Under the hot sun of Cagliari, pain became voice, gaze, prayer. In Piazza Moby Prince, the Ukrainian community gathered for a moment of reflection. Three years of war, three years of bombs, three years away from home. Between lit candles and gazes turned to the sky, the echo of the explosions that still devastate Ukraine resounded in the stories and images of destruction.
Alongside the faithful and the Ukrainians, the Archbishop of Cagliari Giuseppe Baturi, always close to the community . Together with him, a single invocation: peace. The end of the fire, the hope of a return. But while in the square they pray, at an international level the scenario becomes more complicated.
"I wanted to express closeness and solidarity to the Ukrainian people who three years ago suffered an unjust aggression, with a heavy burden of death and suffering," Baturi commented. " The Sardinians welcomed the refugees of the war with great generosity . We prayed together for the victims and for a just peace. It is necessary to commit ourselves to peace, purifying our efforts from the violence of lies, which unfortunately is accompanying certain diplomacy. True peace needs truth."
After three years of unconditional support for Kiev, the West is divided. Donald Trump's return to the White House changes the cards on the table: the American president reopens dialogue with Moscow, leaving Ukraine a helpless spectator of negotiations that concern it, but from which it is excluded. Relations between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are at an all-time low, amid mutual accusations and ever-deeper fractures. Europe, Kiev's last hope, is struggling to find a united voice .
And so, while geopolitical strategies are rewritten in the halls of power, the Ukrainian community of Cagliari remains with its heart turned to a tormented homeland . Three years ago, on February 24, 2022, at dawn, Vladimir Putin announced the "special military operation" that would change history forever. Bombs on Kiev, missile attacks across the country, the war became reality in a matter of hours.
Today, three years later, the Ukrainian resistance has never stopped, but the road to true peace still seems like a mirage . Yesterday, in Cagliari, between tears and prayers, a small light of hope was lit. But will it be enough?