Newsletter – Ad pacem servandam

Dear friends, dear members of Ad Pacem,

Throughout the year 2022 the activities of our association were strongly conditioned by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Our help went to Ukrainian refugees who first came to the big cities of western Ukraine and then to families who came to our Region to find refuge. In the second half of the year, the bombardment of cities by Russian missiles and drones again accentuated these population movements. Throughout the year we have been supporting the hospitals in Kramatorsk and Kharkiv with material and medicine, as well as a team of doctors who are helping in a small field hospital behind the Ukrainian front in the Kharkiv region. We are now helping these doctors mainly with the proceeds from the sale of this year’s calendar.
As the front has now “stabilised” in the south-east and south of Ukraine, there is less movement of people, although the number of wounded and dead soldiers on the Ukrainian side (Russia does not give any information about its dead or wounded soldiers) is in the hundreds every day.

On 22 March 2023 we held our 6th General Assembly. You can read the minutes by clicking on the following link: Minutes of our 6th General Assembly 2023

In the coming months we will resume activities that we started in 2018 and 2019, and that we had to drop during the pandemic years.
On Saturday 29 April from 9.15 a.m. until about 5 p.m. we will organise a “Bike for future – bike for peace” day on the cycle paths in the south of Luxembourg. On the link Ad Pacem Bike Tour you can discover the route. This day is open to all our members and interested friends. You can communicate your participation at [email protected].

Finally, we are organising an outing to learn about the history of the wars through a visit to the Bastogne War Museum where we will be able to relive some of the highlights of the Battle of the Bulge. This will be on Saturday 17 June, from 8.30 a.m. (departure in Esch/Alzette) until the return around 4 p.m. Those who are interested can already save this date. You will have more information and the possibility to register in a future Newsletter.

I bid you a good reception of this Newsletter 23,
with my best wishes for more peace,

Claude Pantaleoni
President of the asbl
“For Peace and Against War”

Newsletter n. 21

15 February 202314 February 2023 cw

Ad Pacem is pleased to announce that Mr Manfred Sapper, editor-in-chief of Osteuropa, the oldest monthly magazine on Eastern Europe published in Berlin, will give a lecture at the Book and Culture Fair organised by CLAE, on Saturday 25 February 2023.

The title of the conference is:
Testfall Ukraine – Russlands Krieg, der Westen und die Wege zum Frieden
(Test Case Ukraine – Russia’s War, the West and the Paths to Peace)

After studying Eastern European history and political science, Mr Sapper (1962) has been editor-in-chief of the interdisciplinary monthly journal Osteuropa since 2002. The journal was founded in 1925, banned in 1939 and relaunched in 1951.

Mr Sapper and the journal have received several awards for their work, such as the “Dialog-Preis” of the German-Polish Society and the “Fricke-Preis” of the Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung.

The journal is the publisher of, among others, the volumes:
Widerstand. Ukrainische Kultur in Zeiten des Krieges (Resistance. Ukrainian culture in times of war) (2022),
Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine, Propaganda, Verbrechen, Widerstand (Russia’s war on Ukraine, propaganda, crime, resistance) (2022),
Der Geist der Zeit. Kriegsreden aus Russland (The spirit of the times. War speeches from Russia) (2021),
Babyn Jar. Der Ort, die Tat und die Erinnerung (Babyn Yar. The place, the deed and the memory) (2021),
Schlachtfeld Ukraine. Studien zur Soziologie des Krieges (Battlefield Ukraine. Studies on the sociology of war) (2019),
Vernichtung durch Hunger. Der Holodomor in der Ukraine (Extermination through Hunger. The Holodomor in Ukraine) (2004).

The conference will be held at the Kirchberg in Luxembourg-City, on the LuxExpo site, from 2.30 to 4 pm in room 1 on the ground floor.

In view of the war in Ukraine, it is important for me to invite you to this conference, which is about possible ways to peace and security on our continent.

With best regards for peace!

Claude Pantaleoni
President

Newsletter, Support actions for Ukraine

Igor, civilian victim of the war in Eastern Ukraine

15 May 202115 May 2021 cw

The war in Eastern Ukraine, which has almost disappeared from our media, continues to claim victims every day. Here is an urgent case that our association “Ad Pacem” has decided to support these days, if it is possible with your help.

It is an urgent operation for young Igor, a civilian victim wounded by stray bullets on the front line. His family does not have the money to pay for the operation and his stay in hospital.

Urgent surgery

In recent weeks, shooting has increased on the frontline where the Ukrainian army and Russian-armed separatists face each other. Many families continue to live there because they cannot flee elsewhere, having any friends or family to take them in.

This is the case of 22-year-old Igor, who lives with his father (who earns his living from temporary jobs) in a village near the front line.

At the end of February, he was in his garden when he was seriously wounded by stray bullets to the abdomen and hand. A first operation was carried out to urgently and temporarily treat his abdominal wound and remove two fingers. The second and more important operation was postponed several times because of the Covid health crisis in the region. We know that his father’s financial situation does not allow him to pay for this second operation, which should take place next Wednesday, 19^th of May. But it will only be done if he pays the hospital in advance and brings the medicines he has bought in advance. The surgeon advised him not to buy Russian medicines, which are cheaper but also of much lower quality and ineffective for this operation.

It was through a good acquaintance whom we have been helping for years that we were put in touch by phone with Igor’s desperate father. The operation is necessary to save the life of his son, who will have to stay in hospital for at least twenty days with special treatments. And it is also up to the father to buy all the medicines for after the operation.

According to the information we have at the moment, the expenses for Igor’s operation amount to €800, the purchase of medicines to €400, the hospitalization with special medicines to €400. It is important to know that an average worker earns at best 150 € per month in the territories occupied by the pro-Russian separatists, which is not the case for Igor’s father who has no paid job.

We appeal to your generosity to help Igor. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a difference.

You can make your donation to our bank account IBAN LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 (BIC: CCRALULL) with the mention “Operation Igor”.

Thank you all very much! We will keep you informed about the follow-up of this urgent help in the coming weeks.