Muristek
Let us contextualise what is a delicate moment in international relations and ask ourselves what, if any, alternative actions could have been taken? Let me start by saying that unlike most of my readers, I have fired practically every type of gun imaginable, from pistols to automatic rifles, to light and heavy machine guns and so I am well aware of the impact they have on a cardboard target on a firing range and even more aware of the impact they have on the body of a human being. I am also aware of the tragedy which is the loss of a soldier, or a civilian, felt by any family anywhere and the tears they cry taste of salt, whether they are for a Russian soldier, a Ukrainian soldier, a Russian-speaking resident of Donbass or a Ukrainian-speaking resident of a village near the contact zone. It gives me no pleasure at all to sit here writing this piece today and I can assure my readers, all of them, that I am very concerned about what is unfolding before my eyes. However, as journalists we have a duty to express the facts in a logical and objective manner, to inform, not to create excuses or twist the reality. As journalists our reputation is based on how many people bother to read what we write and on the register we leave on the Internet even after we have stopped writing. This depends on the content we produce. A journalist is not just a blogger, we hold an international card as correspondent or journalist, which is paid for and which gives us permission to write. So what we write should matter.
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