‘Never think that war is not a crime’

It’s difficult to fathom that in the year 2024 there are still wars being fought, resulting in unnecessary lives being lost and people displaced.

On Saturday, Ukraine marked two years since Russia’s invasion.

It feels like the conflict only started recently, but for those affected, it must feel like an eternity.

To mark the occasion Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky defiantly urged his Western allies to step up military supplies and vowed victory over Russia.

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Yet, as American writer Ernest Hemingway said: “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”

There is no way to glorify war. There are no winners.

Zelensky said: “We will win. Putin can lose this war. Remember that imperial ambitions and revanchism can be defeated only together.”

One cannot blame Zelensky for his fighting words, but at what cost will “victory” come? Far too many lives – mostly innocent – have already been lost.

As the war enters its third year perhaps Kyiv’s army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said it best: “Light will triumph over darkness”, while Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg urged Ukraine and its allies not to “lose heart”.

We, too, should not lose heart in humanity, in the hope Ukraine and others suffering from conflict find peace.