“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” —George Orwell, 1984.
By March 2025, the phrase “peace in Ukraine” had become as common as “war in Ukraine” was in February 2022. The pope, presidents, politicians of various affiliations, religious leaders and ordinary people now speak of peace.
After three years of a devastating and brutal war, Ukraine desperately needs peace. Civilians in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, and Odesa—cities constantly attacked by Russian guided bombs, drones and missiles—yearn for nights without fear and days without explosions and death. Ukrainian defenders entrenched in foxholes along the frontlines in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia long for peace and the possibility of returning to their families and pre-war lives. Six million Ukrainian refugees and four million internally displaced persons dream of going home—if it still exists. They yearn to reunite with their loved ones in safety. No one desires peace more than Ukrainians, who continue to struggle against an aggressor who seeks to erase their existence.
So why do they keep fighting? Because they understand that peace will not be achieved if Ukraine ceases to defend its citizens, its territory and its dignity. Occupation is not peace. Russia has occupied some of Ukraine’s most densely populated industrial regions—20 percent of the country, home to millions of Ukrainians. According to an Associated Press investigation, thousands of Ukrainian civilians are detained in a network of formal and informal prisons across Russia and the territories it occupies, where they endure torture, psychological abuse and even forced labor.
Recent revelations about the detention of the Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna have horrified the world. Arrested while reporting from occupied territories, she perished in a Russian prison, and her body remains in the hands of Russian authorities. Ukrainian officials working to recover the bodies of civilians who died in Russian captivity report that 80 percent of those bodies bear signs of mistreatment and torture. Again, these are not prisoners of war but civilians.
Two Ukrainian Catholic priests, Redemptorists, spent 18 months in Russian captivity after being falsely accused of espionage. Their release was secured only through the painstaking mediation of the Holy See. But how many others remain in captivity? When we speak of peace in Ukraine, we must keep them in mind. What does peace mean for them?
Some voices advocate for immediate peace at any cost, disregarding the aggressor’s genocidal intent and the long-term consequences of a hasty, ill-considered settlement. But the world—and both political and religious leaders—must reject the illusion of a pacifism that ignores the harsh realities of evil and injustice.
Ukrainians have walked this path before. Over its first two decades of independence, Ukraine reduced its military personnel by 90 percent, from 900,000 troops to some 15,000 battle-ready soldiers in 2014, when the Russians first attacked. In 1994, it set a historic precedent by completely dismantling the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world in exchange for security guarantees then freely offered by the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia. Ukraine had more nuclear warheads than the United Kingdom, France and China combined. It gave it all up because it was not interested in war. Today, the security guarantees Ukraine received are worth less than the paper they were written on.
As people of faith, we are called to look beyond seemingly insurmountable challenges and seek pathways to peace. The Lord calls us to peace. The commandment echoes through the ages: “Thou shalt not kill.” We bear responsibility for both peace and hope.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2304, defines peace as follows:
Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of power between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is “the tranquility of order.” Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.
Peacemakers must always champion justice, for true peace cannot coexist with injustice.
A crucial starting point for peacebuilding is the pursuit of truth. Without truth, reconciliation is impossible. Truth is the first step toward justice, and justice is the foundation of peace. War is the ultimate injustice, a breeding ground for all forms of evil and sin. Deception lies at the heart of war, and its architects thrive on falsehoods.
Vladimir Putin is a modern-day Pontius Pilate, cynically asking the world, “What is truth?”—as if truth itself does not exist. In Mr. Putin’s world, Western liberty and democracy hold no moral superiority; everything is reduced to raw power. It is a hybrid war, a Russian roulette, where the Kremlin, with our passive consent, holds a loaded gun to our heads. Who will flinch first?
He sneers at us: “What is your truth? Are you truly willing to stand for it?”
In a post-truth world, everything becomes negotiable, transactional, debatable—even the simplest facts:
- Russia initiated an unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.
- The Maidan Revolution of 2013, when then President Viktor Yanukovych was driven from Kyiv by everyday Ukrainians, was not a NATO conspiracy, nor can anxiety over the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO explain or justify Russia’s aggression.
- Russia’s imperial ambition to dominate Ukraine predates NATO by centuries; colonialism has been a driving force of Russian policy regarding Ukraine since the 17th century.
It is clear that Mr. Putin believes Ukrainians have no right to exist as a separate nation. This fact must be central to any discussion of peace negotiations. His objective is to erase Ukraine—to deny its cultural, historical and political identity. We must address these realities with moral clarity, not wishful thinking that seeks easy solutions.
There is no middle ground between Russia’s intent to annihilate Ukraine and Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent state. Mutatis mutandis, a just peace cannot be one that ignores Mr. Putin’s explicit intent to destroy Ukraine.
Cease-fires, truces, diplomatic deals and reconciliation efforts are potential steps toward peace, but they are not peace itself. True peace does not overlook Mr. Putin’s declarations of destruction. Any peace agreement that fails to secure Ukraine’s sovereignty is unjust. Any peace that ignores Russian neo-imperialism is dangerously flawed.
A peace that sacrifices justice undermines international law, which upholds the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations. Accepting such a peace weakens the foundations of the global order.
Moral responsibility for peace equals moral responsibility for justice and truth.
We believe in peace, we strive for peace and we cannot live without it. But this war is not merely about territory. It is, above all, about people—about the very essence of freedom, dignity and life itself. Those who fail to recognize this fail to grasp the true nature of the Russian aggression and Ukrainian resilience and defense.
In fact, the formula for peace is simple—if Russia stops shooting, there will be peace. Alas, given conditions as they are today, if Ukrainians lay down their arms, there will be no Ukraine.
