After the pandemic comes the war.  This is not at all the means by which we would have liked to get Covid off the airwaves and print and out of our daily lives.  Yet, hardly any mention is being made of it now and border countries are waiving the need for certificates and restrictions for Ukrainian refugees and rightly so.

Out of this apocalypse happening right before our eyes, in Ukraine, different realities have emerged.  One is that war, especially unprovoked war, is abhorred by free citizens around the world.  People have been woken up, even those that are persecuted and arrested if they protest.  They have found a courage that for too long has been neglected in them.  The Ukrainians, on the other hand, have long fostered their courage and perseverance in the face of threats of aggression and have shown all nations around the world what it means to be patriotic and to have faith in God.  On a political level, their mind is made up and their application to join the European Union has been accepted.

On an unprecedented level, the European Union has risen to the call to the utmost of its abilities, working in cohesion with the USA and with NATO to respond squarely and decisively to the threat on their doorstep coming from Russia.   Our own Roberta Metsola was the person for the time, leading the parliament with strong conviction and direction.

The most recent time when such outrage was manifested against the killing of innocent people was at the Charlie Hebdo shooting, series of terrorist attacks that shook France in January 2015, claiming the lives of 17 people, including 11 journalists and security personnel at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satiric magazine. The deadly violence focused attention on the threat posed by militant Islam, but the response to the attacks by the French was generally one of solidarity rather than reprisal. 

On the day of the 2015 attack, while the terrorists were still at large, thousands of people took to the streets in Paris and other cities to express sympathy for the victims, using the slogan “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”). The message of solidarity spread around the world on social media. 

Again in November 2015, in Paris, the Bataclan attack took place and claimed the lives of 130 people.

Fast forward to 2022 and here we are again with a different aggressor but one who has never really left the scene and has been a disrupter since at least the end of the cold war.  Russia’s actions, however, are not the product of a legitimate aggrievance but the distortion of a sick mind.  The personality disorder that drives the need for this evil war on Ukraine is nothing to do with logic or justification.  It is the need to control, manipulate and find continued supply of adulation for Putin himself. 

The Ukrainians know this and have said that they will not put up with his nonsense.  They will stand and fight against the might of the Russian army and war machine being unleashed on them. 

It is hard to see them fight alone, even though they have found the support of the West and the EU with the extensive and deep sanctions and the weapons and equipment they have been given.  The USA also shares intelligence with them.  But if you see a friend of yours being bullied and beaten, you would instinctively come to his aid.  It is also hard to see that column of tanks waiting on the road to Kyiv without it being swooped upon and wiped out by American fighter planes and bombs.  Just as we cannot stomach seeing the rocket launchers sending bombs that are prohibited for their use against civilians or urban areas and not find a UK military operation to completely eliminate that threat from happening again.  Maybe we must learn to have patience and trust in a greater good to come out of this, hard as that may be.  Certainly, the faith and resilience of the Ukrainians is their greatest ally. 

What a contrast to the egoistic and foolhardy attitude of Robert Abela in the face of being called upon to do his part in the international community by closing the sale of passports to Russians and offering humanitarian assistance to the refugees.  His childish response was anything but that of a statesman.  It is something you might hear in band club or a village bar from the local big shot.   Instead it has been up to the ordinary citizen and the business sector to come to the rescue and show that the people of Malta do care and have a generous spirit and show their solidarity. 

At times like this, the vile character of those who have no place in a civilized society, is evidenced in the rough removal of the candles and symbols left behind in front of the Russian Embassy in Kappara following a protest.  Nobody is disciplined, no one taught better.  It is allowed to happen and quite likely condoned whilst a banal excuse is presented to the press.  We have seen his happen before.

Around the world, though, people were able to appreciate what it means to have a decent, brave and trusted leader.  Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky demonstrates that he knows and is wholly in touch with the mood and ambitions of his fellow countrymen.  He did not take the ride out of Kyiv and fly to safety.  He immersed himself into the fight for his country, against all odds. 

This war can separate the wheat from the chaff, the false from the true, the brave from the weak.  After this mad and horrendous attack from Russia on Ukraine and on freedom and peace, the world will be a different place.  Geo-politically but also in re-setting its values and solidarity. 

It should make us remember too and do all we can to end the continued wars around the globe, not least in Yemen, Syria and in African countries.  The suffering in Afghanistan is not being covered but what is unfolding there is inhumane.  As it is in Yemen.  People who live in refugee camps in Syria and Turkey face indescribable suffering and misery.  No longer can we turn away and leave the problem to someone else or for money to solve.  Such strategy allowed Putin to wage war as it suits him and become more powerful.

It remains to be seen what NATO or sovereign states will do when the atrocities and war crimes taking place in Ukraine mean that the free world is now under the dominion of Putin.  We can only trust that the sanctions imposed will cripple him and just like other dictators before him, he will meet his end at the bottom of a bunker in the dark and with barely a sausage to eat.  So much for being the richest man in the world.