Last February 24 marked 2 years since the beginning of Putin’s cruel, unjustified and violent invasion of Ukraine. Two years that have contemplated the best and the worst of what we humans are capable of. Two years of virtues, heroism and magnanimity.
Two years in which a brave people have heroically faced the invading army of a nation with a production seven and a half times greater and a population more than three times greater, which is also a military and nuclear power.
Two years during which neighboring towns, in the midst of rampant nationalism, have given shelter to millions of Ukrainians expelled by the war.
Two years in which many nations have accepted to suffer higher prices for energy, food and other goods, closing their import from Russia.
Two years in which the US and Europe have been generous in sharing resources and means for the defense of Ukrainian soil, and in protecting their own national security interests.
The pain of war
Also two years of vices and their tragic consequences.
Two years of the stubborn arrogance of Vladimir Putin determined to conquer imperial greatness through the submission of a free people, despite its enormous human costs. Costs suffered by his own people.
Two years in which hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have been killed or injured. Millions of Ukrainians have had to emigrate internally and externally. The destruction of infrastructure and capital is immense.
Two years of enormous suffering for Ukrainian families.
The UN estimated on October 3 that more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have died. The Report of the UN Human Rights Observation Mission in Ukraine of that date points out: “the deadly cost of the large-scale Russian invasion with almost six fatalities and 20 injuries on average each day between February and July of this year …Civilians also face torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence and arbitrary detention. Hundreds of people remain imprisoned and their families do not know what will happen to them… Russian missile attacks against residential areas and vital infrastructure, as well as agricultural and grain facilities, continue to sow fear and destruction throughout Ukraine. “The war has caused millions of Ukrainians to fall below the poverty line, a situation made worse by the widespread economic and social damage caused by attacks on vital agricultural facilities.”
How many children have died in Putin’s cruel invasion of Ukraine! Last August, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office reported that 512 children have died, 1,152 have been injured and 13 have suffered sexual violence. Furthermore, from the beginning of the invasion until December 10, 19,546 children have been deported to Russia or forcibly displaced from their homes in the areas temporarily occupied by the invader. Ukrainian intelligence services report that more than 32,000 people from those areas have been deported to 68 territories of the Russian Federation, of which it is estimated that more than 10,900 are children.
In Ukraine, more than a quarter of Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, 5.4 million due to having to relocate to other areas of their country, and according to UNHCR as of November 21, 6.3 million Ukrainians had sought refuge in other areas. countries, most of them in Europe and on that continent in Germany and Poland.
Approximately 20% of Ukraine’s territory is invaded by Russia and the destruction suffered by the country is so immense that the cost of its reconstruction is estimated at one million million dollars. This represents more than 15 years of Costa Rica’s total production.
And now that?
Unfortunately in its second year the war entered a stalemate and the Ukrainian army was unable to make significant progress in its offensive last summer.
But also in recent months, Ukrainian victories in the Black Sea have been so successful that Russia has lost around 40 percent of its naval tonnage in the Black Sea since February 2022. With this, Ukraine has regained the possibility of mobilizing its exports. .
Last Saturday Russia took the city of Avdivka in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. It is Russia’s first combat success in 9 months and meant the capture of many Ukrainian soldiers.
It comes when in recent months there have been difficulties for the European Union to approve its massive program of financial and military aid to Ukraine, when the Republicans have prevented the approval of military aid from the United States and when Former President Trump, under whose leadership they have acted Thus, the representatives of his party, who may well win the elections and be president again, have threatened that the US would not help NATO countries that were attacked by Russia.
Europe faces the need to provide its own defense against possible military attacks by Putin, and this is not an easy task nor one that can be carried out in a short time.
Ukraine is going through very difficult times. To death, blood, destruction and fear is now added anguish due to the uncertainty of the help he needs to confront the cruel invader.
But the Ukrainian people are brave, they love their homeland and want to defend it from the invader. The fight threatens to be long and difficult. The hope of victory is lower today than a year ago.
Also in Russia, concern about war, rising prices and the pain of deaths take their toll, despite the power of Putin’s dictatorship, who ratifies it with the death of the Russian patriot Alekséi Navalny in a terrible prison in Siberia. in the arctic zone.
Costa Rica and Ukraine
Democracies cannot be indifferent to the fate of Ukrainians or to the independence of their country. What matters is the defense of their values, the territorial integrity of an incipient democracy and their own national security. They must decisively and efficiently support Ukraine.
We Costa Ricans are a peace-loving Christian people, and although we are an unarmed nation, which is a blessing, we cannot be indifferent to the cruelty suffered in Ukraine.
One month after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, I published what I now repeat:
“WE CANNOT be indifferent to the cruel war unleashed by Vladimir Putin against the Ukrainian people. WE CANNOT out of humanity. WE CANNOT because of our Values.”
“Nor can we for our national interest. WE CANNOT forget that we do not have an army, and that we have been threatened by countries that do have one. In the past, friendly nations and international organizations have come to our aid. Who will defend us without an army if a dictator invades us? Due to this reality, our sovereignty rests on international law, on the principle established in the United Nations against unilateral military interventions (Article 2.4 of the UN charter) and on the principles established by the OAS. But the effectiveness of these instruments depends on the solidarity of other nations being applied in our favor. It is therefore of fundamental importance for our own survival to strengthen the condemnation of invasions of other nations. WE CANNOT in our own interest and in protection of our sovereignty be indifferent to Putin’s disgraceful invasion of Ukraine.”
“For values and interest we must oppose wars and invasions. They are never justified.”
Today, for national interest and to protect our sovereignty and given the international panorama and the confrontation with the West led by Putin and Xi Jinping, we must strengthen relations with the UN, the OAS and the US that protect our territorial security.
