Letter: Think of those fighting in Ukraine as we are fortunate enough to celebrate the festive season

By Letter to the Editor on November 24, 2022.

Dear editor,

The Christmas season will be here shortly, then the New Year. Many people in the West are looking forward to this festive season and to better times, even though inflation, RSV, influenza and COVID-19 are still here.

But, this optimism is not for all. Ukraine and its citizens would prefer the same, but they are fighting for their survival against the unprovoked and vicious devastation and destruction.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who is delusional and probably insane, has unleashed the country’s military might to destroy those “fake people” and their country, a nation with the second largest European physical geography and with more than 40 million people. They are “little Russians,” and they should be subservient to Putin and his cronies.

Over 8 million people, about one third the population, have become refugees in neighbouring countries and overseas. Their property and possessions in eastern Ukraine, the Donbas region, and in the south, Mariupol and Kherson, have been completely destroyed and/or pillaged by the Russians.

Now Ukraine’s infrastructure is under attack to destroy the source and transmission of electricity/heat and in the supply of water. Russia’s military has been unable to overpower Ukraine’s forces, the tactic now is to starve these people without the necessary elements during the harsh winter months.

This war parallels another horrific period in the 20th century when Joseph Stalin was Russifying the reluctant ethnics in the Soviet Union.

Male nationalists were shipped into slavery to the Siberian gulags. Their languages like Ukrainian were outlawed only for Russian. Thousands were forcibly relocated and replaced with Russians, for example, the Donbas region and Crimea. Ukrainians were starved to force collectivization, the Holodomor, when their harvests were confiscated.

Ukraine has defended itself beyond expectations because the people are determined to be independent of Russia. Unquestionably the supply of armaments and other aid from Western nations and especially from United States has helped in their defence. It would be catastrophic if this support lapsed.

The preference is peace. Will Ukraine be able to maintain its territorial integrity in any agreement, or will part of its territory be sacrificed? The answer may very well be determined in who will be the next president of United States.

Larry Samcoe

Medicine Hat

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