Romania, February 25, 2022

Dear all,

I just wanted to let you know how incredibly nice it is to know that so many people sympathize with us. We have received so many sweet messages and people who offer to help, it really does us a lot of good to know that you think of us and care about us.

Still from the Youth News: The family together with others on their way to the border between Ukraine and Romania.

Safe in Romania, now what?

I am safe with the kids in Romania at the moment. We are now going to consider the next step, to the Netherlands. But we're in no real hurry. Our car is still on the other side of the border, so we wait and see if the waiting times might be shorter and we still have the car picked up. I am also going to think about what I can do for the people and our friends in Ukraine. Hence this general update to everyone because I'm going off Whatsapp now to create some peace. So if people didn't get an answer, it's not because I'm not happy with all the messages.

Keep Ukraine in the news!

I would also like to ask if everyone is willing to do their best to keep Ukraine in the news. I can't say how incredible it is to see your country being destroyed, it seems like something that happens to others. But the reality is, friends are in air-raid shelters with small children, others are 7 months pregnant at the front. The dead lie in the street where I do my shopping and the young boys we know so well are sent to war. It's super unrealistic, an absurd dream but real.

A Blitzkrieg, don't think so!

But the good news is that Russia didn't get what it wanted, all cities in a Blitzkrieg under control. The Ukrainians hold their ground and are incredibly combative as I expected. If Russia perseveres and occupies Ukraine, everything we've built will be destroyed, and even if it doesn't, Ukraine will never be the same country again. But you should not underestimate how important the support from abroad is, keep it under the attention. Don't trivialize it. And never never never did I and many with me expect that the bombs would fall on Kiev. That feeling that you literally have to flee from bombs is indescribable. We really don't know what Putin is capable of now that he has decided to let go of all limits of reasonableness.

Don't be naive!

So please don't be as naive as we were and stand up to this. If you cross the border from a war into the EU in this way, Ukraine is suddenly not far away. What I think I want to say is that after the Crimea and Donbass in 2014 we all fell asleep a bit, but we really can't afford that again. However you look at it, it is war in Europe and it is aimed at Europe. Wake up the activist in us and let's make this Putin's downfall. Because that is really possible, if we all dare to go for it.

Lots of love, Emmeke