unarmed civilians in the back of the neck, raping Ukrainian women in front of their children and burning their bodies. They are bombarding our hospitals and sending missiles, every day, without exception. It's also hard to believe how stupid they're being: their soldiers spent over a month digging trenches in the soil in Chernobyl and then ended up needing to be transferred to Belarus due to radiation syndrome, which they are now dying from.

We are looking at the reality of modern Russia with eyes wide open. Putin is not the only one conducting this war. According to a recent Levada Center study, he has the support of 85% of Russians.
It is time to confront this new reality. The heroic resistance of Ukrainian soldiers, the military aid and strong sanctions from Ukraine's Western partners are helping.

However, the war is still happening. The most important thing is to hold on, not to give up, not to succumb to the temptation to agree on a ceasefire too lightly or too quickly, no matter how much we all want peace. We have this unique opportunity to make sure this unconscionable aggression on the part of Russia is its last war. No ceasefire, concession on territories or compromise will change anything – they would only allow Russia to claim partial victory and fuel aggressive and vengeful sentiments among Russian society.
Transnistria in 1992, Georgia in 2008, Crimea and Donbas in 2014: every decade, Russia has increased the challenges and dangers eating away at the region. The Kremlin has used the West's every weakness as an excuse to pursue its aggression. We are looking at reality with eyes wide open: to achieve peace, we must continue the war. The war against Russia.

We will need courage. A great deal of courage. Not only on the part of Ukrainian soldiers, but also our Western partners to strengthen sanctions (to destroy the Russian economy) and to deliver the necessary offensive weapons to Ukrainians (to push Russian troops back across the border).  

We will also need decisiveness. The decisiveness necessary to – after the inevitable defeat of Russia – impose the historical responsibility for this inhuman barbarism on every Russian citizen. With reparations to be paid over two or three generations. With history textbooks containing detailed descriptions of their war crimes. With a museum of the battle of Mariupol, or Bucha, in the centre of Moscow.

It is only after this suicidal war that another Russia will be possible; one rid of the complex of an injured empire and the desire to return to its former grandeur at its neighbours' expense.

Waking at 5 in the morning on 24 February 2022, we heard Putin referring to "denazification" and "demilitarisation" as the aims of his "military operation". But let's get real. Ukraine does not need "denazification" and "demilitarisation", it is Russia that needs these things.