In Case You Didn't Know, We're at War

photo by Tomáš Čorej

Tomáš Čorej / February 26, 2022

3 min. read

Time for diplomatic statements and empty journalistic phrases is gone. Europe is at war and the world we live in is changing before our eyes.

Vladimir Putin has been telling us all these years, but we haven't listened to him because we thought he was playing by our rules. He reiterated that the disintegration of the Soviet Union was a geopolitical tragedy and that he did not recognize the modern world order. He repeatedly claimed that the Ukrainian nation did not exist.

We thought Putin was cynical, but we didn't anticipate that he is a war lunatic ready to sacrifice his own people for his place in the history books. It turned out to be a gross mistake.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine is absolutely irrational. Ukraine has significantly modernized its army in the last eight years, and it is more determined than ever. It was clear from the beginning that the Ukrainians would defend their country. Nevertheless, Putin made a decision that was unlikely even among skeptics a few months ago.

Let's face it, Putin attacked a sovereign country because it wanted to belong to a community of which Slovakia is a part. This is not "just" a war for Ukraine, but an attack on a modern world order in which superpowers can't do whatever they want.

We have not listened to Putin once before, so let us not repeat that mistake again: Putin tells us that he does not recognize the power distribution established after 1989 nor countries like Slovakia as members of NATO.

Sure, the attack on a NATO member country still sounds like madness, but so did the bombing of the Ukrainian capital just a few days ago.

Again, let's listen to Putin. "Whoever tries to hinder us, and even more so, to create threats to our country, to our people, should know that Russia's response will be immediate. And it will lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history," he said on Thursday morning from the Kremlin.

By those "consequences you have never encountered", he can think of nothing but a huge and devastating thermonuclear war. It's crazy to say that at all, but Putin has become a war lunatic in whom nothing can be ruled out.

There is at least one good news here at this extremely difficult time. Last week, we spoke at BISLA with a writer Milan Šimečka, whom we asked if it was easier to distinguish between good and evil under communism. He was skeptical and suggested that today it is not so difficult as we might have suspected.

Now, there is no doubt he was right: recognizing good and evil has never been easier in our lifetime. Anyone who is neutral today or does not know clearly that Putin is a military aggressor can no longer be a partner in the debate for us.

However, let us also pay attention to the distinction between Putin and Russia. Russia is a country of 140 million, in which thousands of brave people are protesting despite brutal repression against the war. They are ashamed of their government, and it is our duty not to abandon them.

On Thursday morning, we all woke up to a new world. To a world where everything is possible.