The Theatre of the Absurd at the UN
27/9/25 It was absolutely gob smacking to watch Russia’s foreign minister get up and speak at the UN today. Here’s a country brutally invading and occupying a sovereign state that did nothing to provoke this—a country regularly committing war crimes, stealing and kidnapping children, running filtration camps, with evidence of mass graves, torture, sexual assault, civilian executions, regularly bombing and targeting civilians—and they get to speak at the UN like they’re some moral authority.
Where was the mass walkout? How is Russia even allowed this platform?
But it gets worse. Lavrov then spouts the usual Kremlin propaganda—most of which has been thoroughly debunked—while everyone sits there politely listening. The audacity was breathtaking: Russia lecturing about respecting sovereignty while actively invading a sovereign state, talking against colonisation while literally trying to colonise Ukraine.
Then came the real masterclass in projection. Russia accused Ukraine of persecuting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—completely false. Ukraine simply restricted links to the Moscow church after many of their priests were caught working as spies for the very government that’s invading them. Seems reasonable, right?
They claimed Ukraine was banning people from speaking Russian. First off, Russian isn’t Ukrainians’ “native” language—many speak it only because it’s been the language of their occupiers and oppressors for centuries. Many Ukrainians are now deliberately returning to their actual native language, Ukrainian. And Russian isn’t banned anyway—I met plenty of Ukrainians speaking Russian with zero restrictions. It’s about official language, and frankly, it’s Ukraine’s way of decolonising (that thing Lavrov claimed to support) by moving away from the language of their current invaders.
The irony? Russia persecutes Christians and Protestant churches in occupied areas and actually punishes Ukrainians for speaking Ukrainian—where it truly is the native language being banned.
Oh, and my personal favourite: calling the “neo-Nazi Kyiv regime” colonisers of Ukrainian territory. Ukraine being neo-Nazi has been completely debunked, and Russia has far more neo-Nazi groups than most countries. The only colonisers in Ukraine are Russia, illegally occupying the east and Crimea.
The Gaza Card
Then Lavrov pontificated at length about Israel displacing people in Gaza and bombing civilians—all while Russia does the exact same things. The gross hypocrisy was bad enough, but it made me even more suspicious that Russia might be fanning flames on both sides to distract from Ukraine. With horrific consequences for people there too. Quite successfully distracting, I might add.
The Bitter Context
What made watching this propaganda performance truly unbearable was our timing. We were in a guesthouse, driving a medical vehicle to Ukraine for an NGO mission, and had just visited Dachau concentration camp on the way.
Walking through those barracks where people were imprisoned and tortured, seeing the gas chambers disguised as showers where thousands were murdered, reading about the medical experiments—the memorial’s words hit like a punch: “May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men.”
Yet here we were, coming back to our room to watch this grotesque performance while heading to help people suffering the same patterns of oppression and torture. Right now. Today.
What Happened to “Never Again”?
The parallels struck me hard at Dachau—the same ones that hit me at Auschwitz years ago. This wasn’t just a few evil men. It required mass complicity: camp commanders and guards who seemed to enjoy torturing and killing, citizens who lived nearby and knew what was happening, churches that supported the regime.
And the propaganda—years of dehumanising the “other” that made it acceptable for average Germans to let these horrors occur. Putin’s regime has done exactly this, adjusting Russian attitudes toward Ukrainians so that many soldiers have no conscience about executing or torturing them.
The power of this brainwashing was evident at the Dachau Nazi trials—so few expressed any remorse, continuing to defend and justify their actions.
Right now, Ukrainians are being tortured and detained in Russian prisons just for being Ukrainian. Ukrainian children are being deported to reeducation camps and taught to hate their own country. The most horrific tortures and oppressions are happening as I write this.
We’re happy to visit museums and shake our heads at historical evil—as long as it’s safely in the past and doesn’t require us to risk our comfortable lives.
Our Medical Mission: Small Acts, Big Impact
Ukrainians are standing up to evil that echoes what we saw memorialised at Dachau. But this time, they’re largely standing alone. Their people are paying the price—losing loved ones, watching their children stolen, their cities bombed.
We’re doing something small in the face of enormous need: driving a medical van directly into Ukraine, working with local NGOs, and undertaking medical missions in areas that desperately need help.
Our partnerships with Ukrainian medical organisations like Christian Medical Association of Ukraine mean every dollar gets multiplied. We work directly with Ukrainians who tell us exactly what they need. No bureaucracy, no overhead—just direct aid to people who are saving lives under impossible conditions.
The vehicle we’re driving will stay in Ukraine, becoming a mobile medical training unit that can take it to where it’s needed so everyone can access that support. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s the difference between someone’s mother, father, or child living or dying and supports those doing the work day in and day out.
The Choice We Face
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Has always been one of my favourite quotes but Edmund Burke’s words have never weighed so heavily.
We have a choice: be the complicit citizens who “didn’t know” what was happening, or be the ones who acted when it mattered.
How You Can Help:
- DONATE for Medical Supplies – Every $ can provide life saving aid
- Fund Vehicle Equipment– $200 equips our mobile unit with essential medical and training tools
- Support a Medical Mission – $500 funds fuel for a mobile clinic crew.
- Share this story– Sometimes awareness is the first step to action ( see share buttons below)
- Write to your politicians – ask them to provide more support to Ukraine and to stop Australia funding Putin’s war through our fuel purchases.
This isn’t just charity—it’s a declaration that we won’t be bystanders to history. That “never again” means something more than words on a memorial wall.
Because when history asks what you did when it mattered most, let your answer be something you can be proud of.
Support our medical mission to Ukraine.
