“If there is shelling, jump out and run to the sideway; that’s where you can take shelter,” says the crew commander. I nod silently. It’s 3 a.m. Just half an hour ago, I desperately wanted to sleep; now my head is clear from adrenaline. We are heading out to evacuate the wounded. The Russians are tracking the evacuation vehicles.

International humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions, prohibits attacks on medical personnel, but the Russians have never respected international conventions.

Evacuation cars and stabilization points are their primary targets: they not only aim to kill the wounded but also condemn the next ones to death, as no one will be there to help them. The armored vehicle passing us the casualties has been targeted multiple times.

Despite the fact that we are moving in the direction of the enemy, there is no point in fear. It consumes your energy, diffuses focus. In order to do your job, you must put fear aside.

The focus theme of this year’s Media Forum is “Name Things For What They Are: Speak Your Truth.” I see it as an invitation to an honest conversation, without fear or self-censorship.

The first question I want to ask you is: do you believe in democracy as a value?

I think that after over eleven years of Russia’s war against Ukraine, no one needs to explain anymore that this is a war not only for Ukraine’s independence and freedom but for the entire free world. It is a war of autocracy against democracy. And that means it is also your war.

This war continues, even if you cannot see it. Shelling still occurs in what are conditionally considered rear towns and cities, and the victims resulting from shelling of the territories close to the frontline often do not even make the news headlines. Just yesterday, for example, there was one person killed and seven injured.

Any peace agreement, if one is reached, would be only temporary because Russia is not interested in peace.

The war will persist as long as Russia exists in the form we know it—because war is the essence of its existence. This is a country that has always fought wars in different parts of the world. If we just take the time period since 1999: Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova, Syria… This is a country that, in this war, tried to destroy evidence of its war crimes.

Recently, the body of Ukrainian journalist Victoriia Roshchyna was returned to Ukraine. She was captured by Russia in October 2023. She was tortured with electric shocks, had her ribs burned, and was fed rotten food.

By summer 2024, Victoriia weighed 30 kilograms and couldn’t stand on her feet due to exhaustion and illness. In fall of that year, she died of lung functionality failure, having not survived to the planned exchange.

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If it’s difficult for you to hear this, imagine how hard it is to live through it. Today, 60,000 Ukrainians are still in Russian captivity. Right now, this very moment, they are enduring torture—those I just mentioned or even worse. And that’s not all. I have yet to speak about life in occupation—an everyday, exhausting ordeal. About the kidnapping and forced “re-education” of Ukrainian children. About the executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war right on the battlefield.

This is only a part of the inhumane crimes committed by Russians, and they continue to do so—in this very moment.

You might ask, “What can I do?” I have a few pieces of advice for you.

First, do not limit your imagination. The only thing truly holding back our possibilities is the boundaries of our imagination.

Ukraine’s history is a continuous story of how others did not believe in us, but we specifically succeeded. This is not only about the prophecy “Ukraine will fall in three days,” which Western media repeated as a mantra in the lead-up to the war. Providing Ukraine with Patriot air defense systems, ATACMS missiles, and F-16 fighters, stopping Nord Stream, freezing Russian assets, or granting candidate status to the European Union—all of these seemed impossible just a few years ago.

Forty years ago, even the very idea of an independent Ukraine seemed utopian—only a handful of dreamers believed in it.

I can also assure you that Ukraine will continue to fight and defend itself, even if the United States completely withdraws its support. And if we do this together with our partners, even limited to the Coalition of the Willing, we will be invincible.

Second, if you think you are not doing enough, do more.

I do not necessarily mean going to the frontlines, although that could be a path for some of you—even if you are not Ukrainian citizens. During the war, I have met many dedicated foreigners who fight in the ranks of the Ukrainian army.

I am primarily talking about your conscience. It does not lie. The truth is: you can do enough. Enough within the possibilities of your life and the scope of your personality. Your conscience will tell you when you reach this point, when you can tell yourself in all honesty, “I am doing the most I can.”

I would like to quote here Ukrainian journalist Kateryna Kobernyk:

“The full-scale war has shown that all the imbalances, ‘you first,’ ‘choose yourself’—are bullshit. No, that choice remains. Millions have looked after themselves and their loved ones. And others have taken care of their wellbeing, future, lives, property, and health—those who every day put the oxygen masks on others rather than themselves. Thanks to their sacrifices, the physical war is happening where it is, and thousands of young adults who still live at home have managed to leave. Their homes here are worth something and are even being sold. Their elderly parents are not in occupation.”

