WAR AND SOLIDARITY IN UKRAINE

COCO ST. GEORGE

The day was only dawning on February 24th, 2022, when the Russian army crossed the border into Ukraine. Their mission, according to Moscow, was to support the Russianspeaking population in the Donbas region, in the East of the country. There, pro-Russian separatists claimed in 2014 two independent countries— the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic —following the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia.

This situation was inherited by Volodymyr Zelensky, elected president in early 2019. Only a few months earlier, he was the star of a Ukrainian sitcom called “Servant of the People”— although before becoming a comedian, he had obtained a law degree.

The first salvos, though, had been fired years ago in a veritable disinformation war. Russia accused the Ukrainian regime not only of oppressing but even massacring its Russian-speaking population. The government in Kyiv denied the allegations and accused Moscow of trying to modify the international boundaries by recognizing the selfproclaimed republics in the Donbas, which no other country in the international community recognizes.

The war in Ukraine has already had a heavy impact on the global oil supply, and the price of fuel has skyrocketed in many countries. But the real tragedy is this: the Ukrainian people are under attack and suffering indescribable hardships; they are being forced to leave their homes and earthly possessions and to look for refuge in other countries. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, by mid-March, more than three million Ukrainian citizens had fled the country, most of them (1.85 million) having crossed the border into Poland.

It’s very hard to know what’s going on. Is Russia rightfully defending its nationals living in another country? Is it trying to expand itself at the expense of a neighbor considered weaker, waging that the international community won’t actively intervene to avoid the breakout of a devastating all-out war? In our condition, as observers of the global phenomena, all we can know is that the Ukrainian people were attacked. And, as the Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Thus, it has been encouraging to watch people taking to the streets all over the globe to demonstrate against the war, showing their solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Especially in Europe, where major cities have seen huge demonstrations for peace.

Of course, that enormous wave of solidarity has also reached Second Life, where both the leadership and the common residents have shown their support for the Ukrainian people. Linden Lab issued a statement declaring themselves “heartbroken and horrified by the situation in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis it has perpetuated” and announcing several donations in support of Red Cross Ukraine, as well as other NGOs devoted to independent journalism and free speech. They also announced a moratorium on premium membership and land maintenance fees for Ukrainian-based SL members.

On the side of the common residents, we should mention the “I Stand with the Ukrainian People” initiative, launched by Tasha Kostolany at the Tradewinds Yacht Club, which she founded back in 2007. This project has a simple principle: show your solidarity with the Ukrainian people by taking a

WAR AND SOLIDARITY IN UKRAINE

picture of yourself and posting it on the grounds of the yacht club.

Why would someone devote time and money to an art installation of this nature?

“Because I have such empathy for the people of Ukraine, for a peaceful country; a democratic country that didn’t ask for this and is just being bullied and now killed,” explains Tasha, surrounded by the numerous photos that show how many people are standing with Ukraine.

The club is a blue-yellow sea of pictures depicting the diversity of the SL residents. Tasha explains it better: “The motivation for this art installation is to show uniformity of the signs, but each image is unique, and it is each person’s voice expressed visually. I wanted it to give a powerful emotional feeling as viewers move among all the signs; the feeling of love and solidarity is good for all of our hearts and gives us the strength to give when we can in real life.”

How many people have shown up to express their solidarity? “I don’t know. My goal was to get a very specific number of signs… and that number is ’Oh-my-God-that-is-a-lot-of-signs’. I think we reached that number.”

Tasha also created a video based on her installation, where she used Charlie Chaplin’s final speech in the movie “The Great Dictator.” It’s amazing how accurate those words, uttered over 80 years ago, sound to us in the 21st century. It’s a very moving experience you won’t want to miss. If the readers are wondering how an art installation can help in times of a crisis like the one in Ukraine, it would be useful to remember Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer’s words about art: “At its best, art can be nothing more than a means of forgetting the human disaster for a while.”