Russia’s assault on Ukrainian civilians is horrifying. We must not look away

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/03/2022 (1044 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Human beings can get used to almost anything. That’s a useful survival skill in tough times, but it’s a problem if it erodes legitimate outrage at a truly outrageous situation.

A month into Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine, what we can see before our eyes is indeed truly outrageous.

Russian troops are, by all accounts, bogged down and making only slow progress against Ukraine’s outnumbered and outgunned military. At the same time, though, they have ratcheted up their assault on Ukraine’s urban centres and civilian population.

This is not just the usual “collateral damage” of war. It appears to be a deliberate strategy, designed to break the will of ordinary Ukrainians to resist.

The results have now become the routine fodder of daily newscasts. We see streets reduced to rubble, schools and even hospitals destroyed, plumes of smoke rising from the ruins of apartment buildings, theatres and ordinary workplaces.

The United Nations says 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced, almost a quarter of the population. The city of Mariupol is being martyred, with thousands of civilians killed, according to local authorities, amid reports that thousands more are being forcibly deported to Russia.

These are genuine horrors, yet after more than four weeks they risk becoming just more visual wallpaper for the news channels. In the Star on Wednesday, Ukraine’s chief diplomat in Canada, Andrii Bukvych, called on us not to allow that to happen: “Look into a mirror and ask yourself: Is it still not my war? Can I still keep my dignity and believe in being a nice person if I want ‘negotiations as soon as possible so that these unpleasant images of sufferings and pain disappear from my TV or computer screen?’”

If nothing else, Ukraine’s government and people have shamed the rest of us into not ignoring their plight. Yet for many reasons, some of them understandable and some of them not, our collective response has fallen short.

On the humanitarian front, Canada and other countries are doing a lot. Canada has launched an ambitious plan to smooth the way for Ukrainians who want refuge in this country. And on Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden announced another $1 billion in humanitarian aid and promised the United States will accept 100,000 refugees. People in other stricken parts of the word — from Ethiopia to Myanmar — can only dream of such a fast and generous response to their pleas for safe haven.

But the vast majority of Ukrainians don’t want to leave their country for any length of time. They want to defend it. And there the West has collectively failed to measure up.

The no-fly zone that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for is a bridge too far, given the danger of getting into direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russian forces. But much more could be done short of that.

Canada, to its embarrassment, almost immediately ran out of anti-tank rocket launchers after a one-time donation to Ukraine, underlying how depleted our reserves of weaponry have become. But other NATO countries have a lot more they could donate; Zelenskyy on Thursday pleaded for one per cent of the alliance’s 20,000 tanks, but was met with a loud silence.

At this point Ukraine’s fight has become everyone’s fight. Skimping on aid, especially military equipment, is both wrong and short-sighted. The Ukrainians have shown how effectively they can use it. And defeat for Russia, which seemed impossible just a few weeks ago, is now a real possibility.

The least the rest of us can do is refuse to look away from the daily toll of suffering.