Oleksandr V, from Kharkiv, age 40. March 11

two people in Ukrainian street

As a volunteer, I went to defend Ukraine in 2014, where I was wounded and returned home.  I started my own Blade Brothers Knives knife business, and I founded and ran the Knife Fighting Federation of Ukraine.  Now my business is ruined, and 90% of my Federation’s instructors have gone to the war.

Russia attacked Ukraine at night like a thief, firing missiles at many cities at once. They say they use high-precision weapons and only hit military installations, but in fact they are bombing homes, hospitals, and maternity hospitals.  So they want to break our will so that we will beg them to stop.

However, we are evacuating our wives and children and going to war.  In one week, more than 100,000 men returned to Ukraine to kill Russians. I am deliberately saying not to “defend my country” but to kill the Russians, because we are overwhelmed with hatred for what they have done. They want to destroy us as a nation, and we will never forgive them. We will not forgive them and we will take revenge.

Western governments believe that this war can be localized by calling it a “conflict,” limited to sanctions and arms supplies.

Yes, we are grateful for the weapons and sanctions, for all the wonderful support that the Western world is giving us. However, you must understand that war cannot be won by sanctions – you can only win the battle by fighting.

You do not want to inflame the conflict?  Ok, Putin will do it for you.  Today he will involve Belarus in the war, then his other allies – Kazakhstan and Armenia.  He will use chemical weapons as in Syria, carry out terrorist attacks on Chernobyl, Zaporizhia and our other nuclear power plants, and then all of Europe will suffer. Ukraine will be followed by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

An ancient philosopher once said that war cannot be avoided – it can only be postponed in favor of the enemy. I hope that Western governments will not make such a mistake. Because the war has already begun.