I reported a conversation yesterday afternoon with a friend from Rome: “Hi Mauro, but wasn’t there a Russian attack on Kiev last night? Did you hear the bombings? Were you afraid?”
“My mother-in-law used to say: “Tempo de guera più bucie che tera” (In wartime, more lies than land).
“I slept soundly and didn’t hear any sirens going off.”
“Absurd. Rainews reported it as breaking news last night.”
“I read it, but I don’t know how to answer you.”
“And they didn’t even sound the alarm?
“How kind,” I reply, perhaps overly sarcastic.
My son expressed the same concern to me by sending me the following news: “The Ukrainian armed forces announced on Telegram that at dawn they thwarted a Russian missile attack directed against Kiev. North Korean ballistic missiles were allegedly used.”
This is a news item that I have also seen reported by the Italian press, by Agi for example, and I certainly cannot say whether missiles were intercepted, perhaps hundreds of kilometers from here. I can only tell you what I see and feel here, that is, the peace and serenity of a beautiful day, in one of the most beautiful European cities, with a light breeze and a spring-like climate.
Now, let’s be clear, I too have my fears and several times a day I imagine a missile falling on my head, but rationally I smile at the idea and not out of faith in some patron saint, but out of faith in the statistics that certify to me, not the impossibility, but certainly the improbability of such an event… After all, no siren sounds and this is not appropriate for a city under attack.
The fact remains that the war party, which cuts across the fronts and capitals involved, sees a possible “de facto ceasefire” as an extremely negative thing, which could lead, God forbid, to a truce and peace talks.
For this reason, we must pay attention to the fact that propaganda is a formidable weapon, which motivates and justifies war, which destroys every possibility of dialogue and mediation by using true but partial news, or entirely invented.
Walking through Kiev, so big and so beautiful, I can’t help but think of the European and Japanese cities at the end of the Second World War, of Baghdad, of Kabul and above all of the tormented Gaza, all reduced to piles of rubble.
It happened, it’s happening now in Gaza, so it could happen here too…
However, now here in Kiev there is nothing, absolutely nothing, comparable to what is happening in Gaza, but if we do not stop the war as soon as possible this tragic and horrible option remains possible.
There are certainly those who have been studying the scenario for some time now, perhaps evaluating the profits of a subsequent reconstruction, but if it happens, European cities risk falling like dominoes: first Kiev, then perhaps Minsk, Odessa, Lviv, Moscow, Rome…
Let’s stop war propaganda and make peace propaganda.
Let’s ceasefire immediately.