let me dream of peace

Former MP Paule Robitaille has traveled across Europe in recent weeks, including several Ukrainian cities, to report on the concrete impacts of the Russian invasion. Today she signs her last text.

(Rome, Italy) In Rome, I don’t see a Ukrainian flag flying alongside the Italian tricolor. Contrast with Paris, Munich, Warsaw, Riga or Tbilisi where national solidarity is displayed on government buildings, in restaurants, on graffiti walls, in alleys, everywhere. Is this a consequence of the ambiguity in the face of the war of certain members of this neo-fascist government? And then, suddenly, I raise my head via del Corso and I read, all illuminated in the language of Dante: “Humanity must put an end to the war, otherwise it is the war which will put an end to humanity . ” Wise words. But how do we get there?

Vladimir Putin also wants to end the war, but in his own way, in his imperial design. Before this journey, I naively believed that a peace could be negotiated at the cost, for the Ukrainians, of abandoning the Crimea or the Donbass. Not anymore. One does not negotiate with the devil as it was inconceivable to settle the Second World War by shaking hands with Hitler. The nuclear threat is a bluff that must be put into perspective.

The Russian invasion in Ukraine was a great folly, like a failed act, which exposed the weaknesses of this “colossus with feet of clay”, but which still roars at the cost of how many human lives? Because the victory he thought was easy turned into a draw. Like the leaders of First World War empires who refused the sovereignty of nations but knew they were going to lose, Vladimir Putin hangs on because he knows that to stop halfway would be his descent into hell. As President Zelensky called for in his historic speech to the US Congress, Ukraine must be helped out of “this frozen fight”.

Every day during my stay in Ukraine, I heard sirens warning of a missile attack. I also saw the disarray of the mayor of Lviv realizing that he had only half his energy reserves to get through the winter. I have seen people determined to hold on even if the lack of electricity could strike them down with cold. I have also seen old medal-winning ladies from the Soviet Union crying because they no longer understand anything, traumatized by a return to the fighting in their hometown. I met female amputees who had lost their homes and others who had lost their husbands killed by Russian soldiers at close range. I have seen crippled fighters who, despite injuries, will continue to fight. One of them will even run a marathon. And there is all this abuse and torture.

In less than a year, the victims of this war, dead or alive, Russians or Ukrainians, numbered in the hundreds of thousands. And to think that Russia would plan a new offensive in January or February…

This torture of the Ukrainian people must stop. Volodymyr Zelensky tells us that Ukraine’s victory must be total, “absolute”. He is right. Why ? Because Russia must be stripped of its imperial nature. Its current form will always fuel instability in Europe and always threaten its former colonies. In this sense, this war is also the battle of Moldova – next in Russia’s line of sight – of Georgia, of the Baltic peoples and of the countries of Eastern Europe. It is our fight to all of us. It is also for the Russians, subjugated to the repressive power of the Kremlin.

Because in writing all this to you, I have a very special thought for my liberal, progressive, exiled Russian friends, for all the imprisoned dissidents and others gagged in Russia. I also imagine all this cannon fodder, tens of thousands of men sacrificed. We should not put all Russians in the same basket.

Everywhere I went, I witnessed ruthless Russophobia. That’s what this imperial war did. Ironic because Putin pretends to want to save Russian minorities. By claiming to want to annihilate Ukrainian culture, its soldiers have “cancelled” Russian culture everywhere in the former USSR and beyond. What does Tchaikovsky have to do with Vladimir Putin’s delusions? But hate breeds hate.

“Art should be above politics, but if children are not above war, why should art be spared? a friend told me during this trip.

My father, who served in the Second World War, said that “the most suffering was not what they did to us, it was what the war had done to us”. Terrible observation.

I am therefore delighted that the United States Congress approved this week $45 billion in aid, which is in addition to the colossal sums provided by the government of Joe Biden. Without them, Ukraine would have already lost. But I would have hoped to see on the ground a more concrete commitment from Canada beyond fine words and photo ops. Where is the announced humanitarian aid of more than 320 million going? Sanctions are fine, but they should be applied without exception. And from a military point of view, we who house the largest Ukrainian diaspora, couldn’t we do more?

The words of Winston Churchill spoken on October 27, 1941 seem to me more relevant than ever: “Never give up…never give up in anything, except for honor and common sense. Never give in to force. Never yield to the apparent power of the enemy. »

Churchill had been right. The Allies in 1945 won the war. And then, despite eternal rivalries, destruction and past violence, the European Union managed to unite the sworn enemies. Today, France and Germany are partners, like what is not everything possible?

So, on Christmas Eve, allow me to dream of peace. This is what I wish one day for Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, the Baltic republics, those of Central Asia. I wish them the end of despots, horrors, fratricidal combats, great misery. I wish this corner of the world a community of nations, no longer Soviet, but a union of true democracies and sovereign, uninhibited and tolerant peoples.

Merry Christmas to everyone!