Some, a few, beginning with those who unleashed it, believed that the duration of this war
was going to be measured in hours
.
February 24, 2022 was to be the start of a short ride for Vladimir Putin's super-powerful troops that would culminate in the seizure of a terrified but also grateful kyiv.
It is known, it was not like that.
Next Friday
will be one year since the cruel and unjustifiable Russian invasion of Ukraine
and the result of such a failed prognosis is measured in tens of thousands of deaths.
From the beginning the disaster that would be experienced in these months became evident.
In addition to the military casualties, the inclement bombardments against the civilian population and the Russian advance at a forced march on several fronts, the first major shock that hit Ukraine was the displacement and exile of millions of refugees.
Clarín
witnessed in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, before the war was a week old, the arrival of trains from all over the country loaded with children, women and the elderly who sought to cross as best they could to nearby Poland, forming lines of kilometers at the border,
defying cold and hunger
.
The images shocked the world.
Twelve months later, as often happens, they no longer do.
We get used to the missiles, the destroyed buildings, the dead, the misery.
The titles, repeated,
stopped sensitizing us
.
However, there the war continued, merciless, daily.
The Ukrainians little by little recovered much of the lost territory, thanks to
enormous courage, patriotic pride and Western weapons
;
and President Volodimir Zelenski became one of the great symbols of resistance and did not miss an opportunity to ask the planet for help.
Sanctions against Russia were multiplied, but
they proved not enough
: the world has no tools to truly stop a war when one of the parties is powerful enough.
The numbers at this point are simply terrifying.
Some
180,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded, as well as 100,000 Ukrainians
, according to neutral observers from Norway quoted by AFP.
Other sources speak of 150,000 casualties for each country.
The UN estimated, in January,
18,000 civilian deaths and injuries
, but at the same time warned that "the real figures are much higher."
There are eight million Ukrainian refugees abroad and some five million internally displaced.
Let's remember: there are 44 million inhabitants in total.
Some 65,000 suspected war crimes
were reported
.
The Russian invaders are accused of executions, rapes, torture and kidnapping of children (according to kyiv, more than 16,000 were sent to Russia).
Nothing shows this horror better than an investigation by The New York Times that proved how a single unit of Russian paratroopers cold-bloodedly executed dozens of people in Bucha, the video of which can be seen below.
To put the figures in context: the Malvinas war
lasted just 74 days
and 649 Argentine and 255 English fighters died in it, in a setting that was sparsely populated and far from practically the entire country.
It was 40 years ago and nobody forgets it.
How will the Ukrainians - and the Russians - live with such a disaster in the future?
Reconstruction can take decades.
First, of course, I should end the war.
to.
At the moment there are no diplomatic initiatives for peace
that stand out.
A Turkish attempt, months ago, made no further progress.
Ukraine and Russia cannot give in, each trapped in its own labyrinth.
Ukrainians, because this is their country.
The Russians, because the future of their authoritarian leader, Putin, is at stake.
Meanwhile, the dead will continue to pile up.
look too
Putin in his labyrinth: how can the war in Ukraine end?
"We call on all Latin American countries to put aside neutrality in the war in Ukraine"