‘Mr. Putin, have you no shame?’
These are remarks I believe President Joe Biden should use to rally the world against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Putin, these remarks are meant for you:
Mr. Putin, have you no shame? Have you no shame for the terrible suffering you have grotesquely inflicted in Ukraine and on its civilians? Without justification or even reason, you have started a brutal war of aggression. Have you no shame for the suffering this has caused innocent civilians and indeed even pregnant women and children?
Your forces bombed a theater in Mariupol where hundreds of civilians and children had taken refuge. On two highly visible sides of the theater, written on the ground clearly visible from the sky in large Russian letters was the word “children,” who had taken shelter there. But your forces nonetheless wantonly bombed if not targeted this shelter that possessed no Ukrainian military assets but just children and civilians. Your forces killed more than 300. Have you no shame Mr. Putin for this terrible act?
Mr. Putin, your forces bombed a maternity hospital leading to the death of mothers and unborn children. How can killing pregnant mothers carrying unborn children be justified. Have you no shame Mr. Putin for your forces committing such horrendous and immoral acts?
Mr. Putin have you no shame in bombing a train station killing 57 civilians and wounding hundreds more who were just seeking to flee?
Your unjust war has forced nearly 4 million Ukrainians to flee to neighboring countries — more than 2.5 million to Poland alone, 370 thousand to Moldova, 550 thousand to Romania, 324 thousand to Hungary, 256 thousand to Slovakia and 5 thousand to Belarus and other places as well. You have caused the internal displacement of another 7 million people.
This has caused unbelievable suffering and hardship on innocent civilians, mothers and especially children that will impact their lives forever. The damage you have caused is ongoing and in many cases irreparable.
Mr. Putin! Stop this war! Stop the killing of Ukrainian citizens! Stop killing mothers and children! Stop this dreadful suffering and the slaughter of innocents! End the dislocation of millions of human beings from their homes caused by your fiasco of flawed decision-making. How much suffering must people endure until you stop? Is there no limit to the harm you are capable of inflicting and intending to impose on completely innocent civilians? How many must die? How many Ukrainians killed will satisfy you? How much shear devastation of homes, apartments, office buildings, Holocaust memorials — and indeed whole cities — are necessary to meet your savage ambitions? Do you really intend to destroy all of Ukraine and if so why and for what purpose? Along with our partners and allies, you need to understand we are all fully committed and unified in continuing to support and help the Ukrainians defend their country, their freedom and their right to determine their on future without interference. Make no mistake about that commitment and how effective it has been and remains and will be going forward. We are all inspired by the bravery and heroism of the Ukrainian people and their armed forces who are resisting your totally immoral attack on Ukraine.
Know as well that while you have become a pariah, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inspires the world. How could we not be? His bravery and heroism has inspired his country. His remark when offered a safe passage out of Ukraine when you invaded will go down in history: “I don’t need a ride. I need ammunition” is as powerful and moving as any of Churchill’s greatest comments during World War II.
Mr. Putin — face the reality that there is no way you can win! There is no way you can successfully occupy and control a country of more than 40 million people, who have demonstrated by their heroic resistance to your invasion of their democratic country that they hate you and the unspeakable harm and suffering you have already inflicted.
Mr. Putin! Stop in the name of humanity and decency! Stop the killing in the name of God himself!
How many must die? How many Ukrainians killed will satisfy you?
James Schreiber is a Greenwich resident since 1974, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York as well as the chairman emeritus of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a nonpartisan D.C.-based think tank on the Middle East. This essay reflects his views and not those of the Institute.