Commentary
EU Values Foresight
Society
Unlocked
Civil Society Is the Weak Element of European Defence Posture
30 October 2025
I could live without you, but I do not want to.
On the morning of February 24, when the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began with the Russian rockets shelling cities including Kyiv and razing small towns to the ground, several phrases were wiped out from our daily conversations.
Polite small talk took the hardest hit: phrases like ‘hello,’ ‘have a nice one,’ or ‘got any plans?’ disappeared. The crucial question now was, ‘How are you?’ It is almost a code. Thousands of messages with this phrase fly across Ukraine every hour.
It means, ‘Did you survive the explosion?’ Or ‘Is your house still being shelled?’ Or ‘How was the time in the shelter where you hid from aerial bombardment?’ ‘How are you?’ inevitably means ‘Are you alive?’ ‘How are you?’ also inevitably means ‘I love you. I love you so much.’
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