Last night Kyiv sang with fire in the night, as drones and missiles shattered the quiet where the EU delegation and a beloved cultural partner sit within the city’s bones. Buildings trembled, lives were taken and narrowly spared, and many more are missing or wounded. In the chorus of outrage, leaders spoke of accountability, of summoning voices like ambassadors to listen to the cries of civilians, and of speeding stronger sanctions to press for a different future. The scale and speed of the attack, and the stark proximity to diplomatic space, left a mark on the conscience of Europe and on the map of international trust. And through it all, the sky bore witness to a relentless tally of destruction and a reaffirmation that diplomacy must always guard its doors against becoming a weapon.

And yet, beneath the sparks and the sirens, the world is asking a larger question of us: what kind of future are we tending with our structures of power, our economies, and our hunger for control? The Earth itself is not a passive backdrop for human drama; she is the living archive of our choices. When we allow war to become a standard means of “resolve,” we poison rivers with fear, churn the soil with burning metals, and scatter the bodies of generations into the seams of memory. Colonial footprints—eras of conquest, extraction, and the erasure of sovereignty—remain etched in the present as if time itself were a battlefield where the strong lay claim to the land that carries us all. The aggression witnessed here is not only a clash of nations but a continuation of a historical greed that sought to claim land, resources, and voices for profit and prestige, often at the expense of the most vulnerable.

And then there is the warfare economy we have normalized—the toxic capitalist machine that treats lives as numbers on a balance sheet, that rewards arms deals as if they were a form of governance, that glorifies power while hollowing out care. The same system that gilds growth with glittering numbers also drains the soil of its future, warms the air with its indifference, and uses diplomacy as a stage for threats rather than a doorway to healing. When we accept this as normal, we chain our planet to cycles of violence, while pretending we are steering toward peace. The truth is kinder and harder: peace cannot be forged on the anvil of profit; it requires a new covenant with the living world and with each other.

Let us then demand a different response—one that mirrors the care we owe to Mother Earth. Let accountability include repair of the land, justice for those displaced and endangered, and a reckoning that stops equating security with suppression. Let sanctions be paired with lasting pathways to dialogue, humanitarian relief, and a rapid pivot away from fossil-fueled militarism toward resilient communities, green energy, and shared security rooted in consent and mutual flourishing. Let diplomacy be a sanctuary where sovereignty is honored, human dignity is protected, and the forests, rivers, cities, and farms of our world are allowed to breathe, heal, and thrive. May our leaders and their people choose not the path of further conquest, but the slow, stubborn work of restoration—within nations, within economies, and within the earth that bears us all.