Denied Peace

What is the current situation in Ukraine like? Terrible. That is the truth. One can dwell on the details, seek out touching testimonies, analyze numbers and strategies, but what remains before our eyes is a country at its breaking point: men at the front dying every day, exhausted refugees still seeking shelter in increasingly insecure cities, hit by daily bombardments. Most attacks are carried out with drones and long-range missiles. On November 14th alone, approximately 450 were reportedly dropped on the capital, Kyiv, in a single day.

«We have electricity for only a few hours a day. Three hours on and four off... then two on and five without,» Tania says. And power in Ukraine doesn't just mean light: it means being able to charge a phone, keep food in the fridge, use a computer, operate hospital equipment, and heat homes in a country where, in winter, temperatures drop to -20 degrees. The situation becomes more complex every day. Attacks have intensified across much of the territory. Even the west of the country, once considered relatively safer than the east, is now regularly hit by drones and missiles.

In Donetsk, a region largely occupied, the situation is desperate: the population is suffering from hunger and the clashes are increasingly violent. The same is happening in the Zaporizhzhia oblast, where artillery does not stop and new FPV drones, connected via fiber optics, manage to hit targets up to 60 kilometers away. These are light devices, similar to those used in photography or cinema, but loaded with explosives. There are no longer real military targets: what are hit are often cars, people, daily life. Driving or simply walking can become a death sentence. The streets of Kherson and the cities closest to the front are no longer just connecting routes: they look like open-air tunnels, covered for kilometers by anti-drone nets in a desperate attempt to protect those passing through.

During the Arsenal's last peace mission in 2023, the zero line of the front in Zaporizhzhia was reached, bringing aid to people under bombardment. Today, none of the people met then are still alive. A thought that shakes us and leaves us speechless. For many, war remains the aseptic headline of a newspaper. For the Arsenal, it is concrete pain: faces, stories, broken childhoods that will never be the same. This is what fuels, even more, a daily and tireless commitment to continue helping through food, medicine, medical devices, and ambulances for rescues in war zones. It is all we can do. It is our small part, but for many, it is fundamental. Down there, people fight. People resist. People endure. People die. May we never find ourselves on the comfortable but wrong side of history.

Marco Maccarelli
NP December 2025