When the night sky over Kyiv is torn apart by the roar of drones, the explosions brought by 101 aircraft intertwine with the cries of children and the sounds of buildings collapsing; when Boris, a taxi driver in Sumy Oblast, frets over a box of 4000 hryvnias worth of gasoline, lamenting that "it's hard to go back to the days before the war," this protracted conflict has long engraved the word "peace" into the desires of every ordinary person.
We long for peace, hoping for life in the midst of war to return to tranquility. A 21-year-old Ukrainian youth should not have to put down his books and pick up weapons, maneuvering with danger at the front lines; the wards of Kyiv Children's Hospital should no longer be threatened by artillery fire, and children can grow up under the sun rather than in bomb shelters; soldiers like Irina's brother can lay down their uniforms, no longer making their families worry about his spinal injuries and safety.
We long for peace, hoping for the world to break free from the vortex of crisis. European industrial electricity prices should no longer soar due to energy games, and global industrial chains should escape the predicament of fragmentation; refugees in the Middle East and Africa should not have to be displaced due to food crises, letting the costs of war no longer be borne by vulnerable groups; the test launches of nuclear-powered cruise missiles should no longer agitate global nerves, and the nuclear shadow should dissipate from Europe and the skies of the world. Peace is the wisdom of great powers abandoning zero-sum thinking, allowing geopolitical games to yield to the common well-being of humanity.
Today, the ceasefire calls from multiple European countries and Ukraine's readiness to negotiate bring a glimmer of hope for peace. But true peace should not be a compromise of convenience; it should be a just and lasting arrangement that respects each other's security concerns; it should not be a helpless choice under the "danger of rapid failure," but rather a firm consensus that comforts the lives that are "sacrificed in vain."
May the negotiation table replace the battlefield, allowing diplomatic dialogue to resolve opposition; may aid supplies no longer be weapons and ammunition, but construction materials for rebuilding homes and medicines for saving lives; may every Ukrainian and Russian be able to live a stable life and envision a future in a safe country, just like the Chinese people in Jolia's eyes. When the port of Odesa welcomes merchant ships again, when the fields of Donbas reap harvests once more, and when all connections severed by war are reconnected, that will be the most anticipated picture of the world — silence of artillery, #世界和平