Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital In Kyiv, Ukraine After Russian Missile Attack.

I'm writing this post because I don't want people in other countries to imagine an ever-present warzone when they think of Ukraine.

Think of your ordinary life. You go to work, go out with friends, build plans for a summer holiday. You have neighbours, maybe you don't know all of them well but they live next to you and you say hello when you see them. You live in a good apartment, with all amenities, modern appliances and stylish furniture. You pay bills for heating, water and electricity. Maybe you're renting out or it's your own place. You are a part of a globalized world although you don't think about it on such a scale.

And then one day there are explosions in your city. At first it seems shocking and unusual. But you hope it'll end soon. But they don't stop. They become more frequent. You witness your hometown get demolished. The places where you spent your free time or ran errands - the windows get shattered and the walls begin to crumble. It looks weird in the middle of a modern city.

Soon the explosions happen so often that you have to go and live in the basement. You, a person, who has a modern home, must move to a basement, with other people like you, where you don't get enough light or fresh air, let alone enough tap water or a decent place to sleep.

And then you witness death. In fact, many deaths, not just one. You get the news of people you knew, maybe your neighbours or relatives, getting killed. They are just gone. At some point you become so desensitized, the news of a dead body lying outside doesn't shock you. Sometimes you have to go outside and help other people dig out the bodies from under debris or bury them. Sometimes you see other apartments being on fire and you can't do anything. Nobody can and there's no point.

The shops are closed and you become so desparate that you start hunting pigeons for food. You share tiny portions with other people because, even though the conditions are terrible, you remain a human.

You lose everything that you owned and cherished. And it all happens in three months. You basically lose any sense of belonging to a modern society in three fucking months. That's what happened in Mariupol. When you see the photos and videos of people in dirty ragged clothes, looking like they came straight from the middle ages, in front of a ruined street - it's easy to think of them only like this. But they never lived like that before. They lived just like you. They had everything you had - TVs, computers, cars, internet, medical care, shops with stylish clothes. And then just in three months russia made them turn into dejected shadows of themselves who forgot what normal life feels like. That's a real tragedy and that's what russians have done and are still doing to us. They are ruining our normal life which isn't much different from your normal life.

When the moment comes and there is no turning back and Anor Londo is ahead: - So... Mb we will return home, I will give you those 6 bottles of brandy and you will drink it, and I will sit next to you and watch memes with cats? - No! We have WORK to do! It's our DUTY!

- No please noooo I don't want to... It's ANOR LONDO MAP IS USELESS IN THERE AND THERE'S A DOG WITH HANDS! Like "The cat with hands" but even worse! - Hush. It's not that terrifying I'm sure.

- OMG YAKUMO THIS IS THE END

Yes, they have done it, the act of ecocide. It was predicted almost a year ago when it was first reported that the Russians had mined the dam. They've been preparing for it. Over the past few months, they have been draining the reservoir while simultaneously filling all reservoirs in Crimea, because blowing up this dam means no more fresh water supply to Crimea. So everyone who claimed that Russia invaded Ukraine to secure fresh water for Crimea can now go fuck themselves.

Of course they first claimed it was Ukraine's doing. Although some occupiers already happily admit that it was russia who blew it up, and call for blowing up more of Ukraine's infrastructure.

UPDATE: video evidence that the russians did in fact blew it up, and it wasn't destroyed due to any shelling from the Ukrainian side

It's typical russian scorched earth tactics. Blowing up the dam can possibly prevent the Ukrainian army landing on the left bank of the Dnipro, and it frees russian troops from the left bank, meaning they can be sent as reinforcement to other front lines, for example, in the Donetsk region.

It is probably the greatest ecological catastrophe since Chornobyl, with thousands of people affected, left homeless, entire villages destroyed probably forever. But the russians don't give two fucks about that. They don't care about any life. Their main objective is not necessarily to claim the land for themselves, but rather to ensure it is not Ukrainian. If they cannot have it, they want to leave it uninhabitable.

literally my whole life

One of the biggest issues of moving to England as a person who is Ukrainian AND neurodivergent is not knowing how to answer the small talk question of "how are you", but today I was reminded that Ukrainian blessed me with the phrase that roughly translates as "living is hard but dying would be a pity" and can we please naturalise it so I can use it all day every day

Coexisting With The Fair Folk Who Have Taken Up Residence In/Around/Beneath Your University: A How-To Guide

See more of my comics here, and my art here!

Whole bunch of lore/things I couldn’t fit/everything I love about the overlap in superstition and General College Weirdness below the cut-

Keep reading

A friendly reminder that Ukrainians are not you political debate tool and not a scapegoat to spill all your anger towards the United States. They're living through an occupation and an attack of a state officials of which repeatedly stated that Ukrainian as an identity shouldn't exist. They live under a constant threat of death by regular russian shellings. Just because theyre white and their attacker isn't United States or because you're tired of hearing about then, doesn't mean they don't deserve to have their life, safety and rights.

Одна половина мене хоче завести блог тут чи на друкарні і писати туди кріпіпасту/кріпіпасту про фейрі, а інша половина мене розуміє, що воно нікому нахуй не потрібне й без позитивного підкріплення мого ентузіазму надовго не стане.

Можливо піду читати увесь nosleep, з кінцями всравши свій розпорядок читання книг до наступного року...

Так бісить, коли світ довкола не крутиться навколо моїх вподобань, просто жах!!1

Kateryna Shtanko (Ukrainian, 1962- ) Illustration of childrens tale "Золотий черевичок" (Golden shoe) from the series of folk tales "100 Казок" published by Publishing House "A-ba-ba-ha-la-ma-ha". Kateryna won 1st prize of the "Book of the Year" contest in 2003 for her work.