Amplifying this translation of a powerful open letter to Trump from a Ukrainian doctor, on several Ukrainian FB pages. I believe it was first posted in late February.
Ukrainian doctor's appeal to Trump
You want to talk about "peace agreements," Mr. Trump? Then listen to me, a doctor who puts the torn bodies of children on the operating table every day! Who cuts off fragments from their brains with a scalpel, who wipes blood from the eyes of mothers who have lost everything! Are you talking about "giving up territories"? I will show you the territories: these are pieces of muscle on the asphalt near Mariupol. These are baby strollers crushed by tanks in Bucha. These are burned-out school classrooms in Chernihiv, where children managed to write "HELP" in chalk on the blackboards before they were killed.
Do you dare to accuse us?
Are we to blame for the fact that Russian executioners rape women in basements? For killing prisoners by shooting them in the back of the head? For spreading cluster bombs along civilian evacuation corridors? Your logic is the logic of a rapist: "It's your own fault that you didn't submit." Do you want us to "not lose land"? So why don't you say this to Putin, who slaughtered entire villages in the Kherson region? Why don't you threaten him, and not us - those who defend themselves with old machine guns against his army?
Your "negotiations" are a spit in the face of thousands of my colleagues who died under shelling of hospitals. Do you know what it's like to work in a basement without light, without antibiotics, without morphine, when a child dies in your arms from pain? Have you ever heard a person scream when their leg is amputated without anesthesia? Is this your "small loss of land"? Is this what you are kicking us out of the negotiating table for?!
You call Putin a "genius"? Then genius is the ability to burn people in their homes. This is a scorched earth tactic, when only corpses and mines remain after the occupiers.
Do you admire his "smartness"? He is smart as a plague rat: he knows how to escape responsibility, hide behind civilians, shoot with nuclear threats. And you, like a child playing with fire, want to make him a world leader.
Your plan is not peace. It is euthanasia for Ukraine. You propose to lift sanctions? That is, give Russia money for new tanks. Western technology for their kamikaze drones. Do you want to return them to the G7? As if they don't bomb gas stations so that we freeze in winter. They don't steal Ukrainian children. They don't destroy our museums, churches, theaters - everything that makes us a people.
You ask why we don't make concessions? Because every one of your "deals" stinks of corpses. Do you want us to give up even more territories? So that millions of Ukrainians live under Russian machine guns? So that my fellow doctors hide in bomb shelters again when Putin breaks this "deal" too?
You say: "The war could have been stopped without casualties." Lie. It didn't start in 2022. It started when Russia seized Crimea, when the world was silent. When the first bodies with tied hands disappeared in Donbas. Do you think that if we surrender now, it will end? No. Putin will come later. And then you will justify him again: "Oh, he's just restoring the empire, he's a genius!".
And what will you say to the families of the 15-year-old girl who was shot by the Russians on her bicycle? That her death is a "small loss of land"? Will you tell her mother that she "doesn't deserve a seat at the table"? That her daughter died because Ukraine "didn't agree"?
We are not asking you to fight for us. We asked for weapons - you gave them too late. We asked for sanctions - you relaxed them. But now you want to become an accomplice in genocide. Because when you lift sanctions, when you recognize the occupation - you give Russia a license to kill. Every dollar that Putin receives will become a bullet in the body of my patient. Every compromise you make is a new corpse.
I am a doctor. I swear to save lives. And you, Mr. Trump, swear to take them away. Don't you want to hear our voice? Then listen to our sirens. Our cries. Our curses. Do you want to be friends with Russia? Then be friends. But know this: history will not forgive you for this. Every child killed by Russian weapons, every raped woman, every burned doctor is your joint responsibility with Putin.
We will not be your "victims of politics". We are a nation that survives despite your cynical indifference. And when you celebrate your deal with the dictator, remember: we are already building new hospitals in the destroyed territories. And in each of them there will be a poster: Death to fascism. Shame on the traitors.
Ukrainian doctor's appeal to Trump
You want to talk about "peace agreements," Mr. Trump? Then listen to me, a doctor who puts the torn bodies of children on the operating table every day! Who cuts off fragments from their brains with a scalpel, who wipes blood from the eyes of mothers who have lost everything! Are you talking about "giving up territories"? I will show you the territories: these are pieces of muscle on the asphalt near Mariupol. These are baby strollers crushed by tanks in Bucha. These are burned-out school classrooms in Chernihiv, where children managed to write "HELP" in chalk on the blackboards before they were killed.
Do you dare to accuse us?
Are we to blame for the fact that Russian executioners rape women in basements? For killing prisoners by shooting them in the back of the head? For spreading cluster bombs along civilian evacuation corridors? Your logic is the logic of a rapist: "It's your own fault that you didn't submit." Do you want us to "not lose land"? So why don't you say this to Putin, who slaughtered entire villages in the Kherson region? Why don't you threaten him, and not us - those who defend themselves with old machine guns against his army?
Your "negotiations" are a spit in the face of thousands of my colleagues who died under shelling of hospitals. Do you know what it's like to work in a basement without light, without antibiotics, without morphine, when a child dies in your arms from pain? Have you ever heard a person scream when their leg is amputated without anesthesia? Is this your "small loss of land"? Is this what you are kicking us out of the negotiating table for?!
You call Putin a "genius"? Then genius is the ability to burn people in their homes. This is a scorched earth tactic, when only corpses and mines remain after the occupiers.
Do you admire his "smartness"? He is smart as a plague rat: he knows how to escape responsibility, hide behind civilians, shoot with nuclear threats. And you, like a child playing with fire, want to make him a world leader.
Your plan is not peace. It is euthanasia for Ukraine. You propose to lift sanctions? That is, give Russia money for new tanks. Western technology for their kamikaze drones. Do you want to return them to the G7? As if they don't bomb gas stations so that we freeze in winter. They don't steal Ukrainian children. They don't destroy our museums, churches, theaters - everything that makes us a people.
You ask why we don't make concessions? Because every one of your "deals" stinks of corpses. Do you want us to give up even more territories? So that millions of Ukrainians live under Russian machine guns? So that my fellow doctors hide in bomb shelters again when Putin breaks this "deal" too?
You say: "The war could have been stopped without casualties." Lie. It didn't start in 2022. It started when Russia seized Crimea, when the world was silent. When the first bodies with tied hands disappeared in Donbas. Do you think that if we surrender now, it will end? No. Putin will come later. And then you will justify him again: "Oh, he's just restoring the empire, he's a genius!".
And what will you say to the families of the 15-year-old girl who was shot by the Russians on her bicycle? That her death is a "small loss of land"? Will you tell her mother that she "doesn't deserve a seat at the table"? That her daughter died because Ukraine "didn't agree"?
We are not asking you to fight for us. We asked for weapons - you gave them too late. We asked for sanctions - you relaxed them. But now you want to become an accomplice in genocide. Because when you lift sanctions, when you recognize the occupation - you give Russia a license to kill. Every dollar that Putin receives will become a bullet in the body of my patient. Every compromise you make is a new corpse.
I am a doctor. I swear to save lives. And you, Mr. Trump, swear to take them away. Don't you want to hear our voice? Then listen to our sirens. Our cries. Our curses. Do you want to be friends with Russia? Then be friends. But know this: history will not forgive you for this. Every child killed by Russian weapons, every raped woman, every burned doctor is your joint responsibility with Putin.
We will not be your "victims of politics". We are a nation that survives despite your cynical indifference. And when you celebrate your deal with the dictator, remember: we are already building new hospitals in the destroyed territories. And in each of them there will be a poster: Death to fascism. Shame on the traitors.
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