I think we are all under the impression of what happened in the White House – I mean the meeting between US President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
However, I would like to talk not about politics and my attitude towards the participants in this meeting, but to look at it from a linguistic point of view. I am a writer and I was struck by how US representatives spoke about Russia's war against Ukraine.
About this war that has been exhausting us for over a decade, the full-scale phase of which has lasted three years. About the war in which thousands of Ukrainians died. About the war that has practically affected everyone today. About the war that we are used to talking about, guided by our emotions - in the categories of pain, hope, hatred, that is, in the categories that anyway characterize us as people who have a heart, conscience and a desire for justice.
For Trump, the war in Ukraine is a “deal“
And the US president spoke about this war as a businessman. He used the word “deal“ in his vocabulary. Although it is an extremely complex and important document that can save millions of people, that can change the course of history. And he spoke about it only as a business initiative. He mentioned “deal“ and about “maps“, which the Ukrainian president did not have.
In general, this vocabulary, comments and remarks of Trump and Vance made a strange impression: the great war has been going on for three years and suddenly people who had been silent all this time until then were included in the conversation about it - for them the war simply did not exist. Until then, until Trump's election campaign began, until he began to promise, including to his voters, that he would stop the war - it is unclear how, but in 24 hours. Until then, there were no such conversations, nor, it seems, was there the war itself. And here they suddenly found themselves at the negotiating table and saw the war in front of them. As one of them said: “I've seen stories about it“.
Their vocabulary betrays the level of their empathy, sympathy and understanding of the problem. “Stories“ are clearly an indicator of competence, or rather its absence. Some self-confident people sit down and try to talk about our tragedy, pain, blood, hope, the disappointment of millions of people in the country, whose blood is flowing while trying to protect themselves from the aggressor. And they talk about it in the language of businessmen who want to make a profitable deal – first of all for themselves, for their voters, and with good will, possibly for the interests of other countries. This is a completely different approach and perception of things compared to those we are used to.
"They sat down to play cards with us, and we wanted to talk about justice"
We are used to talking about this war through meaning. To talk about what fills us. About what is important and significant to us. To talk about freedom – not just as a beautiful word, but as a real value for which people voluntarily take up arms and go to fight. Let's talk about democracy - as a value for which people are ready to oppose the aggressor. Let's talk about dignity - as a concept for which people are ready to face the bullets of the occupiers, without fear or lowering their eyes. During the years of the great war, this vocabulary became for us usual, natural, irrevocable.
And now we have to deal with people who tell us about a “deal“ and about “cards we don't have“. That all this is just business - nothing personal. And this is actually the biggest clash, the biggest contrast of views and values. This was obvious and etched in our minds: it turned out that the people we sat down to talk about justice were actually sitting down to play cards with us.
This is something important, painful and unexpected for us. I suppose that this is what we will have to face in the future and we should keep it in mind. While we were talking about values, someone was simply calculating business interests and strategies. The world is like that. Is this good? Obviously not. Does this mean that everything ends? No, everything continues. What is good here? Good is everything that leaves us hope.
*Serhiy Zhadan is a Ukrainian poet, writer and musician.