Escape from Mariupol | Russia-Ukraine War
Ukrainian families are taking enormous risks to try to flee Mariupol, traveling through Russian checkpoints — and in some cases land mines — to try to get to safety.
Lately, I have been feeling a lot of shame for some of our politicians. Those who talk about energy prices more than about peace. Those who gave up on Ukraine on day 1 of the war. Those who oppose speed limits or car free sundays to reduce oil and gas imports out of pure egoism. Those who have used empty words to protect their reputation, but did not move a finger when it came to actually helping. We have lost contact with what really matters. With you, the people of Ukraine, the people in this video, the people here in the comments. It just makes me speechless.
But after watching this video I felt something else. I felt compassion. I felt the emptiness in people's hearts, that these bombs leave behind. The constantly repeating echo of trauma. The unbearable silence that follows the gunfire. Feeling overrun by the incomprehensible, surreal world of death and destruction. Pain. Helplessness. The faint hope, that there will be a save haven, somewhere. We, the rest of the world, need to be that haven. It doesn't matter if we write numbers, letters or hieroglyphs on the displays at our gas stations. What matters is you, the people of Ukraine. The people worldwide, who are victims of war. Sending love (and donations to MSF and UNICEF) from Germany.
And thank you to the team from the NYT to give these people a voice. You did that masterfully.
How can people be so cruel to fellow beings, it hurts seeing the pain in this innocent peoples eyes and most of all the young children with no clue of what is really happening around them, the future is theirs and we could at least play a part in shaping it by stopping this senseless war. And we should all know that this moment is not the moment to demonstrate what country you support and don’t support in this war but making sure they know peace is the only way forward.
I watched the video in the NYT digital issue and am now seeing it for the second time. For thirty days I saw images of dead soldiers, prisoners of war, wounded and shocked civilians. In this documentary, the catastrophic situation is told by the people who lived through it. Their stories are edited into just over five minutes of film with such skill and respect that it will touch everyone deeply.
