Exactly four years ago, Russia began an “operation” that many in Moscow at the time expected to complete in a matter of weeks or at most a couple of months — by crushing Ukrainian statehood, governance, and will to resist.
The main outcome of these four years is already obvious.
The war continues.
Ukraine has preserved its statehood.
Preserved governance.
Preserved the army and society.
And continues to resist — fiercely, at times transitioning to counterattacks.
We do not know when and how this war will end. As long as Putin is alive, there is little hope for a normal conclusion. But the cost of this war for the Russian Federation will be terrible — they just do not fully understand it yet.
And it is important to remember: February 24, 2022, is not the “beginning of everything,” but a new, most large-scale stage of the war.
2013–2014 — Revolution of Dignity.
February 2014 — shootings on Maidan.
March 2014 — annexation of Crimea.
Spring 2014 — beginning of the war in Donbas.
February 24, 2022 — full-scale invasion.
Then — Bucha, Mariupol, Izyum. Liberated cities. Counteroffensives. Missiles, “shaheds”, FPV.
Over these years, Ukraine has lost thousands of lives. Lost part of its territories. Many cities are destroyed or deserted. Prisoners, tortured, raped. Millions of people were forced to leave. An entire nation lives with trauma.
And yet — Ukraine stands.
Yes, one can get tired.
One can be afraid.
One can sometimes lose heart.
The main thing is to return to oneself. And not to lose humanity.
For some in the West, these four years are just another political cycle, another reason for “deep concern” over morning coffee. For Ukrainians, it is almost fifteen hundred days, and each of them is paid for with someone’s blood.
During this time, the world has seen much: from loud applause in parliaments and congresses to cynical delays in decisions, where each week of “debates” cost Ukraine new victims. Ukraine has been repeatedly tried to be convinced that the fate of the war can be decided by someone from outside — by elections, cabinet agreements, foreign political will.
But history is written not only in Washington, Brussels, or other capitals.
It is written in frozen trenches.
In the workshops of underground productions.
In volunteer headquarters.
In every hryvnia that people give to collections instead of their own peace.
That is why those who say: Ukraine has already won — at least in the sense that it did not disappear in those weeks when many expected its fall. It stood firm when help was limited, and forecasts were grim. It forced the world to reconsider the concept of modern war, army, drones, mobilization of society, resilience of the state.
And another harsh conclusion, which was too long not recognized: the post-war world order began to collapse not in 2022, but in 2014. It was then, on Ukrainian soil, that the basic principles of international law were demonstratively broken, and the policy of “waiting out” and “not provoking” only increased the scale of the catastrophe.
Today, on the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion, and simultaneously in the twelfth year of the war against Ukraine, it is important to speak about this directly.
This is not a war “for kilometers.”
This is a war for the right to exist.
For the right to be a country.
For the right to choose your future.
For the right to live without imperial dictate.
We may be far geographically — in Israel, Europe, America, anywhere — but not emotionally.
Our families remain under sirens.
Our friends — in the trenches.
Our cities — under attacks.
Our dead — with us every day, in memory, in photographs, in the habit of being silent longer than before.
We think of those who smile at us from black-and-white photos. Of friends, acquaintances, and strangers who died in this war. Of those whose names will never make headlines. Of those who hold the sky and the earth right now.
And one more thing — about the feeling of helplessness that many experienced on February 24, 2022. For many, it was the day the familiar world ended: the end of childhood memories, the end of the feeling of home as something reliable and eternal, the end of the belief that “such things no longer happen in Europe in the 21st century.”
Four years have passed. The war has become the background for a world that is tired. Many have stopped noticing it daily. But it has not disappeared.
Therefore, today is not only a day of remembrance. It is a day of inner discipline.
What can we do abroad?
Donate. Support. Speak. Explain. Remind. Do not let this war become a “news item that was scrolled past.”
Ukrainians in Ukraine live. Work. Give birth to children. Pay taxes. Donate. Fight. Create. Repel attacks from the “second army in the world.” And continue to do what in 2022 seemed impossible to many.
Resilience to Ukraine.
Strength to our people. 🇮🇱🇺🇦