Ukraine Needs a Global Antiwar Movement
Jacobin's Polina Godz, who is from Kharkiv, describes the impact of Putin's invasion on her home city — and explains why Ukraine needs an international antiwar movement fighting for de-escalation.
A bystander surveys damaged buildings following the shelling of Kharkhiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, on March 3. (SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images)
For the last few days, I have been following the news coming from my home country of Ukraine in disbelief. I have watched hospitals, residential buildings, and even kindergartens in my home city of Kharkiv being bombed. I saw its central square in ruins. It doesn’t feel real, and yet it is.
I dread the news, but I can’t stop watching it. Because I’m seven hours behind Ukraine in New York, the worst of it starts in the afternoon and early evening before I even try to sleep. It usually keeps me up into the early hours.
In the mornings, I get in touch with family and friends, who sometimes spend the nights in underground parking lots and subway stations. The concise messages reassuring me that people I love are safe and alive are the only thing that brightens my day.
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