Twisted Lives

Longing for normality

Feb 16, 2025

TODAY

Larissa Babij and I will be featured on Talk of Takoma hosted by Eric Bond. We'll be talking about Ukraine and recent Trump administration statements regarding peace negotiations with Russia and new US policy toward Europe. Report from Larissa Babij in Kyiv, on the mood inside Ukraine at this moment and advice for standing against kleptocracy.

Sunday, Feb 16: 1-3 Eastern Time (UTC−05:00)—Talk of Takoma, WOWD, 94.3 FM, Takoma Radio, http://takomaradio.org.

We thought the war would end and we could step back into our lives. But, three years after the full-scale invasion it’s clear that will not happen. We thought we could bear the war grinding-down, but now it is grinding on bone.

It may seem presumptuous to say “we,” as I am not Ukrainian, but I feel at least a portion of what I see my Ukrainian acquaintances, friends and students struggling through. My handful of acquaintances is a small sample, but depression is widespread, according to main stream and social media. For example, this heartbreaking December Facebook post by Ukrainian language teacher Inna Sopronchuk, native of Kherson who is now a refugee. I took some lessons from her a few years ago and have been following her story as a displaced person trying to establish a career.

My pink glasses broke with shards inside. I realized that the war will not end as soon as I wanted and that dreams of moving to Kyiv buying my own apartment, opening a cultural center and living in a thriving, developed country are being postponed indefinitely. It also came to the realization that the native home was lost for many years, and maybe forever. I began to feel lost and alone in a world where I was longing to find a new place and destination.

I know a refugee in her 30s who was recently hospitalized for depression. A big part of the problem is that she wants to settle down and start a family, but has no prospects. As with many young women her age, the “biological clock is ticking” This is not something she can put off much longer. Her host country is welcoming to refugees, the culture is not. She found an immigrant boyfriend (now ex-boyfriend), not a Ukrainian but a man from a country with a very conservative culture. He beat her up for posting social media photos he deemed immodest.

©2025 William L. Brown, Tough Trump.

Ukraine supporters hopes were raised in late January when Trump publicly chastized Putin, saying Russia’s economy was near collapse, threatening sanctions and tariffs, and urging him to stop the war. It was a vindication for those who say Trump’s, and his supporter’s, distorted and hateful rhetoric, often repeating Kremlin misinformation should be ignored, that Trump’s actions would be more reasonable. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a proponent of this view.

One of my students was abruptly placed “on furlough” from her job at a USAID-funded agency in Ukraine. In an act that looked more vengeful than productive, The Trump administration shut down the foreign aid agency, charging the agency with unspecified, undocumented corruption and claiming it promotes a “woke agenda.”

My student worked on programs for young displaced persons in Ukraine, funding job-training, job-placement, and business classes for budding entrepreneurs. There was the sort of “inclusive language” that triggers the MAGA faction in the description for a job-training program for rural disabled youth. Trump’s Cromwell Elon Musk, the billionaire running the operation to gut USAID and other government agencies, can be satisfied that Ukraine’s rural disabled youth will continue, for now, to be a burden on their families and local social services, if any.

Last week Trump and his administration appointees made a series of dispiriting and shocking statements. Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Ukraine should resign itself to losing territory and not being allowed to join NATO. This amounts to making concessions to Russia before beginning formal negotiations. Hegseth walked back the remarks following an outcry. Vice President Vance attended the Munich Security Conference, but instead of focusing on Ukraine, scolded Europeans for restricting hate speech of the far-right in Germany, and not allowing Russia to rig Romania’s recent election. He didn’t use those words, of course, he used high-sounding euphemisms. He all but wore a brown shirt.

Without consulting Ukraine or allies Trump called Putin. By Trump’s own account Putin successfully flattered him and the tone was conciliatory. One of the results was an invitation for Putin to meet Trump in the US.

Trump announced that there would be a US/Russia meeting to start peace negotiations. Europe was pointedly not invited. It’s not clear if Ukraine is, either.

So much for Trump’s “Peace through Strength” motto. He stepped out on the strong foot in late January, but this looks like several steps back.

On this Valentines Day many reflect on loss.

Native Cpeaker

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