Paris, September 25, 2024,
Dear readers, dear readers,
Over the past few months, the idea of a trip to Ukraine has popped up in my mind every day. The time apart from my family, from my Sasha, is definitely too long. I haven't seen my sister since November 2023, I haven't known her to be pregnant, she hasn't even met my child, her nephew… But, at the same time, I'm so apprehensive. I would like to go with my son, but he is very small. What will I do in the event of an attack? My family tells me that it's too dangerous, I tell them that they are there, that Sasha, who is going to have a baby, is there, so why not me? My sister and I found a building with a single-block concrete parking lot, which apparently is the best way to be safe during a massive rocket attack. I'm considering renting an apartment there, but the prices in Kyiv city center [Kiev, en ukrainien] are exorbitant. The same as in Paris, except that the average salary in Ukraine is 18,800 hryvnias, which is equivalent to 420 euros.
In truth, I have already purchased Warsaw-Kyiv train tickets for October 10. But I still hesitate: to finally see my family and introduce them to my son or to stay safe with my heart split in two? These impossible dilemmas are my daily life, like, I think, that of millions of Ukrainians.
It's been over thirty months now that I've been waking up with the fear of looking at my phone screen. My brain is overflowing with information that my consciousness refuses to integrate.
September 4. Attack on Lviv. I see this father, his face hurt and blue. He lost everything, his three daughters and his wife.
September 7. I learned that a college friend lost her two cousins at the front. She considered them her brothers. His family is devastated.
September 10. I discover the testimony of a rachist [contraction de « russe » et de « fasciste »] captured by the Ukrainian army. The video was posted by the channel [du gouvernement ukrainien] United 24. This man admits without any scruple to having raped three girls, two boys and six women in Avdiivka, before killing them point blank against a wall. On orders from his commander, he said. I reposted this horror on my networks, to show the whole world what plague the Ukrainians are protecting Europe from.
I regret it a little now, but, under the influence of emotion, pain, rage, when I shared the video, I added “that such a man had no right to live.” I was told in comments that, by writing this, I was not respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So human rights and the rights of Ukrainians to survive are two different things for Westerners? And when I say the rights of Ukrainians, I also think of all the other peoples caught in the wars. The gap is so deep between us and others.
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Source: Lemonde
