The Truce

This is all fiction, but maybe it shouldn't be.

From the desk Volodymyr Zelenskyy:

To my comrade and friend Volodymyr Zelenskyy,

I am sorry that I thought your people wanted saving. Perhaps I was wrong. I've wasted thousands of lives, destroyed millions of acres and demolished millions of facilities in a failed effort to rewrite mistakes I felt my superiors made as we fell apart in the 1990's. I was hoping to reconnect the families that migrated into your lands even though there are families from all across your nation that have been dispersed in our lands as well over the years. I recognize that you are as different as we are from the Finns and Mongols who invaded these lands long ago, even those before we were known as the Kievan Rus. And even then, you were the successors. We acknowledge your existence and freedom to govern yourselves as you wish, as all nation states should. We humbly apologize to the dead, the victims of war, the owners of industry and commerce, and those who own real estate and land. We also wish, to specify the loss of life dealt across the world as we took your farmlands and farmers and made them warzones and soldiers.

We humbly agree to the deals of the treaty signed under no duress. We hereby have free trade. No tariffs or taxes are permitted by our government. Our government will pay for any materials sent to rebuild the infrastructure we destroyed. No Russian workers nor corporations may bid, offer, or be involved with any part of the rebuilding of Ukraine besides the supply of goods to the Ukrainian border unless Ukraine decides to use them. You will be allowed first bids on any infrastructure you took out in Russian territory. You may charge tariffs and taxes on any goods and services you provide in our rebuilding efforts as well as energy outflows from Ukraine. You will have access to maintain your own power service as we pay for its upkeep within Russian oblasts. You will also have control of the flow and receive all profits from the energy transferred through your territory from Russia to other nations in Europe and Asia for a term of 50 years. This is to make up for the loss of life of both your sons and daughters as well as to honor the sacrifice of our sons and daughters who lost their life because of our misguided actions. We will pay for their maintenance to Ukrainian labor and will only be allowed to teach the first generation to maintain them if needed. We are sorry that we felt we needed to unite us in a way that caused so much destruction and distrust.

I can only hope that over time these actions can be forgiven and that our nations will stand together in economic harmony after that time frame has passed. You are free to ally with who you want, when you want and hope that even in time our children can live in harmony together so that missiles are not needed at our borders. We humbly apologize for stirring a pot that is tearing us further apart as you stand as united as you can. Inviting foreigners into our lands to divide us farther was never our intention and will be the hindrance that we must bear as well. Know only that we believed we were helping the people in both of our lands and never intended it to drive us farther apart, and waste so many lives and cause so much destruction.

I know your people may never forgive me, but the Russian people should not be held responsible for the decisions I made. Please forgive them and the soldiers I made them become.

Sincerely Yours,

Vladimir Putin

From Vladimir Putin's Desk:

To the Dictator Vladimir Putin:

You are not a comrade to me or the people of Ukraine. You will never be seen as a friend. In fact, we shall always be vigilant that your country may try this again. We understand that you were made to write the letter sent to us and that we were allowed to respond as personally as we wished to reply.

We are not happy at the concessions we had to agree to once you sued for a peace you forced us to agree to when we had peace we liked before 2014. We would much rather have our sons and our daughters back than the need to rebuild after 5 years of attack. We are not happy about the terrain we have lost due to the actions of a warlord. We are happy the people have gotten what they wanted, and we are happy that this has sparked other states in your nation to seek their own rule due to your decisions, but none of that was worth the lives lost by both of our children, or the farmland now full of minefields. The excess land used to bury the dead was not helpful. Nothing you did helped anyone but your own ego to assume control of a people who wished to govern themselves. You disliked the leaders they chose and decided that only Russian might could save your control over us through economic practices and political and military will. And now we have lost control of who we may do business with, when as you said our peoples are united through family and were happy to control our commerce between the two lands. How you could ever see your brothers, sisters and cousins as your enemies instead of friends and economic partners we can never understand. And we wouldn't need to line our borders with missiles if our neighbors hadn't used them against us first. We are happy that you take responsibility for all of this, but without you none of this would have been needed in the first place. You are a despicable man that needs to be tried for your war crimes, and you will be called Vlad the Mad in every textbook in both our lands for good reason.

You need to tell the families in both our lands why you felt they needed to die, especially the ones you claimed to be protecting. And those abroad that died from famines. You need to apologize to the 6 different nations each that invaded our borders forensically testing war. As our soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder along the demarcation line, 24 hours a day in shifts of 12 hours, out in the cold in the booths we built every 2 miles to remember territories gained. The stress and money of yet more elections that followed and allowing what the people wanted in the oblasts, raions, hromadas, the republic and city. It's a shame territory had to be endangered at all. And the future of these territories is still uncertain. We do thank you for ending your war with us for this short time and hope peace will remain should you not like the outcomes of the elections. Not just for our people but all people including yours. War was a brutal way to stop any injustice you perceived without bringing it to the attention of our own government first to try to address. Everyone should be able to be governed by who they choose, even if it isn't you or me.

We may grow friendly with your populace over time again but as for you we hope your people see the injustice of this war. That they see it as the mistake it has been and that you are quickly removed from power for forcing our 2 populations through any of this and I hope you are mired in court cases for the rest of your life. You have ruined the futures of our elderly, and youth and we can only be thankful that we were able to remain Ukrainian at all. And what's worse is you forced what you tried to prevent with our relations with the west getting stronger. It must be said that you failed in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as well as Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Somy and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and even Kursk which may become Ukrainian because of your folly. We may need to replace our own bridge with your money, but now we need to hope the will of our peoples is fulfilled than be considered tyrants forcing our wills on them, should all men be free. We send love to your people especially those that lost loved ones as well, for nothing but greed for access to the sea.

All the People of Ukraine despise you Mr. Putin. May God have mercy on your soul for all of the death you have caused. Vlad the Mad, the worst leader Russia ever had.

Sincerely,

Volodymir Zelinski, speaking for the peoples of Ukraine, Russia and the World

P.S. We know that letter was written in duress.

This story is pure fiction, and the names of real people are intended to make a point that the most important thing in all war are the people and opportunities that have been lost because of one man and those that follow him deciding other people's fates. It would be nice if people in power took responsibility for their mistakes.