Bhupendra C.K. Patel: An open letter to the Russian people

I write this just having spent several hours trying to save vision in one eye of one human being. This afternoon I shall be operating for more than four hours trying to reconstruct a face that was damaged, nay, destroyed, in a recent war. I am beginning to wonder about the purpose of it all.

I am working in Utah. A war thousands of miles away should not affect me personally, but not a waking moment goes by when I am not thinking of it. Inaccurate as they inevitably are in a war situation, estimates regarding the Ukrainian war as of March 10 are as follows: 549 civilian deaths (26 being children), between 2,000 and 4,000 dead in the Ukrainian armed forces, between 5,000 and 12,000 dead Russian troops, and more than 2.5 million people, and increasing daily, seeking refuge. These are Russian and Ukrainian fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and, sadly, children.

Genetic studies have shown that much of the Ukrainian population is descended from Indo-Europeans whose ancestry derives from the Russian steppes. They are essentially “Russian.” So, we are witnessing the death and injury of the same ancestral peoples: a house divided. It wouldn’t be the first time that a man abandoning his “family” would cloak it in a veneer of patriotism. There was no great wrong that needed to be avenged. This is a simple land-grab, a return to feudalism.

If we are to return to feudalism, perhaps our world leaders should lead armies from the front, like the kings of old. Should we choose to be naughty again, the sight of Prime Minister Boris Johnson leading from the front would almost be worth the price of entry.

Russia is a nation rich in history. You have provided the world with some of the best music, literature, paintings, ballet, among much else. You, as a culture, value tradition, and respect. Simplistic as it sounds, were you not brought up to care for your family, brothers, sisters, children, and even strangers?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a Churchillian speech to the British Parliament March 8, invoking Shakespeare. But this is not 1940, when Winston Churchill gave his “we shall fight on the beaches” speech. With its almost Pindaric splendor, this speech may stir our very loins with the overwhelming rush of extraordinary rhetoric. But is it the age and time for this? We are supposed to have moved on.

Resistance may not, as the man said, be futile. But surely there are times to face the facts and thereby save lives. For the Ukrainians, when a mighty and nuclear-powered force surrounds you, going to an inevitable death for the sake of pride may appear heroic. But not so much for the broken families. The maimed, in time, will just be maimed. The dead, well, to quote the inimitable Holly, “they’re all dead, everybody’s dead”. I see this constantly in my medical practice. There will be no bugles, and they won’t feel like heroes. The mighty may yet fall. Unlikely in this current situation. And at what price?

As Artemus Ward noted, “It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us in trouble; it’s the things we know that ain’t so.” You, as the great people of Russia, must surely know the many things “that ain’t so.”

There should be no difficulty that cannot be solved with dialogue, debate, argument and, yes, compromise. The human race can do better. The human race needs to do better.

Instead of random protests around the world, I would suggest that at a chosen hour on a chosen day, the world should have a “sit-out” where everyone comes out onto the street. From your offices, your homes, your restaurants, your bunkers. In every major capital, little town, minuscule village. In silence, but steeped in serious purpose.

The world would stop, not for long, but, I would suggest, the message would be delivered to our world leaders more loudly than any angry protests. Let the bugles sound the Truce of God, to Ukraine and Russia, if not the whole world forever.

The Russians should not have to be cowed by sanctions and accusations. To be hated the world over. The hatred for all things Russian is evidenced from individuals’ recent behavior towards “Russian-sounding businesses.” This hatred is spreading to football clubs, to professionals in music and sport and to governments. We are espousing indiscriminate hatred. It need not be so. I write this as a citizen of the world. One world. One life. No man is an island. Any man’s death diminishes us because we are involved in mankind. Russia, this is your hour. Stand up and be counted. Surely you hear the bell. The bell, my dear Russia, tolls for thee.

Bhupendra C.K. Patel, M.D., is a cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgeon at University of Utah Health. He has taught and demonstrated surgical techniques in many nations around the world including, in 2008, Ukraine.