We’re Not Just Fighting Russia Anymore

They came with weapons from Moscow and uniforms from Beijing

AS YOU KNOW, THIS JOURNAL IS NOT ABOUT war news. There’s a lot of wonderful resources out there to point you out what’s happening in real time.

There are people out there who do that brilliantly. Brave, skilled, tireless journalists who help you understand what’s happening in real time.

They’re the best at what they do. I’m not one of them. I’m the complete opposite.

Even though I’m inspired by them, I’m just a regular and unskilled citizen who tells stories.

My mission here is simple: to show you what’s inside my heart. What’s inside the heart and soul of a very ordinary Ukrainian.

How does it feel like to live in a war and manage an existence defined by change and fear.

But sometimes the headlines break in.

Not because I want to explain them, but because they shape what’s inside my heart.

Because they hit me not as a writer, not as an observer, but as someone who’s directly affected.

As someone who is the subject of the news. Not a spectator.

So let me share with you what it feels like to know that Chinese citizens are now fighting in Ukraine.

They are not standing beside us, but standing beside those who came to destroy us. With Russian weapons. On Ukrainian soil.

A new kind of silence fell over Kyiv.

Not from missiles, but from clarity. We’re not just fighting Russia.

We’re fighting China too.

And no, it’s not shocking.

But it still hurts in that specific way betrayal always does. The kind you see coming, and still feel like a punch in the stomach

Zelenskyy said it out loud yesterday. 160 or so Chinese fighters. Some of them already in Ukrainian custody.

We have the names, the passports, the military units. It’s written in their badges, their uniforms, their documents.

And deep down, we always knew. But now we know for sure.

And yet, Beijing still called our president “irresponsible” for his statements.

What did they expect him to do? To be flattered? To apologize for detaining foreign nationals who came here to help destroy our country?

This world is really upside down, my friends.

China is not just helping Russia with political support. They’re here. On our land.

So let’s stop pretending this is just about Ukraine and Russia. Let’s stop pretending this is some regional dispute or Cold War leftover.

This is a collision of two empires and one country in the middle.

A country that refuses to die.

I invite you to think for a moment what does it mean to fight two giants like these at the same time.

It means that you wake up every day knowing the odds are not just unfair: they’re obscene.

Russia, with its 1/7 of the surface of the Earth. China, with 1/5 of our planet’s population. One built to erase us. The other built to pretend it’s not watching.

Russia was already too much. Too many weapons, too much land, too little morality.

They had the nukes, the propaganda. The hunger to wipe us out.

But now, behind them stands something else.

A regime that controls 1 out of every 5 people on this planet. A government that knows how to crush a soul and keep the body standing.

A machine of silence, obedience, and raw power.

Tibet knows. Taiwan knows. Xinjiang knows.

And now, so do we.

And still, we don’t back down.

We have only a tiny fraction of their staggering 1.4 billion people. But we have something they will never understand.

We have a country that refuses to kneel. A voice that refuses to shut up. A people who would rather fall free than live silent.

Russia thought we were small. China thought we were alone.

They were both wrong.

Some people still ask why Ukraine won’t negotiate.

Why we keep resisting. Why we don’t just “make peace.”

These people don’t understand what it feels like when two giants are deciding whether you deserve to exist.

They call it stubbornness. We call it survival.

I’m sure if you were in our place, you’d call it survival too.

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We’ve learned so many things through centuries of war. But if there’s something we remember very well in this one, it’s this:

You don’t defend your future by waiting for permission.

And you don’t survive empires by believing they’ll stop on their own.

I’m writing this not because I expect the world to fix it.

I’m writing this because I need you to see what it feels like. To stand in a place where two empires are closing in and still believe your life is worth defending.

You don’t have to be Ukrainian to understand what’s at stake.

You just have to care.

🇺🇦

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📖 “The Divine Comedian: Ukraine’s Journey Through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise” is more than my first book: it’s Ukraine, seen from inside the fire, and the hope that refuses to die. Download it for free (PDF & Kindle) and see what survival really looks like.