Somehow, it’s the suitcases that stand out. Among all the photographs of chaos, of bombed buildings and plumes of smokes over cities, the suitcases show the true human horror now unfolding in Ukraine. Neatly packed, brightly coloured, the kind we have all wheeled to airports and train stations for holidays and trips away with friends and loved ones. But these are not people with any return date in mind. These are people packing their entire lives into a single piece of luggage in a desperate attempt to flee war.

The pictures emerging from Ukraine cut through geopolitics and into the heart of the matter: here we are, well into the 21st century, and the lives of millions of ordinary, innocent people are being thrown into disarray due to the pathological actions of one man.

A family crosses from pro-Russian separatists controlled territory to Ukrainian government controlled areas in Stanytsia Luhanska, the only crossing point open daily, in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022.Credit:AP

For days the news has been full of images of Putin, of graphics depicting Ukraine and its geopolitical situation. But it is the photographs of everyday Ukranians that have the biggest impact on the rest of the world. The father, kneeling next to his young son in an attempt to comfort him as they descend into a metro station that is doubling as a bomb shelter. The teenage girls, sitting on their bags in a train station, clutching their mobile phones like life rafts. The people dragging cat carriers with them, heartbreaking symbols of a life anyone of us could be living. The mother, pushing her double buggy across the border and into the relative safety of Poland, weighed down with children and belongings.

Imagine – along with their packed lunch and gym kit – sending your child to school with a sticker on their clothes stating their blood type. “It’s like a piece of paper, with blood type information, the names of their parents, and telephone numbers,” one father told news outlet Today.com. Journalist Olga Tokariuk, who is based in Kyiv, added that some schools had made these stickers mandatory.

Imagine being forced to have the conversation that one mother in Kyiv, named only as Khrystyna, did with her three children. “I had a very deep talk with my older daughter because, sometimes, she comes home from school by herself,” she told the same website, adding that she had told her other daughters, aged just five and three, to learn their address and her full name. “Of course, they could get too scared,” she says. “What they know is that, ‘You should listen to your mum and do what she says… And if you hear loud noises, you listen to me very carefully’.”

Oleksandr Manha comforts his 4 year-old daughter Sofia as his wife Anastasia Manha, 23, lulls her 2 month-old son Mykyta, where she lives with her family members, after alleged shelling by separatists forces in Novognativka, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022. Credit:AP

Imagine, in between trying to keep the world normal – not to mention manage the logistics of work and childcare – attending lectures on weapons use, in order to be able to keep a gun in the house. Or thinking how you might be able to aid the Ukrainian army. “Maybe I can help cook for [them],” suggests Khrystyna.

That this is happening is a stark reminder of the fragility of peace in the Western world. It is a reminder that war does not just happen in faraway lands, or to long-ago generations.

Humans have a remarkable ability to block out pain and suffering by distancing themselves, both emotionally and geographically, from the terrible conflict that exists in the world at all times. We sign petitions and post solidarity on social media, and then we get on with our lives. And as cold as this might be to say, that is a normal psychological response – if we really put our minds to all the horrors out there, none of us would be able to get up in the morning.

But now, not so far away, is a very visceral reminder of what happens when the democracy we take for granted is threatened. And so our hearts go out to the father with his son in the metro station, the mother with her double buggy… and all the humans in this apparently modern world who are currently dealing with the archaic horrors of war.

The Telegraph, London

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