Help Hamza Get His Family Out Of Gaza.

To all those who died alone in the Russian occupation

🕯 "To all those who died alone in the Russian occupation". Muzychi village, Kyiv region

These are the words on the tombstone that stands on the grave of the mother of Ukrainian artist Alevtina Kakhidze. The artist installed it in 2021. This memorial project consists of six marble doors that replicate the location of the doors in the house of Alevtina's mother, known as Klyubnyka Andriivna, in the village of Zhdanivka, Donetsk region, as well as concrete porch steps recreated in real life. When the war in eastern Ukraine broke out, the artist's mother was unable to leave her home despite her daughter's persuasion. Alevtina dedicated a series of works to her mother, which were shown at exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad. Kakhidze's mother died in 2019 - her heart stopped while crossing one of the checkpoints controlled by the militants of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic". She was buried in the Kyiv region.

This is not the kind of message that children should receive from their parents "If we are killed, all the documents are in the basement."

This is what I mean when I say that we cannot negotiate and freeze the conflict. Because children from the occupied territories, who are now 14-17 years old, will be fighting against us in five years.

Don't be indifferent. Make Russia pay. Please hear our cry out to the world, keep spreading our voices, and donate to our army and combat medics (savelife.in.ua, prytulafoundation.org, Serhii Sternenko, hospitallers.life, ptahy.vidchui.org, and u24.gov.ua).

треба більше постів українською

Our (Georgian as in the country) government quietly made new additions to the foreign agent law today.

1. The foreign agent law will affect not only organizations, but individuals. Failure to comply with the law causes a 5000 lari fine.

2. The law will allow the government all of your personal information including your political stance and sexual relationships. It makes every organization forced to comply with handing over all of our information to the government. If you are queer, have differing political views, or are part of a non-governmental organization against domestic violence, your anonymity is no longer guaranteed.

3. Only thing this does not include is country's secrets, nothing else is off the table.

"The children have just begun to live. We feel sorry for our country, they (russins) are killing us and no one is doing anything."

Locals have been bringing flowers and toys to the site in Kryvyi Rih since morning where children were killed in a russian attack on April 4. Nine children were killed in a russian Iskander missile strike. Six remain in hospitals, most of them in serious condition.

Source: Suspilne Dnipro

An hour before the Russian attack on Kryvyi Rih one of the Russian propaganda Telegram channels has published a photo of a bomb signed "Happy Russia Day!" mounted on Su-24.

"just putin" "Putins war" "Putins army"

8 killed, 21 injured, including two children

I dunno how your year started. In Kyiv, it started with the day of mourning for people who died on December 29. It's 29 people last I checked the news, but the count is still rising. Rescue efforts ongoing.

The year started in Dnipro suburbs and in Mykolaiv region with getting bombed by Russians.

The year started in Donetsk region, Avdiivka, with shelling, killing a woman. In hromadas Ocheretyns'ka and Torets'ka - two people were killed by Russian artillery.

In Sumy, the year started with Russian drones killing two people.

In Kherson region, the year started with Russian killing a woman from Veletens'ke. Another person was heavily injured.

In Odesa, a 15-years old teen was killed via Russian drones. Here's a video of one of the apartment buildings that got attacked.

The year started for me reading about a boy in Kharkiv who was killed by Russians mere hours before the New Year.

The year started for me in between of air raids. There's currently one. There are explosions in the city.

For Syria, the year started with 3 people dead because of Russians and Assad forces bombed Darat-Izza, near Aleppo.

Maybe the war made me a cynical and bitter person but all of the Eurovision discourse this year makes me laugh. No, for real

First of all, all the comparisons to Russian case are ridiculous. Russia wasn’t banned in 2008 after invasion of Georgia. Russia wasn’t banned in 2014 after invasion of Ukraine. Russia wasn’t banned in 2015 after intervention in Syria. “bUt wE bAnNEd ruSsIa in 2022.” Dude, you all missed a fucking decade.

Secondly, Ukrainians have been trying to uphold their contestants to some standards for years. But I DO remember the annoyance of Eurovision fans about Maruv and Alina Pash being cancelled. “Music is out of politics.” “Why these fucking Ukrainians making everything so political.” The phrase “Crimea is Ukraine” was turned into a meme. Yeah, why do Ukrainians care so much about annexed territories and ongoing war.

And this year somehow became the year of politics. Two-faced morons

hearing officials and public figures criticize biden openly on talk shows and seeing newspaper headlines sharply decry israel killing aid workers is making me feel kind of crazy. like it could've been like this the whole time. before 40,000 palestinians were killed and the infrastructure of gaza destroyed. it could've been like this when people gathered their children in plastic bags at al-ahli hospital, when a poet and his family were assassinated for a joke, when journalists buried their families on air, when children were targeted by drones on camera, when a little boy holding his grandmother's hand in one hand and a white flag in another watched her get shot and die in front of him, when a cameraman was left to bleed out with a live counter for hours while his rescuers were shot, when patients were bulldozed in their tents in the courtyard of a hospital, when four babies were left die and decompose alone in their hospital beds, when six year old hind rajab was crying for help trapped in a car with the corpses of her family on the phone with the red crescent for hours until she and the rescuers sent to get her were killed too.