In other words, including the words of my dear friend, Russian writer Sasha Dovzhyk, “You cannot save the world by choosing yourself.”

If you live abroad, you can also do a lot. It’s not only about supporting Ukraine in the established ways—volunteering, donations, participating in demonstrations—but also, very importantly, influencing politics in your countries. Vote for politicians who support democracy and the rule of law, rather than the law of strongmen.

Third, if you don’t know how to do something, learn.At minimum, basic combat training is the least that citizens of Ukraine and other European democracies should undertake. But then, what do we know about this?

Millions of Ukrainian soldiers did not know how to sew camouflage nets, repair drones, or understand the types of electronic warfare. Most of the Ukrainian army are non-professional soldiers. They learned everything from scratch.

If a few years ago someone told me I would be able to give injections, work with blood, or even that the sight of an amputated limb would not terrify me, I would never have believed it.

Sometimes I hear people say, “I couldn’t do that.” You could, if you believed it was necessary. The only thing I cannot and do not want to get used to is human suffering. We have the power to stop it, here in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Fourth, as a writer, I cannot help but mention literature, and my advice is simple and complex at the same time: Read books. Read long texts.

In an era of excessive information, bots, and artificial intelligence, mass manipulation becomes even easier through short messages that stir emotions and distract from analysis. Practice concentration. A person accustomed to following a storyline can more easily recognize lies, manipulations, and inconsistencies that dishonest narrators use.

For us Ukrainians, reading during the war has also become an act of resistance. Ukrainian children in occupation secretly studied using Ukrainian textbooks.

Recently, many were struck by yet another story of a Ukrainian child, a teenager who lived in occupation for ten years, and escaped from the occupied Donetsk as soon as she turned 18 and gained the right to travel unaccompanied. Besides her local school, she secretly studied remotely in a Ukrainian school in Sloviansk. Can you imagine the strength and spirit a child must have, who secretly resists for 10 years in an atmosphere of fear, propaganda, and never speaks freely, without even being able to tell their inner circle?

Russia understands the power of the Ukrainian word, which is why they systematically convert or destroy Ukrainian libraries.

According to the data from last year, Russia destroyed and damaged nearly 1,000 Ukrainian libraries, containing over 2,200 million books. This means that the voice of Ukrainian literature must be heard even louder. It would be wonderful if each of you left here to read a Ukrainian book, or what you have translated into your language. Mention Ukrainian authors, or the authors from other nations from Russia’s islands, when people ask you for reading advice.

Fifth, be humane and maintain empathy for yourself and others. Personally, I find this advice the most challenging because the temptation to retreat into your own bubble and distance yourself from the rest of the world is very strong. However, only those with a strong spirit can distinguish enemies from their soldiers.

Also, care to act and act to care. Evil is possible not only because criminals commit heinous acts, but also because of the inaction and silence of its witnesses. Kindness and impartiality are not an emotion. These are actions.

The slogan of the Hospitaliers is “For the sake of every life.” This is my personal guideline. Whether it’s a civilian or a soldier, young or old, strong or weak, every life is valuable.

And this is what we often forget when, in the context of peace, we talk about territories, mineral reserves, Zelensky’s suit—anything but human life, safety, and dignity, whether on free Ukrainian territory, in occupation, or in captivity. And it is this that should be at the center of any negotiations.

I want to tell you a story shared with me by my colleague and a hospitalier of the Hospitaliers community.

In spring 2022, when the Russians hit one of the residential buildings, all its residents were outside. Everyone except the nine-year-old boy. Remembering that the dog was locked inside the neighboring apartment, he ran back, grabbed the keys from under the doormat, took the dog, and had it on his shoulder.

My friend, children’s book author  Iryna Ozymok says, “No one is too small to change the world for the better.” And I infinitely agree with her. This phrase can have many variations. For example, no one lives too far away or is too busy.

I would like to conclude with the words of Oleksandra Matviychuk, the great human rights defender and Nobel Laureate:

“You don’t have to be a Ukrainian to support Ukraine. You just have to be human.”

Keynote speech from Lviv Media Forum 2024

Calls for Ukraine to stop defending itself are immoral, Nobel laureate Matviichuk says