(Summer special 2022) – A message of hope and love

Valeriia et Konstantin envoient un message au monde. Foto: Natalia Ustinova / CC0 1.0

Their love is stronger than the war. They are supposed to hate each other, but theu just got married. All the best to Valeriia and Konstantin!

(KL / František Zvardon) – Love is stronger than hate. This is the message sent to the world by the Ukrainian Valeriia and her Russian husband Konstantin who got married last weekend in the Hussite church in Prague, just below the Vyšehrad castle which had been so beautifully depicted in music by Smetana. At a moment where everybody tries to instill hate to both Ukrainians and Russians, their love story set a counterpoint to all the horrors of war we have to watch every single day.

The Czech priest who sent us this photograph and the explanations, tells us also that Valeriia is expecting a baby. A Ukrainian-Russian baby. The evidence that there will be an “after-war”. The sign that one day, Ukrainians and Russians will be brothers and sisters again, even if the road will be very long. Valeriia and Konstantin are in love. They don’t care about the color of their passports, they don’t care about borders, geostrategic interests or gas and petrol deals.

All they want in this world, is being a family, love each other and raise their Ukrainian-Russian kid to become good persons. Are they asking too much? Or are they asking just what everybody should be entitled to? The picture of this loving couple questions the madness of war. War is the denial of humanity, of love, of hope, of future. While people are being killed in this never declared war, while tens of thousands are engaged in a war they don’t understand, Valeriia and Konstantin show what really matters.

Thank you, Valeriia and Konstantin, thank you, Marika Zvardon in Prague for sharing this message with us! May Valeriia and Konstantin be happy, have many children and be an example that only love can overcome the hate of mankind. Please share this message of hope and love as much as you can!