Looking Into 2023 With Hope And Faith

We will definitely win.

I am sure that in 2023 Ukraine will win the war, Putin will suffer a crushing defeat and his hideous empire will begin to fall apart, and Belarus will finally get a chance to become free.

I don’t doubt it for a second, because in 2022 the dictatorships made a fatal mistake that will inevitably lead to their death. Having attacked Ukraine, two pathetic and insignificant scarecrows Putin and Lukashenka opposed themselves to the whole world and, in fact, committed suicide. The fall of their regimes is a matter of a short, very short time.

Therefore, no matter how difficult it is for all of us now, we just need to remember this. Despite the huge amount of grief around, we must hold on and not fall into despair.

How did I find my way out and regain my faith? When the war in Ukraine began, we, the entire editorial staff of Charter97.org, worked around the clock literally to the point of wear and tear. No one could sleep, or rest, or be distracted even for a second. Everyone was mentally in Ukraine, every explosion, every rocket, every ruined human life passed right through the hearts. And still it seemed that this was not enough: we need to help more, we need to do more, we need to transfer more funds to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

And then one day I went to work as a volunteer in a center for helping Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw and began to provide practical assistance to concrete people. Suddenly, all my hidden, suppressed, relegated emotions flooded over me. I, myself a refugee, hugged people who were fleeing their beloved home in shock, cried with them, looked for some words of consolation... But in the end, it is not known who helped whom more. I feel better. The cold wall of despair collapsed.

I realized that we can’t waste time and effort trying to realize all the horror that is happening — the mind is still not able to do this, and the heart can’t stand it either. It is better to act, to do what is in our power.

What inspired me? Letters from Belarusian political prisoners. Despite all the horror of prison conditions, the letters of our prisoners of conscience are full of light and hope. They continue to believe in the Belarusian people, to believe that freedom is near, that we will definitely win. Do we have the right to despair in this situation, if they, the martyrs, believe? No, we don't.

Who gave me hope? The Belarusian volunteers who risked their lives and went to defend the Ukrainian people from the aggressor. Almost twenty of our fighters have already died, but hundreds and hundreds of Belarusian men have taken their place. And they continue to go to the front, because they understand that there, in Ukraine, the fate of Belarus is being decided today, that we must win back our right to live in our native and free country.

Therefore, I look to 2023 with hope and faith. We must be strong. We must stay alive. We must win.

Natallia Radzina, Editor-in-Chief of the Charter97.org website

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