Since 2014, millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other minorities have been locked up in China and subjected to torture and forced labour. Some of those freed talk about trying to rebuild their lives in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

Photography by Robin Tutenges

A Chinese course book

Saliman Yesbolat used to live in Ghulja county, Xinjiang. After she refused to denounce her Uyghur neighbours to the police, she was forced to perform the raising of the Chinese flag every Monday at dawn, and to attend Chinese lessons twice a week in the basement of her building, where she would learn the Chinese language, patriotic songs and Xi Jinping's discourses by heart. This is her exercise book.

Forced to leave China

At 65, Imam Madi Toleukhan is one of the oldest refugees in Bekbolat, Kazakhstan, where more than 100 families took shelter after fleeing the Chinese regime. 'We were richer back there. I owned a herd, but I was too afraid for my sons, my grandchildren and their future: I came to Kazakhstan to save them. I didn't want them to be the fourth generation to suffer at the hands of the Chinese government, he says.

Remembering Uyghur culture in exile

Two members of the Dolan Ensemble, a Uyghur dance troupe based in Kazakhstan, get ready before performing a traditional dance to mark 40 days since the birth of a baby. Founded in 2016, the troupe performs at festivals or private events that bring together members of the Uyghur community, some of whom have had to leave Xinjiang.

Torture, infertility and damaged genitalia

In Kazakhstan, medical care for camp survivors is poor. Most victims can barely afford to see a family doctor. Anara*, an endocrinologist in a Kazakh hospital who has examined about 50 camp survivors since 2020, noticed recurrent infertility problems among her patients. 'Men or women, many have damaged genitalia. Some told me they'd been given drugs, others said they'd been raped. As they didn't come to us right after being released from the camps, it's impossible to know what kind of drugs they were administered in Xinjiang, she says. *Not her real name

The tiger chair

Ospan* spent a year in a re-education camp. He says his mind and body were crushed by the tortures he experienced in a tiger chair - a steel apparatus with handcuffs that restrains the body in painful positions. Aged about 50, this former shepherd, who took refuge with his family in eastern Kazakhstan, is no longer fit for work. Physically wrecked and prone to headaches, he mourns the loss of his memory above all. 'I used to know a lot of songs and I loved to sing; I also knew poems by heart ... Now, I can't sing any more, I can't remember the words,' he says. *Not his real name

Broken families and imprisonment

Aikamal Rashibek saw the dreadful efficiency of the CCP's brainwashing on her husband, Kerimbek Bakytali, after he was released from a Chinese psychiatric hospital. 'He disappeared for a year. When he came back, he didn't tell me anything about what happened to him. He was highly unhinged, always nervous, and got angry whenever I asked questions. He couldn't stop repeating that he hated Kazakhstan now, and that he wanted to go back to China with the kids to give them a Chinese education, says Aikamal. They are now separated.

Missing loved ones in China’s camps

In March 2017, Miyessar Muhedamu, left, a Uyghur woman, was arrested in Xinjiang under the pretext that she had studied Arabic in Egypt when she was young. Her husband, Sadirzhan Ayupov, right, and her three children have not seen her since. Now that Miyessar has left the camp, Sadirzhan receives a short call every few months. He suspects she might have suffered abuse, yet Miyessar can’t speak freely. ‘She told me she’d been in a re-education camp, and that she’d been released. When I ask her what she went through there, she doesn’t answer,’ says Sadirzhan.

Life after fleeing China

Sent to a re-education camp in 2018 at the age of 64, Yerke* saw her health quickly deteriorate. Locked a tiny cell with dozens of other women, she almost lost the use of her legs due to the cold floor she had to lie on. She was in the camp when she learned of her son’s death: pressured by the Chinese authorities, he took his own life. After her release, Yerke fled to Kazakhstan with some family members, but two of her children remain in China. *Not her real name

Forced labour and confessions

Dina Nurdybay, 32, was arrested in Nilka county, Xinjiang, because her traditional Kazakh clothing business made her a separatist, according to the Chinese authorities. She spent 11 months between two re-education camps, a CCP school and a forced-labour sewing factory. After proving she was capable of being ‘well behaved’ and having performed a self-criticism in front of the whole village, Dina was released and managed to escape when she obtained a week’s leave to visit her ailing father in Kazakhstan.

Cultural genocide

China’s repression of ethnic minorities also involves cultural genocide. As Muslim rituals are forbidden in Xinjiang, people are trying to keep their traditions alive across borders. Here, a family is praying together in Kazakhstan after the death of one of their relatives in Xinjiang. They could not repatriate the body because the border between the two countries was closed at the time.

(continue reading)