A Teacher and Student’s Perspective on the War in Ukraine

In November 2021 I was invited to a Round Table Discussion organized by The International Relations Student Organization from Corvinus university of Budapest. The Topic of interest was President Biden and his Foreign Policy for Europe. One of the topics of interest was, of course, America’s policy on Ukraine and Russia. None of the people involved in the discussion imagined that a full-scale invasion from the Russian government would be directed in such a brutal way against the Ukrainian people just three months later. After our discussion a student from one of my classes who is from Ukraine wrote me an email:

“Yesterday during the roundtable discussion, we never returned to the 6th question about the Nord Stream 2 and its impact on Ukraine, I am still interested in your thoughts on this matter.

Only financial consequences for Ukraine have been mentioned yesterday. But apart from that everyone understands that the EU’s increasing dependence on Russia’s gas actually unties Russia’s hands towards Ukraine.

I personally do think about International relations from the perspective of realism, which is based on power and not trying to fall into the victim syndrome saying that someone has to come and save Ukraine, as first of all we have to think how to make the system more efficient by ourselves, but still… The West keeps claiming about democratic values and Ukraine (at least since the 2014 Maidan revolution) blatantly positions itself to the world as a country which pursues its democratic pro-western aspirations despite being attacked by a much stronger opponent with openly imperialistic ambitions.

So does the Nord Stream 2 actually mean Ukraine is basically being traded off? Up to what point the West is ready to protect their democratic values? If only to the point when it doesn’t contradict to their economic interest, does it mean that for the last couple of decades we have been listening to basically empty words about democracy?”

A Historical Fact taken form an interview conducted by TED to Historian Yuval Noah Harari:

“If we talk about history, it is imperative to know that Ukrainians are not Russians. Ukraine is an ancient and independent nation with a history of more than one thousand years; Kyiv has been a metropolis and a cultural hub when the capital of Moscow was yet to become a village.”

The student is presenting and putting forward very important issues. All the concerns presented are relevant and important to understand the current situation.

This is a conflict that started on the 24 of February this year and has only been escalating as days go by, and no real intervention as occurred to protect the people in this country, many of whom have fled to neighboring countries as refugees.

I will not publish my reply to my student´s email; because I honestly think that my answer was short on facts and did not predict the current situation that we are experiencing on this part of the world. However, what I will do now is give my student the space so that an honest and humane testimony can be presented for everyone to read, especially those in America and Western Europe who sit comfortably in peace and talk about liberty and democracy from behind computer screens detached from the material reality of the war:

“Life is so different now. Even staying outside of Ukraine, these days I can only dream about that usual everyday life I had just a few weeks ago. Checking up on my family is the first thing I do every morning and the last thing I do before going to bed. Talking to my 14 years old sister I now listen to her stories about how she couldn’t catch her cat to take to the bomb shelter. During the first week of the war, I wasn’t able to sleep. Every night instead of sleeping I was crying and chaotically looking through the news to verify if my country is still fighting.

Now, weeks later, waking up in the morning I am sure that my beautiful country is still fighting. Ukrainians are now fighting for freedom of choice and for values that in many countries are taken for granted. Never in my life, I’ve seen my nation being so united. Amid destroyed cities, the Ukrainian national identity is reborn and blooming with the power that the imperialistic beast on our eastern border has never seen before. After this war, we will never be the same people again. We will never be the same nation again. We will be much stronger and inspired to rebuild everything that has been destroyed.”

My student has a name; however, it is not necessary to reveal a name here because I wish to protect my student’s identity but also because this identity is equally the identity of millions of Ukrainian human beings that are suffering from this situation. My student’s name and voice are the true symbol of struggle for peace, liberty and democracy that so many nations around the world talk about but do little to defend as we have seen in the past few weeks. This is especially true of the pundit and intellectual class; meanwhile, students are now on the frontline fighting for real peace, liberty and democracy.

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