After a month in Ukraine, returning home allows for a more calm reflection on what I saw covering the day to day of the war.
It seems absurd to think that two peoples with such a similar identity have not managed to reach a political dialogue or find a diplomatic path during almost a decade of conflict.
An appropriate metaphor might be that of the separation of a couple with a long history together, with possessions, shared memories and children. The relationship frayed and each felt the need to go their own way, but did not have the courage to bring it up when dissatisfaction began to emerge. They kept to themselves grievances that one day reached a state that made living together unbearable.
The couple then hand over the negotiation of the division of assets and custody of the children to greedy lawyers, interested only in their earnings and not in the happiness of the two individuals. The greater the friction and the longer the dispute lasts, the greater the gain for those who create problems to sell solutions. Russia and Ukraine, unlucky couple that they were, fell into the hands of the worst lawyers available.
First, there is the risk that what is happening in Eastern Europe is the birth of a phenomenon similar to the one that forged Saddam Hussein.
Like Iraq during and after the war with Iran, part of Ukraine’s population wants to split into independent republics or join Russia. Also like the Iraq of Saddam who is still an ally of the West, Ukraine is receiving weapons and economic and logistical support from the United States.
As long as the country is under attack, the weapons serve to legitimately defend itself against the Kremlin’s aggression. But as soon as the tables are turned — and this may be starting to happen — the Ukrainian government will change from being the attacked to become the aggressor, and its first targets will be the separatist regions, also with the deaths of innocent civilians — that, by the way. , is already happening.
Second point: it is not just the “lawyers” who gain from the war. For journalists, the Russian invasion gave them the possibility to be on the side of “good”, to be heroic in giving voice to the mute and shedding light on the darkness. In the process, many in the field have set aside basic fundamentals of the profession and accepted Kiev’s version as almost indisputable truth.
An idea of David versus Goliath has been spreading—and the good, of course, will always identify with David. (Belatedly, I make a point very clear: the invasion of Ukraine is an indefensible mistake. In the couple’s metaphor, it would be violence committed by a spouse for not accepting the separation or the suggested terms.)
News coverage in many cases seemed less interested in explaining what was happening and more in supporting which side of the conflict the population should support — the apparently weaker one.
Intimidation against journalists, local and foreign, has also been an obstacle. On the 28th, the Institute of Mass Communication, a Ukrainian organization that defends freedom of expression, published an open letter to President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Armed Forces, in which it reports numerous cases of aggression committed by Ukrainian militiamen, police and soldiers. against journalists, mainly in the Kiev region, but not only there.
The text begins with the following sentence: “We, Ukrainian and foreign journalists, as well as media organizations and NGOs, demand that measures be taken immediately to end the attacks on journalists, who are Ukraine’s biggest allies in this war.”
It is wrong to say that journalists “are Ukraine’s greatest allies”. We cannot trade our security in exchange for an alliance with a government, no matter what it is. We are talking about journalism, not media activism. In addition to not helping professionals, the argument puts those who work covering the Russian side of the story at risk.
This leads to the third point: we need war journalists covering wars — however outdated the term may seem. In these conflicts, it will always be the most vulnerable to suffer the most and first. Access to hospitals is important for the press to have an idea of the violence practiced against civilians, but it alone is insufficient.
If the Ukrainian and Russian governments continue to bar journalists from accessing combat zones, it is reasonable to assume that both are hiding crimes. The press cannot sustain the old information manipulation strategy of victimizing in order to hide.
As with fashion, music and politics, it is essential that journalists interested in and specialized in this are sent to war zones, the only ones capable of accepting the working conditions of such an environment.
In Ukraine, many correspondents were kept away from the conflict, especially in Lviv, where life is close to normal and does not expose the details of the war.
The sounds in the attacks can help the journalist to identify the type and function of a weapon, the intensity, the direction, the potency and the intention of the one who uses it. The colors, textures and even the smell of war make it possible to identify the effects of weapons on what they destroyed, on the bodies they injured, the lives they took. The voices, in loco, tell the stories of the characters, true protagonists of so many roles.
When I got home, tired and wanting to think about anything that wasn’t war, I gave myself the freedom to snoop a little into the lives of friends who for weeks were forgotten on social media. I saw with amazement that a great war photographer, Nick Ut — who took the image of a Vietnamese girl victim of a napalm attack —, had shared a montage on Facebook, with the smiling Ukrainian Zelensky taking a selfie next to a coffin with the Russian Vladimir Putin’s body.
The montage reminded me of October 20, 2011, when dictator Muammar Gaddafi was lynched and murdered by Libyan rebels with the help of the US and NATO. The mutilated body was displayed in a refrigerated container in Misrata, where families with children lined up to take selfies.
With noses and mouths covered to keep the stench of putrefaction from spoiling the festive mood, these victors may have little known that, before long, Libya would become an even worse place than it had been for the previous 42 years.
Just as I’m not advocating Russian invasion, I’m obviously not advocating Gaddafi’s hideous dictatorship either, but the montage made me think that Ukraine could become a new Libya.
