For we Ukranians, it’s hard to ignore the looming danger from Russia

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Editor’s note: News + Record Publisher Bill Horner III and his wife, Lee Ann, made four trips to Ukraine between 2016 and 2019 through a Christian ministry called International Partnerships-Ukraine, which is based in Boone. Prior to the COVID pandemic, they and other members of their church worked with native Ukranian students and professionals, helping to teach English, lead workshops and develop relationships with ministry teams in Odessa, Lviv and Kyiv. Maia Mikhaluk and her husband, Nic, direct the work of IP-Ukraine and its team of full-time faith leaders from their home in Kyiv. Maia wrote this story, at Bill’s invitation, to address the potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Mikhaluks make annual trips to N.C. and have been guests in the home of the Horners on several occasions.

Since coming to power two decades ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin has worked systematically to reverse what he views as the humiliating breakup of the Soviet Union 30 years ago. He’s massed troops along Ukraine’s border and is demanding that Ukraine be permanently barred from exercising its sovereign right to join the Western alliance, and that other NATO actions, such as stationing troops in former Soviet bloc countries, be curtailed. Foreign governments, including the U.S., are working to respond.

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe where the physical geographic center of Europe actually is. It’s 2022 and peace in Europe is about to be destroyed.

I am Ukrainian and today, like most Ukrainians, I am preparing emergency backpacks and marking on our Google maps the bomb shelters closest to my home and office.

I can’t sleep at night worrying about my eight-months pregnant daughter, who might have to deliver her first child somewhere in the snowy field while running away from bombs because our neighboring country, Russia, is threatening us with a massive invasion — having surrounded us on south, east and north with a 125,000+ army.

The tension grows every day as we anxiously watch Russia-USA negotiations on Ukraine, as we hear of embassies evacuating their people from Kyiv, as every day there are reports of schools, shopping centers, airports being evacuated because of false warnings of the buildings being mined. We all say that we made our emergency plans and we are determined to live our lives as normal as possible, but it’s hard to ignore the looming danger.

The threat is not new to us, but the scale of possible invasion this time is much bigger. Russia started its military aggression against Ukraine in March of 2014 when it annexed (stole) the Crimean Peninsula — the southern territory of Ukraine. The rest of the world expressed concerns, but other than that, there were no consequences to Russia, which only emboldened President Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine in the East as well. The last eight years the fight in the Eastern Ukraine continues; it has taken 15,000 lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, and destroyed the region — houses, industry, infrastructure.

My husband Nic and I are originally from that part of Ukraine, and we made over 50 trips together with other volunteers to bring food and medications to civilians in the Eastern Ukraine who are stranded in the war zone. It was heartbreaking to see the ruin of so many lives, and now we realize the same is coming to where we live — into the capital of the country at the center of Europe. The consequences to Russia for unlawful actions breaking all the international laws were almost zero, so now Putin is ready to go further, threatening to destroy Ukraine.

Why should Americans care?

One of the easiest ways to answer that question is to suggest you watch a new Netflix movie: “Munich — The Edge of War.” The parallels will be hard to miss as history is repeating itself in front of your eyes. Evil, ambitious, power-hungry men like Hitler and Putin will keep on their evil deeds as long as the world will allow. In the beginning of the movie, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain addresses the nation in his radio speech: “How horrible and fantastic it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.”

Maybe that’s how you feel about Ukraine. But keep in mind that this is not just some local conflict; it’s not only Ukraine that Putin wants to take over. I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but if you really try to understand what goes on not just on the surface, but the deep underwater currents, you will see the crisis is a struggle over the future world order.

Putin claims that Ukraine should be in its sphere of influence; they want the right to veto Ukraine joining NATO or any western alliance. These demands violate the right of an independent country to define its own foreign policy. If Russia is allowed to start establishing its spheres of influence, it will show to China that they can do the same in the South China Sea. This might open a Pandora’s box.

And it’s not only about territory and power, it’s about ideas and values. In 1917 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson talked about “making the world safe for democracy.” In 2022, Putin is determined to make the world safe for autocracy.

Why should Americans care about what is happening in Ukraine? Because it’s not only future of my children that might be getting determined here, but also the future of yours. Will we allow Putin and Xi to reshape the world?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maia Mikhaluk works in Ukraine in a Christian ministry that is focused on planting churches. Together with her husband, Nic, she has been leading a volunteer group that is delivering humanitarian aid to the war zone in Eastern Uraine. She is also a professional photographer, and since Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity in 2013 and the start of Russian aggression in 2014, she has been sharing with the world what is happening in her country through her photo reports in various international media. She can be reached at mmikhaluk@yahoo.com.