It begins with the sound of sirens in the night. Sound Ukrainian children now know better than lullabies. Just a few days ago, Russia carried out one of its largest attacks yet: hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles rained down on Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa… Buildings collapsed, hospitals were hit, and the energy infrastructure went up in flames. And among the ruins, scenes that should never become routine: a stuffed toy in the mud, a bloodstained backpack, the silence of a child who will not live to see the next day.
For more than three years, Ukrainians have endured what no European nation in the 21st century should have to endure: a war of extermination disguised as geopolitics. Moscow no longer even pretends otherwise. This is not a war for “security guarantees” or against “NATO expansion.” It is a war aimed at erasing Ukraine as a nation, breaking its people, and showing the world that borders can be redrawn by brute force.
As the war drags on, it becomes a mirror—a brutal mirror of European and American moral hypocrisy. Western leaders meet at summits, issue statements, and announce aid packages carefully calculated: just enough for Ukraine to keep fighting, but never enough to win. It is cruel arithmetic: enough weapons to resist, never enough to end the war—and Ukraine to win.
What does that mean in practice? It means Ukrainian children spend their nights in basements, their mornings in shelters, and their school lessons interrupted by wailing sirens. It means parents put their children to sleep not knowing if they will wake them the next morning. It means entire cities live to the rhythm of fear, broken only by grief.
Every drone that was shot down, and every intercepted missile is celebrated as a victory. But even when air defenses manage to stop most of them, what slips through is enough to cause destruction. One missile is enough to take dozens of lives, one drone enough to wipe out a family’s home. And every new salvo, no matter how “partially repelled,” carries the same message from Moscow: surrender or die.
The West convinces itself it is helping, while in truth it shifts the entire risk onto Ukraine. Europe calculates, Ukrainians die. Leaders in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris proudly speak of “resolve,” but that resolve is weighed against Russia’s “red lines.” While they stall, families in Kherson and Kharkiv bury children killed by Russian missiles. That is not strategy. That is cowardice dressed in diplomatic language.
The worst consequence of this war is not only destruction but also injustice. The world watches bombed maternity wards, deported children, and civilian executions—and tells itself justice will come “one day.” But how long can a child wait for justice? How long can parents wait for the world to free itself of its own fear? Putin is counting on exactly that: on Western fatigue, on empty debates in international institutions, on endless statements of “concern.” Every postponed decision and every line Europe “must not cross” are bricks in the wall of impunity. That wall grows, and with it, Russia’s brutality.
Children are the ones most crushed by the world’s silence. Their childhood has been stolen: instead of playgrounds they spend their days in underground shelters, instead of schools they see ruins, instead of toys they recognize mines and missile fragments. Every child growing up in Ukraine today carries invisible scars. These are not just traumas, but a whole generation raised with the message that the world knows—but does not want to do enough. And perhaps that is the greatest crime: the message that the lives of Ukrainian children are worth less than the political comfort of the West.
Ukraine today is not just a country defending its borders. It is the rampart behind which all of Europe stands. Every city Ukraine defends, every line of the front it holds—that is a line Russia has not pushed closer to Warsaw, Riga, Bucharest, or Berlin. Europe acts as though the war is distant, but it is being fought in its heart. The destruction of Kyiv or Kharkiv is not an attack on “eastern neighbors,” but on the very idea of European freedom.
Western governments boast of “balance”—giving enough to sustain resistance, but not enough to end the war. That is not balance; it is calculated cowardice. The leaders of Europe and America avoid telling their citizens what is obvious: Ukraine is fighting this war for all of us. Their inability to admit this truth is the greatest shame of our time.
And while the West hesitates, the Ukrainian people show strength that shatters every statistic and calculation. That strength is what holds the front. It is not aid packages or roaming the halls of bureaucracies. It is the will of a nation not to disappear. In that determination lies a mirror for the West: people under constant terror show more courage than leaders who enjoy the security those people are dying to defend.
It is high time Europe stopped hiding behind the mantra of “support for as long as it takes.” However resolute that mantra may sound, it carries the trap of endlessness—as if it were normal for Ukraine to defend itself indefinitely while the world watches. The truth is simple: if Ukraine falls, Europe falls. Not because Russian troops will march through European capitals tomorrow, but because the entire idea of European security will be shattered. If borders can be changed by force, if children can be deported, if civilian buildings and hospitals can be systematically bombed without punishment—then Europe is no longer Europe but a continent of compromise and fear.
For three years, Ukraine has endured what would have broken many nations in three months. Its children have grown up to the sound of sirens, its people have learned to rebuild daily what is destroyed, and its soldiers have become a symbol of courage that transcends borders. The question is no longer whether Ukraine can endure. It has already proven that. The question is whether Europe and America can endure the mirror this country holds up to them every single day.
Ukraine’s survival and victory are the conditions for Europe’s survival. If Europe denies full support, it will not only betray Ukraine—it will betray its own future.