Before the start of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian writer Artem Chapery considered himself a pacifist. But when the Russian tanks launched the assault on his country, he decided to take up arms. After his book Ordinary people do not wear machine guns (Ed. Bayard), published in 2024, where he told his experience as a soldier and his personal journey over the conflict, was released in February this month The Ukraine (Ed. Blue and yellow), a work initially published in 2018, now translated into French, in which he draws a captivating portrait of his country before the war.
At a time when negotiations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin around Ukraine fate international attention, the author expresses both his concerns and his determination. “Some people hoped that Trump would not just give up Ukraine to Russia and that he would put Putin on Putin. But it was probably a pile wish,” he said. Interview.
L’Express: How did you make the decision to become a soldier?
Artem Chapery: The first day of the invasion, I tried to run away with my children, but I quickly understood that if Russia occupied us, we could never return home. At that time, everyone had to decide the role they were going to play. And I think I was inspired by these people who, while others fled, made the choice to go fight. This is a subject that I approach in my book Ordinary people do not have a machine gun. Before the invasion, I considered myself a pacifist, and as most of the people today in the army, I am one of those “ordinary people”, who had never thought of having to take up arms.
Basically, I think I was very influenced by the books I read during my adolescence, in particular those of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. The latter was particularly interested in the way people, during the occupation of France by the Nazis, had to make a choice between resisting, collaborating, or staying behind. He explains that a person is nothing other than the sum of his actions: what we do repeatedly defines what we really are, and what we decide to do determines what we become. I myself found myself confronted with this existential choice.
How did these three years of war affect you?
I feel very traumatized. The two years that I spent far from my children, when I was sent to eastern Ukraine, were the most difficult in my life. Today, however, I was transferred to the army headquarters, in kyiv, and I can therefore see them again. It is a chance that unfortunately have many soldiers.
I sometimes have the impression of having developed a form of resentment with regard to people who decided not to get involved in the fight. But I try to fight this feeling, because I understand that people have their reasons, decide for themselves, and we cannot judge them for that, even if we do not agree with them. Nevertheless, it seems important to me to keep in mind that it is the collective sum of our decisions which will decide on common destiny. If there had not been hundreds of thousands of courageous people, ready to take up arms and fight, we would probably have been occupied in the first weeks.
How do you look at the recent negotiations launched by Trump with Putin?
Everyone is shocked by these recent developments. Some people hoped that Trump would not just give up Ukraine to Russia and that he would pressure Putin. But it was undoubtedly a pile wish. He actually acts as a school brute, who would get along with another to attack the weakest. So the two arms of Ukraine are now twisted by Russia and the United States. From my point of view, the number of analogies with what was happening before the Second World War is striking.
What do you think?
This reminds me of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which had been concluded between Hitler’s Germany and the USSR of Stalin to share Poland in 1939. It seems today that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin take this same path, and try to divide Europe into spheres of influence. They treat Ukraine as a colony, with part of the territory ceded to Russia on the one hand, and on the other the United States which appropriate all the country’s mineral resources. This gives the impression of attending a fascist and authoritarian turning point in the world, and I did not imagine that such a thing could happen in the 21st century.
Before the Second World War, there had also been the Munich agreements in 1938, which had sacrificed Czechoslovakia for illusory peace. And it is in this same city that the administration of the new American president, a few weeks ago, started a break with Europeans. I know that we do not live in a Hollywood film, and that there is not always a happy ending, however, we could have hoped that people would learn from history.
Is it really possible to make peace with Putin?
Russia will violate all its commitments as soon as it can – this is what it has always done. She will not respect anything unless it is forced. The objective is therefore to prevent it from being able to do it. Let us remember that Moscow had signed the memorandum of Budapest, by which Russia, and other countries, had committed to respecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for our nuclear weapons. We see the result today. No agreement will be able to work with Russia, if it decides that it is in its interest to violate it.
France and the United Kingdom plan to send troops to Ukraine as security guarantee. What do you think of these initiatives?
It seems that today France and the United Kingdom have become the main supporters of Ukraine. We really hope they will do something, and the sending of troops would reassure us a little. However, many people in Ukraine share the feeling that the world has changed, and that we will have to count more on ourselves. So we want to continue to hang on, even if the United States ceases to support us. In addition, the Russians have been progressing only very slowly lately. So I hardly see Ukraine collapse and Russia occupy the whole of our territory.
In your book The Ukrainepublished in 2018, you paint a portrait of Ukraine. How has it evolved since then?
I think that since then, the Ukrainians have surprised themselves – understood me. When I got involved in the army, I feared that we lose our country in just a few weeks. But having managed to stand up to the Russian Empire for three years is something incredible. Whatever the way it ends, this page of history will remain as a form of legend for Ukraine. Like the Cossacks several centuries ago, who had fought serfdom to be a free people. Even today, we remember this story, and I think it will be the same for this war. Today there is a collective pride in Ukraine, even if the country is exhausted. At the end, whatever happens, this memory of the resistance will continue. And that will push people to continue, the Ukrainian people will not abandon the fight.
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