A letter from Ukraine front lines

“I would like this text to be reposted, copied and translated into different languages.  To be shared with foreigners and their politics.

I am not a military man.  I never aspired to be in the military.  I am a PhD in history, a researcher, a museum worker.  And a bit of a writer.  I have to devote my time to researching history, writing scholarly and popular science works.  And also fiction books.  Because I like it and even get it done.

But lately I’ve been in the military.  Because…  there’s a war in my country.

We sleep on crates in unbelievable cramped conditions in the backs of trucks, and wash in warm water once a month.  When it rains – we’re wet, when it swamps – we’re dirty as hell (and we wash once a month, I remind you, and it’s not a fact that the next month will be possible).

And in similar conditions, if not worse, are now in Ukraine thousands of historians, writers, accountants, bankers, IT workers, teachers, designers and other peaceful professions.

They are being killed from the 152nd and Tochka-U, followed by bullets and VOGs, cluster munitions and phosphorus munitions.  Some of them are already dead.  And some will never go back to their specialty, because they are burned out.  But all of them continue to fight.  Because Ukraine is behind them.  For if they lay down their arms, their parents will be killed, their wives and daughters raped, and their homes destroyed or confiscated.

And when politicians from France, Italy, Germany and other countries suggest that we lay down arms, agree to the loss of territories, give Russia some security guarantees (absurd!!! Russia does not need any security guarantees, its neighbors need guarantees against threats from their side) )… So I feel rage and deep disgust.  Disgust for these insignificant people who, because of their prejudices or thanks to Putin’s dirty money, are ready to condemn my country to absorption, to a slow and painful death.  Disgust and rage for those who have enormous power to help overcome the crisis, but seek, consciously or unconsciously, to deepen it.  For even a complete surrender of Ukraine will not solve the problem of global security.

On the contrary, it will push Russia to make new conquests.

We don’t need offers to surrender.  If you are not ready to fight with us against an enraged enemy, then help us with weapons, money, sanctions.  We need a lot of everything to defeat Russia and thus drastically reduce the global crisis.  But we have the most important thing: motivation.  We have historians who are willing to sleep on crates of five people for two bunks and knead mud for weeks without a chance to wash.

We have accountants who are willing to eat nothing but porridge and stew for months.

We have young students who spend their best years in danger of death.

And they’re not going anywhere unless they all get killed.

With your consent.

Ukraine will fight either until victory or until it can’t resist.

And what will you do?

With respect,

Ph.D. in history, Author of six books, now a junior sergeant in the AFU.”

 Nazar Razlutsky

Ukraine Front Lines

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