Ukraine as seen from Latin America - with Carolina Amoroso | Thinking in Dark Times # 18

May 23, 2023

In this episode, Argentinian journalist Carolina Amoroso speaks about her experience of reporting from Ukraine during the war. She shares her understanding of the Ukrainian struggle, the strength of Ukrainian resistance, and the driving role of women in Ukrainians' fight for their freedom.

Carolina Amoroso is an Argentinian journalist and book author who has won several media awards in her country. She has reported from Ukraine during the Russian invasion.

Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief editor of UkraineWorld.org


Key thoughts of Carolina Amoroso:

  • This is not a war about territory. This is a war about identity, and this is a war about freedom and sovereignty.
  • I'm familiar with the trauma of war, the fact that war runs in something that I like to call the blood memory. It can take over your entire body and mind frame in the blink of an eye. It can take over your entire existence in a second, and you don't really know how it's happening. I remember going to Ukraine, and instantly I knew what was going on without really knowing what was going on. I think that has to do with a blood memory that we, as Latin Americans have because we come from traumatized experiences like migration. I think that's something we can relate to.
  • If you look at Ukrainian history, then you see that for decades and centuries, the Ukrainian resistance story, the story of the Cossacks as free warriors, freedom-loving people, was actually suppressed by the imperial narrative and actually the rest of the world was kind of death towards it for a very long time.
  • We have a lot of lessons to learn from Ukraine and from this experience of setting some records straight.
  • That is one thing we have to break. The fact that narratives are more powerful than human suffering is just something we cannot tolerate in this era, where information is very accessible and where we can actually figure out for ourselves what we think about particular situations. And where we can break automatic ideological solidarity. I think that's what has happened with Russia as well. I think there was a romantic perspective on what Russia meant and what the Soviet Union meant.
  • Dying is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Maybe having to give up on the things worth living for is the worst thing that can happen to you. That is a lesson I hold in my heart and that I've learned from Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.
  • Most of the people I've come across who serve in the army are the people who are most desperate for peace. Everyone is desperate for peace.
  • There is no silver lining about war. There is no romantic perspective of war. War is hell. War is atrocious. But you also have to keep in mind that for a country to be able to resist and protect its children, there have to be people who are serving to protect and fight the aggressor. Sometimes life confronts us with the dark reality that you have to defend. You have defend yourself from aggressor.

Thinking in Dark Times is a podcast series by UkraineWorld. This series seeks to make Ukraine and the current war a focal point of our common reflection about the world's present, past, and future. We try to see the light through and despite the current darkness.

UkraineWorld is brought to you by Internews Ukraine, one of the largest Ukrainian media NGOs.

Support us at patreon.com/ukraineworld

Learn more about a campaign #AguantaUcrania, a campaign of supporting Ukraine from Latin America: twitter.com/AguantaUcrania \ instagram.com/aguantaucrania