The Raw Courage of Ukrainians
Side by side with the worst of humanity, you find the best!
If Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a dispiriting reminder of the fragility of democracy and the persistence of evil, the response of ordinary Ukrainians is an inspiring reminder of the human capacity for breathtaking courage and sacrifice.
Over the decades, I’ve often been asked how I remain optimistic as I cover war, genocide and famine, and I typically say something like: Side by side with the worst of humanity, you find the best. Ukraine is an example of just that.
It was entirely predictable that the Russian army would seize poorly defended Ukrainian towns like Melitopol and Kherson, but what was less predictable was that ordinary unarmed Ukrainian citizens would spill onto the streets and risk their lives by challenging a Russian army that has demonstrated its capacity for brutality from Chechnya to Syria.
Here is extraordinary footage of Ukrainians lying on the ground to block a convoy of Russian vehicles and then stopping an army truck with their bare hands. The tweet says the video is from Kherson, but I believe it’s actually from Melitopol in southern Ukraine.
Or here’s a video reportedly from Kherson of a street protest with a large throng of Ukrainians on the streets. Note that I can’t verify that this is from Kherson or when it was made, and verification is an ongoing challenge with some of these videos. There’s not an obvious Russian presence in this video, and the Ukrainian flag is still flying. So we should acknowledge some uncertainty about the accuracy of the labeling of war videos, but they do correspond in general to what we’re hearing from encounters between Russians and Ukrainians:
Here’s another reportedly from Kherson, this time with smoke in the background that does suggest that fighting is underway.
Or this one from Novopskov in Eastern Ukraine:
Does this kind of raw courage and civilian protest matter in a war? How will Russian troops respond, and will it restrain them?
I don’t know. In late May 1989 I saw similar scenes play out near Tiananmen Square, with ordinary citizens stopping troops, and many people thought that they had stopped the Chinese army. Then the government gave the troops orders to open fire, and they massacred citizens. I saw something similar with Arab Spring in Egypt, Bahrain and elsewhere. I’ve seen too much carnage after peaceful protests like that to believe that raw courage necessarily defeats machine guns. That said, it’s easy for an artillery officer to shell a civilian neighborhood miles away; it’s more difficult to roll a truck over a crowd of women and crush them, or to pull the trigger on women in front of you. (That may sound sexist, but I have seen that it is more difficult for troops to shoot women than to shoot young men, although it obviously does happen.)
I was moved by a reported exchange of text messages between a Russian mom and her soldier son, in which he spoke of Ukrainians “throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass. They call us fascists. Mama, this is so hard”:
That exchange was released by the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations, reportedly from the phone of a Russian soldier killed in combat, and of course we should also treat it with a certain amount of skepticism until it has been independently verified. In covering conflicts in the past, I’ve learned to be wary of reports like this from government officials trying to create a narrative —sometimes they’re true, and sometimes they’re not.
But what has been verified is simply the extraordinary courage of Ukrainians, and that is what is so memorable about this war. That courage has allowed a small fighting force to slow down a superpower army, and that courage has won the hearts of people world over, especially in Europe. For decades Europe had largely snubbed Ukraine, patronizing it as a corrupt backwater, but now wherever we are we look at Ukrainians and see: undaunted courage. It’s proof once more of the principle that alongside the worst of humanity, you find the best.
Oregon has missed out on an opportunity that likely won't come again.
Dear Mr. Kristof -
When you were a columnist for the NY Times, your writing was compelling. Your writing now is as compelling, but seems to have added a touch of caring and humanity. It may be that I'm reflecting what I want to see, given that I do want you as Oregon's governor, but your columns on the Ukraine provide a different view - one that reflects not only the grim facts, but also hopes and ideals of a people under seige. And this approach is comforting when reading about Russian oppression and Ukrainian resistance. Thank you for your insight.