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Russian Aggression - Blog Posts
today I woke up at five in the morning
my alarm clock is russian ballistic missiles
and then more missiles. and more. and shahed drones after that.
I know you most likely won't see it on the news in your country. But despite the low media coverage, Ukraine needs you now more than ever. Now that we receive no military aid from the US. Every penny counts. Please, if you have any funds to spare, consider donating to one of the Ukrainian non-profits listed here. Thank you. The attacks continues still, but we're alive so everything will be alright.
While you support Russian artists, Russia destroys the Ukrainian art academy in Kyiv
"Ukraine is getting too much attention" "it's not that bad suck it up" "but what about [insert country]" "I bet if russia did [something russia has done 20 times] the world would react bc Ukrainians are white" "but what oil prices" "there are only 647 dead Ukrainian children in 2 years" "what about russian protesters" "white privilege" "that's not genocide this is anti-imperialism" "what about 8 years of bombing bambas children" "but Azov regiment" "I don't want WW3 we must appease russia at all costs" "Ukraine rejected peace deal with russia" "they are all nazis anyway" "kill yourself"
This is how it feels.
Russian culture is terror
I sit in the dark like a bat. And I have to sympathize with the Russians who are doing nothing to solve their problems or issues. I have to rejoice that we are being destroyed. Kinzhals, cruise and ballistic missiles are now flying across the country. They are flying to my region.
Our everyday struggle and fight for life aren't glamour decorations that can easily be erased. Don't silence our voices when Russia is staying unpunished for its crimes throughout the whole of Russian history. Support us, donate to our army and medics (safelifein.ua, prytulafoundation, ptahy. Before it's not too late. We running out of time and weapons. Please don't look away!
Art by Nikita Titov (Нікіта Тітов).
"Mstyslav Chernov didn’t mention Gaza during his speech" people, are you insane? The man and his team survived a siege of a city, documented russian war crimes, miraculously managed to escape and you give him all the bullshit instead of other Oscar winners? You are all mentally ill.
Odesa. 2 march 2024
russia killed 7 adults and 5 children (the smallest is a four-month-old baby)
Four months ago this incredible family was blessed with a beautiful boy Timofey
Today he and his mother Anna were found under the rubble after russian drone attack on Odesa:
This is 3 years old Mark with his mother Anastasia. Tomorrow he could celebrate his birthday:
…but he won’t. His body was found under the rubble this morning. Along with his dad’s. His mother is in critical condition in a hospital.
This is their house in Odesa. One of the hundreds of thousands Ukrainian houses ruined by russia. 8 people killed. Zero military sense, pure terrorism. That’s just what russia does. Every day. For more than 2 years.
This is Tara. She’s a rescue dog. Today, Tara, along with two other service dogs and rescuers, found the body of a murdered child in the ruins. Tara lay down and cried:
I’d very much want to lay down and cry too. But I can’t. I can’t feel anything anymore. I’m just very very cold.
(c) artist Olexiy Kustovskiy
My two years today
Two years ago I was in Ukraine with my family. We will never gather at the same table as before. I have no opportunity to come home, my grandmother died, several acquaintances are missing, my cat also died without veterinary care. The city is empty, my younger sister goes to school under occupation, where she is forced to draw thank you cards for russian soldiers and the teachers mock her for her Ukrainian accent. She constantly cries and asks me to pick her up, but I don’t know what to say. My mother had a stroke, but she was not admitted to the hospital during the occupation because she did not have a Russian passport, and they did not manage to help her in time. Parts of her brain are permanently disabled, and she barely recognizes me or moves. I'm glad she's alive, but I no longer have support in my mother, this happened too soon.
Abroad, I was once attacked by russian emigrants in Lithuania. They saw my passport when I was buying tickets, and then they followed me and started pushing me and calling me a Nazi. A taxi driver helped me and took me away from there. The last time I was in Ukraine, a rocket fell near the house where I was visiting. Neither I nor anyone in the house was surprised or frightened, it was just the deep despair of millions of people from hopelessness.
I don’t remember well half a year during the occupation, but I remember how we made a fire to cook food, that there was no water, buses with loudspeakers drove through the streets, calling for surrender. How they came and took our medicines from our houses. How we went to rallies and had grenades thrown at us. I saw two huge piles rising above the ground - with the remains of cars and, apparently, with the remains of bodies and everything else. This picture is very unclear, I almost threw up, and after a couple of minutes a russian military man came up to me and asked if I loved russia. I answered "yes". What else could I say?
Now I am undergoing treatment from a psychiatrist and am trying to work to donate to those in need. Every day there are only more and more and more of them... those who have lost their home, limbs or loved ones. It pains me to see requests for help with funerals.
I feel nothing today except emptiness
I’m so fucking tired.
