Readers Write: War in Ukraine

I studied Russian in high school. I had intended to learn German, but my French teacher (a remarkable woman from Armenia who spoke seven languages) persuaded me to take her Russian class instead. Once I mastered the unique alphabet, I realized that Russian is very phonetic, and I very much enjoyed learning the language and the culture.

My friend Julie and I became enchanted by a young Russian poet named Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who wrote elegant and haunting poems that appealed to our hearts and minds.

I read through his slim volume many times and wondered about his poem called "Babiy Yar."

In the 1990s, my daughter and I taught English to a family from Ukraine who had left after the Chernobyl accident. And now, in 2022, we learn every day about this country and its people as we watch Putin make war on it.

Today, I read a long article in the New Yorker by Masha Gessen in which she shares the stunning and shocking history of Babyn Yar (the Ukrainian name for a deep ravine in Kyiv). This was the place that Germans threw the bodies of Jews after they stripped them naked, stole all their possessions and shot them. They killed 33,771 Jews in 36 hours during the Second World War, one of the biggest mass executions of the Holocaust.

For some reason, the Soviet Union censored all documentation of the Holocaust for many years after the war, including attempts to memorialize Babyn Yar. Yevtushenko dared to write about a forbidden subject — so taboo that it took many decades before I learned the story behind his poem.

I have kept "Yevtushenko: Selected Poems" for all these years. Today I reread "Babiy Yar" in the light of this new understanding.

"Over Babiy Yar there are no memorials," he begins. "Over Babiy Yar … everything is one silent cry. Taking my hat off, I feel myself slowly going grey. And I am one silent cry over the many thousands of the buried; am every old man killed here, every child killed here. … No part of me can ever forget it. … When the last anti-semite on the earth is buried forever let the International ring out. … No Jewish blood runs among my blood, but I am as bitterly and hardly hated by every anti-semite as if I were a Jew."

Killing like the Germans did at Babyn Yar requires complete dehumanization of a group of people. Killing like we are witnessing some 80 years later in Ukraine requires a similar dehumanization. Even if we have no Ukrainian blood, against such evil, we should all be Ukrainians.

Kathy Hume Gray, Kellogg, Minn.

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The atrocities in Ukraine demand action, and sanctions clearly haven't been enough. However, taking military action could result in World War III against a nuclear power.

But not responding is telling every nuclear-armed autocratic government that they are free to invade any country they wish as long as they threaten use of nuclear weapons. Is Taiwan next?

So do we let the horrors continue or risk an all-out war with Russia?

Answering that question will require much greater minds than mine.

Nic Baker, Roseville

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I like most Americans have been seeing, reading and discussing the atrocities being levied on the people of Ukraine for well over a month. The media keep reporting and documenting the almost unimaginably horrific crimes by Russia, and yet we just watch and hope diplomacy and sanctions will end this. This is beyond stupidity and common sense. Putin only knows power and will only react to power. Enough is enough. My heart breaks every time I see something about Ukraine. We are just watching fellow humans being slaughtered every minute and what do we do as a country? Virtually nothing but send arms just sufficient to prolong the fighting. Why are we so afraid to send the planes, tanks and every non-nuclear weapon we have? For God's sake, help Ukraine and its people.

I would like to be a proud American, but right now, I am not.

Roger Lewis, Shakopee

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President Joe Biden's permission to use more corn ethanol in gasoline this summer is an irresponsible political move that may have deadly consequences ("Biden adds ethanol mixing waiver to gas price fight," April 13).

Food prices increase when farmers grow fuel instead of food. The world is facing a grave global hunger crisis exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine: 44 million people in 38 countries are approaching famine conditions, according to the World Food Program.

With billions of dollars needed for emergency food in these countries, even a small increase in already-high food commodity prices could mean the difference between hunger and death.

In part because Biden's waiver is just for the summer, it's unclear how much his decision will impact fuel or food costs. However, with millions of lives on the line, it is no time to take such a risk.

Worried about fuel costs? Driving more conservatively and, yes, keeping those tires inflated will save you far more cash through extra miles per gallon than extra corn ethanol can — savings that you could use for something like food.

Adam Olson, Minneapolis

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I agree, what's happening in Ukraine is terrible! And the American media is doing the right thing reporting on the pain and suffering brought to the Ukrainian people.

So why didn't the American media also disseminate equal coverage of the pain and suffering of the Iraqi people, caused by the U.S. invasion of Iraq? That action has cost the lives of as many as half a million Iraqis by some estimates.

Aren't these both the same thing?

This is just another example of the American media's lack of objectivity in its reporting, which is the main cause for the sharp divisions that now exist between the American people.

Paul Ferber, Eagan

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An April 12 letter regarding U.S. involvement in Ukraine ends with: "America doesn't need more self-righteous warmongering — it needs less. There are better ways to help."

It is not America's army invading Ukraine, leveling cities and murdering thousands of civilians. If the writer knew of "better ways to help" stop this massacre, he should have spelled them out. President Biden needs to send the Ukrainians long-range weapons to stop artillery and ships from bombarding cities, medium-range anti-aircraft weapons to intercept Russian missiles and ground support aircraft that can take out tank columns, while Ukraine still has enough military left to use them.

Les Everett, Falcon Heights

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An April 12 letter writer hit the mark by stating in his letter to the editor that "our foreign policy" was largely responsible for the deaths in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ukraine is a different situation entirely.

Here we have a Russian tyrant trying to engulf a whole democratic country. And NATO watched as 140,000 Russian troops were heading to the Ukrainian border and did nothing. If we had a strong president in the White House we could have prevented this wanton destruction and loss of lives. NATO should have stood firmly against this dictator and called his bluff.

Stephen Vincent Elston, Golden Valley

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