The war in Ukraine – The whistling of the city

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It is approaching 150 days since Russian tanks began to lay more and more Ukrainian soil under and behind them, and since the artillery and bullets began to rain down on the Ukrainian civilian population.

About the same time ago, the massacre took place in Butsja, where Russian soldiers executed innocent civilians on an open street and dumped hundreds of them in mass graves.

It has been just as long since Russian soldiers began mass raping Ukrainian women and since millions of Ukrainians have had to leave their homes and become refugees from Russian atrocities; since the bombing of full hospitals with pregnant women or schools with children in started.

Despite them the constant atrocities that continue to shake Ukraine, there are many indications that our solidarity with the Ukrainian people has begun to fade. We are still closest to ourselves.

When Russia went to full-scale war against Ukraine on February 24, there was a broad political agreement to support the Ukrainians with everything we could: Send weapons! Sending money! Receive refugees and bring out wounded soldiers.

It seems a long time ago. There are apparently completely different issues that set the agenda today. The fear of sharing our power, for example.

This weekend reminded Jens Stoltenberg reminds us that it is a moral responsibility to support Ukraine, that it costs and why the alternative is much worse.

In a speech to the Conservative Party Group (EPP) in the European Parliament, an almost indignant Stoltenberg states that all politicians have a responsibility to support Ukraine. Significant, and over a long period of time.

“The price we pay in the EU, in NATO, is a cost we can measure in currency, in money. The price they pay is measured in lives that are lost every day. So we have to stop complaining, “said the NATO chief. He also reminded that easing the sanctions now will be a victory and a reward for a Russia that behaves brutally.

He actually asked both politicians and people to step up.

At one point it turned around. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj ran in almost all national assemblies in the West to provide more weapons and aid to his country. It worked. In a short time, old security policy fads were put away, and all men and countries ran to the pumps to assist Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression.

But the will to long-term support has probably never been there. At least so far we have not been willing to pay that much for it. Yes, of course the war in Ukraine has cost money for the Norwegian state and the savings bank oil fund, but as soon as the war in Ukraine has meant difficult times for ordinary people, much of the understanding and solidarity disappears. Then it is asked how long the support can actually last when it starts to tighten.

A week ago closed the important Nord Stream I gas pipeline for repair. The pipeline system transports gas from Russia to Germany and Italy, among others. Significant and powerful EU countries, that is. On Monday, the news agency Reuters announced that the pipeline may not reopen.

It will create panic in Europe, which is far too dependent on Russian gas, and it will push gas prices and thus electricity prices further up. But that must in no way mean that we soften the sanctions and condemnation of the Russian war of aggression.

We need politicians who put this in context. Which says that the sanctions against Russia will hurt, but that it is necessary. Stoltenberg reminds us how little price we have to pay after all compared to the Ukrainians who have either been sent into a bloody war, or have had to flee from it.

This year is going to be much more difficult than the previous one: – We have to prepare for a tough winter. We must be honest and tell the truth about what is to come, says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in an interview with E24. He can say it with even greater clarity: Norway must stand behind tough sanctions against Russia. It will cost, but we will in any case stand up for Europe and Ukraine’s struggle for independence.

Electricity prices will be record high, but there is nothing against the price the Ukrainians pay, or the many millions who have to go hungry because wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia have stopped.

If you ever have wondered what you would have done if you lived during the great conflicts and turning points of the last century, then the answer is what you are doing right now. If you are one of those who have good advice, complain that electricity prices are going up and demand a complete halt in power exchange with other countries: shame on you. Standing up for Ukraine was never meant to be free.

It looks like if we have forgotten that help can cost something. If we stop helping when it starts to cost, then it is a moral failure.

Norwegian solidarity with Ukraine and the patience for further sanctions seem to be in a kind of limbo. It has been easy as long as we have not felt properly about the consequences of it. The time to come will be the test of whether we mean business.

In the midst of the fading support, Stoltenberg reminds us why we do this. It is not free to let Russia ravage as they please. Nor is there anything that can be called solidarity by cutting the power cables abroad and building walls with wealth like bricks and selfishness like cement.

PS: Sondre Hansmark has been elected as the third deputy to the Storting for the Liberal Party. He is now employed as a commentator in Dagbladet, resigned from the party and will in that case meet as an independent representative.

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