I’ve dealt with Putin before: I know what it will take to defeat this brutal despot
Maksym Kurochkin is a playwright. For almost three years, he and 20 other Ukrainian playwrights had been planning to build a new theatre in the heart of Old Kyiv. The group found a magnificent old structure that they were busy renovating in order to open the Playwrights’ theatre on 12 March. On 24 February, Maksym and his colleagues awoke to the horrific sound of bombs. 12 March came and went. Instead of planning a grand opening for a new theatre, Maksym is now examining military strategies to defeat the Russian invaders. Instead of a pen in his hand, he now carries a weapon.
It is two months since the Russian army illegally crossed our borders. They have been failing ever since in their attempts to invade Ukraine. Part of the reason for their failure is that they were not expecting to meet such fierce and heroic resistance, both from our sophisticated military and from territorial defenders like Maksym who, when faced with the reality of the Russian invasion, decided to take up arms and fight.
‘I’ll never tire of reminding people that it is Russian hands that press the buttons that release the bombs that fall on us’ … the theatre in Mariupol, Ukraine, that was being used as a shelter when it was bombed on 18 March, killing 300 people.
Many of these brave territorial defenders, including my own daughter, who immediately signed up once the war began, have never had any military training or been in any kind of conflict situation. Stories like that of the young couple who pushed their wedding day forward in order to join the territorial defence force, or the comedian who usually helps veterans get over their trauma but has decided to become a fighter himself, show you the unbreakable spirit of the Ukrainian people. Tragically, some of these defenders have fallen in battle. Others have been beaten and killed in cities such as Bucha, Kharkiv and Mariupol. We will not know how many of our citizens have died until we open the mass graves and clear the rubble of our razed cities.
As shocking as these stories are to hear, this is exactly what we should expect from the savage Russian army led by the dictator Vladimir Putin. [Continue reading…]