If It Fights Trump and Putin, I’ll Carry Any Flag

This isn’t about loyalty to nations. It’s about loyalty to dignity.

I published just yesterday, in my other journal here on Substack, a piece where I said that we Ukrainians cannot carry other flags:

Ukraine Is Not Here to Carry the World

I wrote it because I’ve been frequently asked about my position on Israel, Palestine, and other conflicts. And the whole thing is that I don’t feel suitable to emit an opinion about them.

About conflicts I haven’t lived, to take sides in wars where I don’t understand all the history.

As I was writing, I was already feeling a discomfort, but I decided to proceed anyway.

I felt something like guilt. Like I was doing something wrong, or not kind enough. Not strong enough. As if I was ignoring suffering somewhere.

Then, one friend kindly asked here, as kindly as you always are here on Substack:

“Viktor, I admire your writing, but how can you say you won’t raise any other flag, and at the same time launch a project called The Freedom Line, which clearly flies the American one too?”

And I understand. It’s a fair question.

I’ll always take your questions with open heart, even when they challenge my views. Remember, I wake up every day in a war zone. This heart here can carry a lot of challenges.

But let me tell you from this same heart, with no filters and no strategy:

Launching The Freedom Line and raising the U.S. flag is not the same as giving an opinion about Israel, or Palestine, or any other conflict where I have no lived truth to offer.

Because this fight, this one with Trump and Putin, is not two separate wars, but only one.

We are united by the same enemies.

Putin and Trump are acting in alliance, for all purposes and means.

An alliance neither of them will ever admit, but one we all know is operating behind the scenes.

There could even be a secret agreement in the style of Hitler and Stalin, who knows?

This is not about liking America or believing in some global unity dream. This is about survival.

What we do know is that Trump is completely engaged in protecting Putin. The man who is completely engaged in destroying Ukraine.

Which makes Trump engaged in destroying Ukraine too.

The same can be said in reverse.

Trump is aiming to destroy the social and political fabric of the United States from the inside, which is even more dangerous, because it’s subtle.

And the effects are already there. You’re already living them. The hate. The violence. The erosion of trust.

So yes, we are allies.

But not because we love each other as people, or because we share every value. We do love and share most of them, sure, but this is not our principle here.

We are allies because this is a common fight.

Our dynamics are completly integrated.

This isn’t about countries or flags, but about dignity.

I talk so much about this word dignity that it’s becoming almost boring. But for now, that dignity is being carried by the blue and yellow of Ukraine, and, yes, by the red, white, and blue of the United States too.

So when it seems like I’m raising the U.S. flag, even after I said I wouldn’t raise any flag but the Ukrainian one, please know I’m not raising a particular flag .

I’m raising the flag of survival.

The flag of dignity.

The flag of civilization.

And for now, that flag happens to be depicted in the colors and shapes of the Ukrainian and the U.S. flags together.

You don’t need to be Ukrainian to stand for Ukraine, at the same time I don’t need to be American to hold your hand.

That’s what this Freedom Line is for.

To remind us that there is a line between dignity and domination.

And we will hold it together.

Even if it wears more than two or three colors.

—Viktor

🇺🇦🇺🇸

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This is the fourth article of this new journal. If you’re here, it means the line is already holding. Please subscribe and share, so we can reach everyone still brave enough to stand on this freedom line with us.