It would seem that the suffering brought about by the Second World War for millions of people around the world would prevent any further armed conflicts. The testimonies of Second-World War witnesses from Bialystok, Ekne or Kharkiv are frightening. The number of dead and wounded are shocking. While the memory of the experience of that terrible war is still alive, armed conflicts still continue in many parts of the world with fighting over beliefs, natural resources or territory.

After 1945, there have been large armed conflicts in places as Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, in the Balkans and in many African countries. Pictures from Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia or Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge were eerily reminiscent of the Second World War. Currently, there are more than two dozen active conflicts in the world, and in every one of them innocent civilians suffer.

Today, the situation in Europe bears similarities to the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler, ignoring peaceful international arrangements, laid claim to territories in neighbouring countries. The great powers upholding the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, followed a policy of appeasement, in effect allowing the initial actions of Nazi-Germany, which consequently led to a global war. In 2014, almost 80 years later, the Western countries failed to respond properly to Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea. Confronted with the unlawful annexation of a part of Ukraine, they limited themselves to diplomatic and economic responses. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine launched on 24 February 2022 is a continuation of the 2014 aggression. In propaganda media messages, the Kremlin argues that the attack on the territory of the independent state and the attempt to occupy its capital, are dictated by the need to protect the Russian-speaking population in the border areas of Lugansk and Donbas. The invasion has led to open war, with the civilian population of Ukrainian towns and villages as victims. The irrational statements and demands of the authorities in Moscow are reminiscent of Nazi rhetoric. Russia, unable to break through Ukrainian defences, ruthlessly bombs civilians, murders prisoners of war, plunders the land and uses burnt earth tactics, devastating large parts of the country.

If the lessons and active remembrance of the Second World War were ever needed, it is now.

We need peace.