Most Doubtful People Cast Off Illusions This Morning

• Natallia Radzina
• 24.02.2025, 18:37

Lukashenka and Putin are equally our enemies.

Natallia Radzina, Charter97.org editor-in-chief, recalls the first day of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, which began exactly three years ago:

- Today many people remember that Thursday, 24 February 2022, when Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine began. I have heard many stories of my Ukrainian friends who experienced the true horror of having missiles and bombs flying down on their heads, of being surrounded by death and destruction.

What do I remember? Not sleeping all night, knowing that the war would probably start, but at 5 a.m. I was still horrified by the reports of the bombing of Kyiv and Ukrainian cities.

The most doubtful people cast off their illusions that morning. Our country had been turned into a concentration camp and an aggressor. There came a clear and precise understanding that Lukashenka and Putin are equally our enemies who have no right to dispose of our destiny.

All the journalists of ‘Charter-97’ switched to round-the-clock work at that time, they forgot about sleep and rest. We wanted to do something to help, at least informationally.

Then Belarusian units started to appear in Ukraine, and we tried to find ways to support Belarusian volunteers in every possible way.

Our state could be compared to an earthquake, when you are losing the ground under your feet, trying to catch at the walls and surrounding objects, but they are collapsing too. However, all this was going on deep in our souls, while very close by, in Ukraine, real walls were collapsing, real bombs were falling on people's heads, people were dying real deaths there, so there was and could be no compassion for us.

I remember the turning point when it became easier. When I went to work as a volunteer in a Warsaw centre for Ukrainian refugees. Where you do small but concrete things: resettling people, feeding them, taking them to the medical centre, drawing up lists of those leaving for other EU countries, calming them down. And in what way calming them down? Just hugging. I have never hugged so many people in my life!

Upon learning that I was from Belarus, some refugees used to freeze for a moment, but then they would realise very soon that the authorities and people should be separated. Although I still do not condemn those Ukrainians who do not separate. I know that immense pain, suffering and hardship are behind it.

So all we can give Ukrainians today is understanding and support. At all times and in everything.

In this situation, we can take responsibility for our freedom and independence only ourselves, each of us.