Forgive us Ukraine

 


Arvo Pärt


STATEMENT:



Dear friends in Ukraine, dear colleagues, dear all fighting for your home at the price of your life,

We bow before your bravery, bravery in the face of nearly unbearable suffering.

We are with you as much as we are able to. All that is left to us is a lump in our throats and tears and prayers. Words have begun to lose their meaning.

Forgive us!

Forgive us for failing to protect you from a disaster unimaginable in our time.

Long live Ukraine! Слава Україні!

Pärt’s statement was shared in Estonian, English, Ukrainian and Russian. He was born in Estonia what then the Soviet Union. He was not allowed to set up his religious music, so he mowed to Berlin and is now again living in Estonia.

As a mirror to another mirror the war in Ukraine is very living here.  Not just because many refugees from there is here now. Also because we are so near, both Russia and Ukraine, but also the Baltic countries. We are so interconnected.

I used to play table tennis against a Russian man living here. Now he just plays against his wife or a robot.  His name is Vladimir. I know people in Estonia and I have visited the Occupation Museum in Riga. 

People in Sweden is afraid of a Russian invasion of Gotland where I have land. The defense machinery are strengthened there now.   

But probably the whole world is influenced by this war as the whole mankind is interrelated nowadays.






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