A Prayer for Those Who Stayed in Ukraine

Over the past month, as the Russian army circled Ukraine tighter and tighter, I meekly tried to suggest to my parents to leave the provincial town they live in, one in which I was born and where I lived until my teenage years. My father, who is an accomplished Ukrainian journalist and the editor of a weekly newspaper was decisive: "It's all just a complex political gambit. The conflict will all dissolve in the final minute, just like the Cuban missile crisis did." My cousin who lives in Ukraine, and is a successful businessman, told me to cool off, too. He knew people who knew, he pointed out. It's just an informational war. They are both very smart, and both understand regional politics far better than I do. They weren't alone in thinking nothing would come of this.