About war and guilt

No one deserves and needs to feel oneself guilty of anything about this war

War is the kind of thing that impacts our inner personalities like few other things in life. Especially if we are talking about something from the level of absurd brutality and injustice like the current Russian invasion on Ukrainian territory.

Twitter has been bringing me the wonderful surprise of knowing marvelous people from all over the world. We not only share impressions about politics, we are dividing life experiences, after all, freedom, justice and respect are on the agenda at every corner of the planet and every country has its own challenges to handle.

But something notably caught my attention: There are many good people in the world, particularly in the United States, feeling somewhat guilty for what is happening in Ukraine. Guilt under a psychological definition, involving negative evaluations of the self and feelings of failure.

They say they feel guilty for being safe, in a safe environment, while watching the most terrible news, wanting to help and unable to do something to help the Ukrainian people overseas.

I'm not a psychologist, but maybe we are facing a new manifestation of the human psyche in which sentiments related to extreme empathy and compassion are taken under the guise of guilt.

As a Ukrainian, I think I have the license to state that no one deserves and needs to feel oneself guilty of anything about this war. For all the inspirational people on the fight of freedom and democracy, I must say that your support, your benevolence, your tenderness and your extreme sense of humanity is already what we need now, making your governments know which side you are, and this is something that must make you feel extremely proud of yourselves, not feeling guilty.

You already are doing a huge lot of things, so everytime you see anything about Ukraine, feel yourself proud, and I give a sole reason for that: every Ukrainian here on this side of the world is feeling deeply proud of you.