When soldiers returned from the Ukraine battlefield, they had lost their smiles and vitality. The recent Russia-Ukraine war continue to haunt those who fight in the front and the others who remain at home, yet it seems endless. Beyond soldiers, personnels serving in the war zone also experience life and death. People could no longer commemorate every single member who has lost their life, and death has become uncountable to include all in relation to the vast scale of a global conflict.  

Artem Chekh, a Ukranian author, recounts his story under the effects of the war. He had monitored on Facebook to closely follow those who have gone to the war front. Seeing social media content updates assured him that the ones he cares about were still alive. But soon, death news arrived, and he felt broken in his life. Recently, Chekh has gone to serve in the Chernobyl exclusion zone on the northern border, leaving his wife and son at home in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Despite immense homesickness and despair, Chekh has “accepted the possibility of [his] death as an almost accomplished fact.” But his family would suffer in fear of sudden explosions and worries for the husband, for the father. From Checkh’s perspective, the deaths of civilians are more difficult to be accepted and prepared for, as they are resulted from the abrupt and unexpected intrusion of a warfare. 

Kurt Vonnegut once claimed that despite the incoming waves of wars, plain deaths still exist. Nevertheless, deaths of old age after a healthy and safe life seemed luxurious when living in under a war. At least in the modern days, the people deserve a dignified death——an end that is accompanied by peace and tranquility. This can only be achieved when missiles cease flying across houses, when bullets cease to shoot from the gun barrel.

Original source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/opinion/ukraine-soldier-war.html

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