“Anyone, who thinks, must think of the war as they would of suicide.” These words by Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt feel particularly truer now than they have ever.
When the world is still grappling with the catastrophic impact of the Novel Coronavirus, a new geopolitical danger has unexpectedly exacerbated and is probably spawning beyond control now as Vladimir Putin, who is clearly denied a quick victory, continues to flex nuclear muscle against his enemy with spine-tingling recklessness and will certainly not pull back at this hour of time. And the question that arises here is, does the perpetrator know that the bombs it is raining over the world like fireworks will be the same ones that would explode inside the bones of their children wrapped up in detonations and handed down the generations? Do they know that every single fuse would burn through the lifetimes and set fire to the lifelines?
The scene in Ukraine gets uglier with every passing moment. Civilian deaths mount up. The human costs of the invasion led by Russia mount as if these humans don’t have families, people they love, and lives to live. Every single survivor probably feels like they’ve died a thousand times within the past week or more, as they walk on the blood-soaked ground on which once the only red seen was of beautiful roses and the sounds heard were of happiness, which seem remotely unreachable as they suffocate, trapped inside painful breathing and sorrowful screaming. They stand wearing the blood of the families they’ve lost, watching their loved ones fall victim to death’s cold hands- if gut-wrenching had a face, it’d be these people who’ve survived the war.
As war rages in Ukraine, people seek shelter in bunkers and tunnels of Kyiv. Many others exhausted but defiant to face the enemy. Voices in Russia are muffled daily as the sun explodes and all the clouds burn throughout Ukraine. Although the exact outcome of the war in Ukraine has yet to come, it is irrefutable that Russia’s actions are aimed towards establishing itself as a major power in world politics- one that is competent in shaping global discourse, while a mother sheds tears for a lost son— the death maybe his, but the blood is still hers. A sister relinquishes the kindred spirit of a brother that used to be her rock. A tearful daughter watches unblinkingly the canvas of her father chipping away- once a boulder she could rest her head on. A wife screaming her grief through every lonesome night asking God how He let her husband go the way of the flesh whilst she was still alive. When a body bites the dust, does he realize that this was never his war to fight and there was so much more to life?
Warlords step out of the shadows, on the increase, as storm clouds hover dangerously over fields of peace and the sky turning a grim shade as the angels ready their scythe for slaughter of the finest at the Devil’s command. This digs deep for answers to whether it is just two countries being butchered or the mankind as a whole. The earth is turning backwards as soldiers rush forwards, knives sharpened, growling at the gates of Ukraine. Lives change every moment to turn out to be a cruel twist of fate because of something as little as choosing your priorities- and right now, potential world leaders that hope to change the face of politics all over the world seemingly side with wholesale slaughter over shaping mankind into the better version of itself. One death can mobilize a community, even a nation. Many deaths, hundreds or thousands, can make a lasting impression to be used for good or bad intentions. The only antidote is to shine a light on one dead child at a time, just one. To let the world see each God's child killed in the name of war, in the name of money, power and greed, for it seems today, not everything is fair in love and war.
(The writer is a student of Standard- X, DAV Public School, Unit-8, Bhubaneswar)