Glacier FarmMedia — In 2023, Ukraine celebrated Christmas for the second time on Dec. 25, instead of Jan. 7, as it was before Russia’s invasion.
My friends are divided into two camps. Some planned to celebrate Christmas in a new way, others do not want to change anything.
However, this is far from the biggest problem in our lives. As we approached the end of December, my mood, like that of most Ukrainians, was not at all Christmassy. The heroic achievement of 2022, when our lives hung in the balance and our defenders managed to repel the enemy, was replaced by the bloody routine of 2023.
Read Also
Agricultural consultancy Sovecon raises 2025 Russian wheat crop forecast
Agricultural consultancy Sovecon said on Wednesday it had slightly raised its forecast for Russian wheat production for 2025 by 0.2 million metric tons to 83.0 million metric tons, citing improved crop conditions in parts of central Russia.
The enemy has gathered his strength and is systematically pressing on various areas of the front. Our boys and girls fight back as best they can, but they lack weapons and personnel.
Sometimes it seems like it will never end. One of the faces of war is a psychological breakdown when you see how your friends die, how people find themselves without a home and without a solid support in life. And it may seem that you are powerless to stop it.
I live in the relatively calm region of Ukraine, although at night, we sometimes hear the buzzing of enemy drones with explosives and the sounds of gunfire as the military tries to shoot them down. But in general, in everyday life, people in my town do not see the obvious horrors of war.
However, the war does not allow us to forget about ourselves. Every week, solemn burials of fallen soldiers – our compatriots – take place here. They were ordinary people; farmers, builders, locksmiths and electricians. The war tore them from their homes and families and made them soldiers. Probably none of them ever thought they would die at the front, defending their Motherland.
I try to lead a normal life, because I have to worry about my family, earn money and solve various everyday tasks. I also have a garden and a small field that needs my attention. The only entertainment I allow myself is a quick coffee and soccer with my friends twice a week.
Every time I have pleasant moments in life, an unexpected thought comes to my head: we have a war… It’s been almost two years. And these are not some combat operations on another continent, somewhere far away. Only 300 miles away, bad people in military uniforms are breaking into homes to kill families.
It is quite difficult to explain psychologically. You live and do everyday things, like build or plant something. And you understand that if our boys and girls on the line of fire cannot withstand the onslaught of the enemy, it will all be unimportant.
Your house, your garden, your children’s education, your family photos, your plans – you will have to either run away or take up a weapon to try to stop the enemy.
Half a mile from my house, the fields are cultivated by local farmers. In three months, they will have to put seeds and fertilizers in the ground to grow a new crop.
These people have almost no money left, so their work turns into a casino game. If you are lucky, you will grow a good crop of grain and pay off your debts. If not, it’s better not to think about it.
The population of Ukrainian villages, where most farmers live, began to decrease many years ago. People did not like the lack of good jobs and comfortable living conditions, so they went to big cities or to earn money abroad.
Today, the situation has worsened significantly. Dozens of villages near the front line have simply been wiped off the face of the Earth, hundreds of villages have been destroyed, to the extent that they are unlikely to be revived in coming years.
Their inhabitants move to the rear regions, having no possessions except the clothes on their backs. All of them need to be settled and integrated into a new community.
A large number of men who worked in agriculture were mobilized for the army. Some died, some were wounded, and others still have to fight. If you take 10 or 15 healthy men from a village with 200 people (mostly old people) for military service, it begins to decline. There is no one to work on tractors, there is no one to do communal work.
Women with children often go abroad, fleeing the war. The consequence of this can be the disintegration of the family, since the husband and wife do not see each other for years. This is a very painful aspect of war, one of its many poisonous results.
Opportunities for earning money have deteriorated. The budgets of all public and private companies have been significantly reduced, because it is necessary to allocate a lot of money for defence of the country.
At the same time, the prices of food and other goods have increased. And frankly, I can’t imagine how a person who earns $160 to $200 a month in a minimum-wage government job can feed their family. In the winter, this money will only be enough to pay for utilities.
I am telling this so you can imagine what war is like for an ordinary person who is not at the front and does not hear the explosions.
This is a snake that won’t let you go and bites day and night. You are in limbo and you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. You can’t plan for the future, except that sooner or later you will be alone and wearing a military uniform.
However, you learn to appreciate those things that you did not pay attention to before.
Once, back in 2014, we were sitting at a table with friends. Then, Russia attacked Ukraine for the first time and occupied Crimea and part of two eastern regions. The economic situation immediately worsened due to the enemy invasion in the country and my friends, whom I considered to be intelligent people, began to moan that it was necessary to agree to Putin’s demands because they were tired of the war.
Their “fatigue” was that they had no money to go to resorts in Turkey and Egypt three times a year. I remember getting angry and saying they should be glad we were not digging anti-tank ditches for half a pound of bread a day, as it was during the Second World War.
It is a sin to complain about a small salary or the lack of delicacies on the table when your neighbour is now standing in a trench up to his knees in icy water and counting enemy shells flying at his head. And if he does not stand there, then the projectiles will fly on your head.
That’s right, the lives of tens of millions of people and the safety of the entire civilized world today depend on those men and women in the east and south of Ukraine who are now desperately holding back the enemy, who has 10 times more people and military equipment.
Therefore, it is strange to see in the Western press the opinion that the world is tired of the war in Ukraine.
I know who is really tired – those business representatives who are used to trading with Russia. Even today, dozens and hundreds of companies continue to supply Putin with components so that he can produce more modern weapons and kill Ukrainians.
It is necessary to understand the main thing: this is not a war between Russia and Ukraine over some territories. It’s a war between those who think it’s OK to kill and humiliate people, and those who don’t.
If the Ukrainian military does not hold back the enemy, Russia will not stop there, and all the dictators of the world will have an excellent example to follow.
My farmer neighbours will go to the field in the spring. They will prepare the land for sowing, plant and grow crops. At the moment, they are not interested in whether the grain will be expensive or cheap. They know what to sow and they are not going to leave their native land.
I have the opportunity to emigrate and know that I could start a new life abroad. But I will never do that. We will not retreat anywhere.
These are our fields.
–Ihor Pavluik is a Ukrainian agricultural
