“How I want I might discover myself in Vilkovo
There are canals, there are gondolas, gondoliers.
To search out myself, to neglect, to snicker off sorrows...”
Bulat Okudzhava
When the world is staring down the barrel of a gun, even the most habitual and placid things start looking sinister.
My native country – Ukraine – has been brutally invaded. It is not common knowledge, however, that the invasion did not begin last February when Russian tanks rolled into Donbas. It started eight years earlier with Putin – staged ‘local’ conflict in Eastern Ukraine, followed by the annexation of the Crimea and the massive escalation of recent weeks that has rightly generated fears of an all-out war; the first major war in Europe since 1945 and, possibly, a Third World War too.
Far from a military strategist, I don’t want to delve into the details of Putin’s treacherous campaign but will only say how bitterly I regret being too old and not well enough to fight for my...