“This is probably the worst, most terrible morning of my life.
Wake up and read what your Kiev friends write to you: we have explosions.
And at the same time, in the subcortex - the words that you remember from childhood, already at the genetic level: on June 22, at exactly four o'clock, Kiev was bombed, they announced to us that the war had begun. And then they bomb again. Not Germans.
How to live with this? Do not know. Right now, at this moment, I don't want to live.
Then I'll come to my senses, find (I hope) my usual composure. I will try, as before, to analyze events, to understand the situation, to get used to the new reality, which is now for a long time.
I will try (in texts, in comments, in speeches on TV) not to use evaluative, emotional vocabulary. Well, how else? Can't you say from the screen: "this is ..."?
With my Ukrainian friends, buddies, former friends (there are some) in recent years, we often argued. Sometimes to a scream, to a mat.
Everyone has their own truth.
So it was - and so, apparently, will continue to be.
But today, on this terrible morning, I want to say. I'm with you. I haven't changed. I am the way you knew me (and, I hope, loved - or at least respected).
You are not my enemy, and you never will be.
I want you all to be alive. I want us to meet again sometime and hug.
I'm sorry we couldn't prevent this..."
The original is here.