I can relate to how you feel, Erkka. Even though I don't live in Europe, one side of my family is Ukrainian. I grew up listening to people speaking ukrainian around me, and even though I never learned it myself, I'm still deeply connected to that culture. Some of my favourite food is ukrainian or overall slav. I had ukrainian colleagues in school. I lived on a neighbourhood full of people from Poland, Ukraine, Germany, etc, and I was friends with some of those people. I went to the ukrainian orthodox church when I was younger. Just few blocks of where I lived until I was 18, there is a square dedicated to Ukraine, with a statue of the ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. I wanted to like in Ukraine when I was a teen, and despite not wanting that anymore, I still want to visit there and the other slav countries to know more about where my great-grandparents and ultimately my ancestors came from.

I mostly don't follow news at all, my only sources being Wikipedia and what people around me think is relevant to tell me so I can look up myself; I consider myself a pacifist, and my life philosophy is very much in line with yours, so you must imagine the shock it was on friday morning when I woke up and my mother told me Russia had launched an invasion to Ukraine over the previous night. Now, if someone thinks I'm a hypocrite because there were other wars going on since ever, that is not true. Other wars have also bothered me a lot, but this one in special hits harder, because it involves something I deeply care about. Unfortunately this is how we humans work.

The first couple days were especially annoying, because I was hoping my country would show support for Ukraine, either by officially welcoming refugees or sending humanitarian help, but then three days had passed and nothing had happened, other than some representatives speaking in favour of Ukraine at the UN. Then the blow came in when I saw the president unsurprisingly said Brazil would maintain a "neutral" stance about it because of russian fertilizers, something else I could write a whole essay about how it is a problem, but yes, it was that pathetic, and he disagreed with the UN representatives and the vice-president, who spoke in favour of Ukraine. Then, on the next day, he went on holidays for the annual carnival celebrations, yes, amidst the pandemic. That's how pathetic those far-right leaders are, if one can even call them leaders.

By the way, I don't have any negative views towards the people of Russia, many of them seem to deeply disagree with this war and Putin's decisions, and, sadly, the people of a nation have to suffer because of selfish decisions by those who control their country. The same thing happened in Brazil regarding the pandemic and deforestation.

Anyway, I'm just avoiding the news for the most part, only checking on Wikipedia for the most essential information to know if and when this will stop. I felt miserable on the first few days, because all I can do is sit here and draw while the world falls apart, but I reasoned to myself that if I can at least make the world a tiny bit nicer and happier through my art, that's good enough. If I can provide comfort and good feelings to those who like my art and give them a little break from everything else, that's good enough. Hopefully I can create my own peaceful world for others to appreciate and have a little more love within their hearts, while also hoping that people like the presidents of Russia and Brazil have some deeply enlightening experience, like you said before, one that shows them we humans are all siblings, that we're all the same and that their actions only hurt the people who cared about them and chose them as their leader, but those leaders did not care about their people. Nobody wanted any of this other than some corrupt and selfish politicians.

I also hope that the people of Ukraine, Europe, and the whole world can stay strong amidst yet another crisis, one caused mainly by poor and selfish decisions, much like the selfish decisions that made the pandemic so much worse that it should have been. I also hope people from the rest of the world understand that most of the people from Russia are against this, and stop blaming them for this crisis, something I've seen happen here and there. I hope you can also find the strength to navigate through this mess, and that you stay safe. Please take care, my friend.