We shouldn’t be “racist” to Russian. We shouldn’t be “xenophobic” to them. We shouldn’t be russophobic. We should have helped them. We should be more accepting. We must be forgiving. We cannot have a trauma response. We cannot avoid Russian.
We cannot do that and that. Also that.
We must do that and that. Also, that.
We cannot complain. We cannot show our suffering. We are at fault. We must negotiate. We must be silent. We have all deserved. We should have been destroyed. We need to understand. We need to be grateful.
Today I had to publicly defend a Ukrainian 14-year old child simply because he feels uncomfortable to engage with Russian art accounts. Child whose country for most of his life is at war with Russia. Child who spent night sheltering from rockets.
But he doesn’t have a right to be uncomfortable with oppressors.
He is xenophobic.
He is racist.
But Russians that arrived at his posts and started mocking him, are not.
“They are victims of bullying, so it is justified response”
Everyone can have a justified response. Everyone, except us. Because we must be a perfect victim. Or not victim at all? Maybe we are the one that attacked? Maybe we are nazis? There would be always 1001 arguments we do not deserve to be called victims.
World was watching us suffering for centuries. They disarmed us, left us defenceless and then, didn’t even help us a lot until we started screaming. Sometimes I feel that even now, people are still watching at us like at some drama, putting million expectations.
I’m feeling absolutely helpless. Whatever we do, we cannot do. No matter how we react, we should have reacted differently.
We owe everyone everything and no one owes us anything. Wonderful world to live in.
I’m losing motivation. I’m losing hope. I want to scream and cry. But it is also hopeless.
Why us? Why now? Why?
They are silent because it is about Muslims.
BBC not even trying to hide its bias anymore.
I see so many reflections today from different people: someone woke up from the explosions, some from a phone call, some woke up and saw hundreds of notifications from different telegram channels. It is still so unimaginably bizarre. I have no ability to put into words the feeling of your world falling apart and we didn’t even understand half of the danger that was surrounding us. We were so damn close to disaster with half of Europe believing that nothing good will come out of it.
Ukrainians didn’t care what Europeans thought though, I personally saw news pieces about "Russia will take control of Kyiv" a lot later, somewhere in May, when Ukrainian military took control over the north of the country. And I’m so eternally grateful to every Ukrainian who made sure that all this "experts" sat in those flashy studios red from guilt. I’m grateful for my life, I’m grateful for our Ukraine. She persist. She is still the love of our lives. She’s hurt and devastated but she lives despite all the attempts to destroy her. Same as us. Somehow still here.
Yet I feel more detached from the western world than ever and I’m so fucking jealous of you all. It’s not even about the rockets or shakheds - somewhere along the lines you accept the fact that you may die in any moment - it’s about normal things like your Twitter feed that doesn’t look like a necrology, military terms that don’t make any sense to you, your city that doesn’t stop everyday to mourn the dead, you don’t feel guilty for trying to live a normal life while your classmate, who wanted to be a director, posts stories from the trenches. All of that and more. I’m not even entitled to my emotions because there always will be someone who says that my country is not suffering enough. I no longer react to comments like this as emotionally as I’ve done before but it is still so bizarre to see stuff like that from people whose countries have always been the one to inflict suffering on others.
I may sound mean or sarcastic or whatever but there is so much negativity inside of us that was put there by people like I’ve mentioned above that it is going to be released from time to time. "Your country shouldn’t exist", "Only 9 thousand killed", "You all are nazis/racist/zionists/any of the -ist terms" - yet you should always react in a constructive way because the moment you let your emotions go, you are the worst person on the planet. But who am I kidding, some people here do believe that we are. There is a thousand bad people with sketchy patches in a 40-million country and suddenly "That’s why I no longer support Ukraine". Well, honey, that means you never did. Because Syrian flags were quickly replaced with Ukrainian ones and just as quickly with Palestinian. It’s not about the "Support the oppressed", it’s "Anything to not feel guilty" because then you’ll find the reason to hate Palestinians, just as you did with us. If only you cared about the problematic shit happening in you country as much as you care about our political and social life.
But there are people who still are there for us. Countries that are still here. We may not say it as often but we are thankful. So very thankful for everything you’ve done and are doing for us. Thank you for hearing us and uplifting our voices.
Recently one of the most beautiful people here have lost her life defending me and you. She was always in my notes, always making sure that we didn’t feel uncomfortable even if she of all the people had all the right to be upfront about her thoughts and feelings. I don’t think I will ever get rid of the feeling of guilt. She was there while I wasn’t. She said to mourn her through anger. Anger towards the oppressor. Anger that should be directed into something useful: donations, sharing info, contacting your MPs and so on.
