I am not handling this war very well. Not a day goes by when I do not reflect on the needless suffering of the Ukrainian people during this brutal invasion.

As I write these lines, another apartment building has been struck, increasing the number of civilian casualties.

In part it is difficult for me since my mother was born in Russia and my father in Ukraine. During my numerous visits I have been able to visit the village where my father was born, spend time in the countryside with relatives as well as in the cities of Odesa, Kyiv and Lviv where I have walked the streets that are currently being bombed.

Although Crimea was occupied and war was ravaging the Donbas during my last visit to Ukraine in 2018, one could see that the people were doing their very best to cope as life went on. However, memorials to the fallen and young soldiers leaving for the front served as constant reminders of the sacrifices being made in the defence of this fledgling democracy. Although we are used to seeing conflicts in other parts of the world and feel for those suffering, this one, for me, is personal. I find it is much easier to identify with the suffering of people if you have roots in the country and have spent time there.

The question continues to linger – why? Why did Putin decide to launch a full scale invasion?

There are those who state that this is because of a US/NATO proxy war against Russia. According to them, we should disband NATO and cease providing Ukraine with weapons. Others call this a civil war and believe the only outcome can be through negotiations where Ukraine permanently gives up part of its sovereign territory to Russia.

In these discussions it often appears that the will of the Ukrainian people themselves is discounted, as if somehow Zelenskyy and his government are pawns of the West. However, let us not forget that he was elected with 70 per cent of the popular vote and that his party commands a majority in parliament.

The question of Russia and NATO is a complex one, and to be honest, prior to the 2014 invasion, I was starting to question the rationale for maintaining this military alliance.

The fact is that in 1994, according to the Budapest memorandum, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons to Russia in return for a guarantee by Russia, the US and the UK that its sovereignty would be respected and borders not violated. As we can see non of the signing super powers carried out their commitment. Russia invaded while the US and UK watched.

I am not a military strategist but I would think that if Russia really felt threatened by NATO, all it would have to do is reposition a few missiles on the borders of NATO countries and then negotiate for a de-escalation on both sides. One of course wonders if Russia would have invaded Ukraine at all if it had been part of NATO.

In attempting to determine the real reason for this conflict one only has to look at Putin’s essay of July 2021 entitled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians”. Basically, he and many other Russians do not recognize Ukraine as as a nation and are unwilling to accept that the majority of Ukrainians want to be part of Europe and not under Russian domination.

This brings me to ask, what can be done to end this senseless conflict? Are the Ukrainian people prepared to negotiate the end of the conflict knowing that part of their country will be lost? So far we have seen that those areas under Russian control have seen extreme brutality such as summary executions, rape, looting, mining of fields and roads, filtration camps to root out Ukrainian patriots and the forced deportation to Russia of Ukrainian citizens, many of them children. Would Zelenskyy be willing to undergo negotiations knowing that this fate awaits some citizens of his country?

Personally, at this point in time, the only way I see for the Ukrainian nation to survive is to win this war. This, of course, means continuing support from the West with sophisticated military equipment to finally stop the missile and drone strikes that are terrorizing the population. As someone who has been involved in the peace movement over the years this is not an easy statement for me to make. I do not see any other way out. If we stop providing assistance, Ukraine will cease to exist as a free and democratic nation.

It is interesting to note that this conflict has solidified the Ukrainian people. Russian and Ukrainian speakers are fighting side by side against the aggressor. In striving for his “Russian world” Putin has created enemies, forced NATO the beef up its forces and alienated much of the world community. What a total waste of human lives including the 100,000 or so Russian soldiers that have been killed or wounded in this conflict since the February 2022 invasion.

Is there a possible way that 2023 will see an end to this brutal conflict and at the same time guarantee that the Ukrainian people will be able to chart their own course in history? Only time will tell.

Alex Atamanenko, Castlegar