Culture

Switzerland is known for its policy of neutrality, which means that it does not take sides in conflicts between other countries. However, this policy is not absolute, and there are several reasons why it is not considered to be pure neutrality. Especially in times like these, where the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put a heavy toll on the whole concept of Western unity, and military aid for Ukraine is needed to defend a nation against its fascist aggressors, Switzerland remains hesitant about aiding a country in an emergency.

I am a human rights politologist militant artist from Venezuela living in Italy where I'm now a citizen. I had to flee my country of birth because of my family's political history given that my father was practically the right hand to the last truly democratic President Carlos Andres Perez before the upcoming of the chavista revolution era.

I wake up for my second day at Kyiv feeling awesome under so much fostering in such short time. We decide to eat prior to the scheduled meetings during the afternoon. There I had my first alarm experience due to bombing at a country in war. Traffic and people on the streets  looked quite normal during day light (at night, half the city is in total darkness), and when the sirens blow, I feel that at the restaurant where we were eating, people kept behaving as if nothing were happening.

I reached Ukraine after a long bus drive from Kraków to Leopolis. On the first part of “A Venezuelan in Ukraine” I talked about the moment when I crossed the Rubicon, when going across the border from Poland. I illustrated it with an image describing my first impressions when leaving the bus at the city’s main square, under full darkness across the train’s and buses’ station.

I am in a bus, going to Ukraine, weighing the look for adventures and choices that led to this trip, not without anxiety, but with, at the same time, the parallel courage and certainty, of being at ease walking at the right side of history. A nun is sitting next to me, on one side, and at a right a kid with his little brother and his mother, but  missing the father; he is not with them. The kid tells me that he is fighting for them and their country.

In the past four weeks, Russia has increasingly targeted Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. Including combined heat and power plants and water supply. The result is that large parts of the country are repeatedly cut off from electricity and water. In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the supply of electricity and water is now rationed. Both are only available part of the time and people's fear of winter is palpable. The situation is similar in large parts of the country. How will it go on?

The calendar is set to Monday 12 September 2022, right after I get up I open  Instagram, today that means more than 8 years and 200 days Ukraine resists its  aggressive neighbour. So I slowly open Instagram this morning, the feed takes a  long time to load the content, almost seems like it's trying to hide from me all the  new things I've missed lately. 

Dear readers, 

As most of you know, I have been writing about Russia’s military actions since the beginning of last fall.

The German federal government under the incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is still unable to deliver heavy weapons systems to Ukraine. More than 110 days after the start of the war in Ukraine still not one heavy weapon system from Germany arrived in Ukraine. One gets the impression that Germany is unwilling to provide a democratic state with the support it urgently needs.

Liane Bednarz travelled to Ukraine with the media network "Freedom Today" and its CEO Andreas Jürgens. There they met with Christian Gruber, who is working there as a volunteer and also as a war reporter. Together they travelled through the country and talked to Ukrainians on the ground. Here, Liane Bednarz describes her personal impressions during the first three days of the trip in Lviv in western Ukraine.