The soldier‘s death is not something out of ordinary during the war, it’s not considered a war crime but what if half of the army are civilians? Volunteers who left their homes to protect them. What if the soldier was a teacher, a poet, an actor, an IT-specialist, a scientist, what then? Isn’t it a tragedy? My country is loosing yet another generation of beautiful talented people and it makes my view of the future even darker.
But what can I say? I’m still here. My country still stands. Ukrainian air defence is doing everything possible and impossible to protect the lives of the civilians. Ukrainian military is still the only thing keeping us all alive. Heroes, titans, gods. Glory to them. Eternal glory to those who lost their lives defending Ukraine.
To Ukrainians: якось буде, прорвемся.
Thank you.
These were taken at the private military ceremony a few days ago. Everyone in her company I've spoken to so far has nothing but the highest praise for her, her attitude, her morality, her courage, her loyalty, her caring nature, and her indomitable will.
She was flawed. And she was perfect. And she was mine. My everything. My companion. My partner in crime. My love. My Valkyrie. My muse.
"Investigators assume that the mother died, hugging and holding her children to her chest. The burning temperature of the house was such that the baby's bones and body were reduced to ashes"
"russia has a great culture! where are the Ukrainian artists?"
russia killed them.
I really hope Jack Edwards chokes. "Oh look we made Dostoevsky number one bestseller on Amazon!" as if that fucking guy needed any hype. Maybe you can spend all this time and energy promoting books and authors that truly are not represented? I don’t know, make a video on Georgian literature, spend hours trying to find at least one English translation of the biggest Lithuanian authors? Of course, it’s going to be hard, all of the money was spend on English translations of Russian authors and all of us had only last 33 years trying to do anything to promote our culture while you all were simping for chauvinists, who hated the bare existence of us. Google at least the names of prominent Polish and Latvian authors. What are their names? What were they writing about? Could they afford to write about some highly intellectual suffering while their nations were balancing between life and death? Read the names of modern Ukrainian writers that were killed in the last 2 years. Who killed them? What would they think of Dostoevsky? Were they the "trembling beast" or "did they have the right"? Literature does teach a lot and for some reason the countries that were (are) under Russian attacks don’t like Dostoevsky, why his philosophical thought is so pathetic in our eyes? Do some research, then we’ll talk.
I genuinely don’t even know how to respond to this. (X)
im so tired of seeing that Ukrainians are "white privileged." WHERE. WHERE THE FUCK. JUST WHERE. Ukrainians and Ukrainian culture whas been OPPRESSED. Ukrainian language and culture has been BANNED from everything by russia CENTURIES AGO. Ukrainian artists and writers have been KILLED AND OPPRESSED AND BANNED from writing literature in Ukrainian. we are literally being KILLED just because we are Ukrainian. what the fuck do you mean by white privilege.
So majestic, those russkies
boycott everything russian!
please boycott and don't spread russian music, literature, movies, series, art and russian artists! don't use trending russian music on Instagram or TikTok, don't popularize the culture of a terrorist country!
and please be sure to point it out to other social media users. this is the minimum you can do to avoid unnecessary trauma to the victims of russian aggression. the victims should not see the tolerance of the culture of the state that kills and tortures them every day, that destroys entire cities and creates environmental disasters killing hundreds of people!
earlier I wrote about why it is important to realize the level of guilt of the russians and not tolerate everything russian, in order to show the whole world and the russians themselves that their culture of terrorism and dancing on bones will not be tolerated in a civilized society!
russia is currently waging a full-scale genocidal war against Ukraine and taking part in the genocide of the Syrian people who are suffering from the terrorism of dictator Bashar al-Assad!
please show your respect and tolerance for Ukrainians and Syrians, boycott everything russian and educate others! do your part in the information war against imperialist xenophobic racist homophobic and nazi russia!
i'm tired of Eastern European countries being sacrificied by the West in order to appease Russia. this is exactly what happened after WW2, this is what might as well happen now
"russia has a great culture! where are the Ukrainian artists?"
russia killed them.
💔 A Ukrainian poet and soldier, Maksym Kryvtsov, was killed by Russians at the front. He first volunteered for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2014. After the full-scale Russian invasion began in 2022, he returned to its ranks to defend Ukraine.
Just yesterday, Maksym posted a photo with his new poetry book called "Poems from the loophole". It was recognised by PEN Ukraine, an NGO protecting freedom of speech and authors' rights, as one of the best Ukrainian books of 2023.
Shortly before his death, Maksym also posted a photo with his ginger cat on Instagram. The cat, to whom he had dedicated a poem, died with him.
Russia keeps killing Ukrainian poets and trying to destroy our culture. The evil must be held accountable for every crime, every life, and every word taken away.
Photos: Maksym Kryvtsov / Facebook
yeah but you know who else died before they could finish their works?
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.
My morning in Kyiv so far...
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