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The man on photos is Roman Gorilik. The senior checkpoint supervisor for the protection of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. He was taken by russia in the begging on invasion and only resently was released with an exchange of prisoners of war after spending over two years in captivity
This is so horrific...
Жовта Стрічка (Yellow Ribbon) is a resistance movement in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Created in April 2022 after the Russian military invasion, the goal of the movement is informational resistance against the Russian occupation in the Ukraine.
Note #1: I cannot change anything
It has passed more then 10 years since Donetsk was occupied by Russian forces. I decided to write this and (I hope) a couple more texts to describe what was happening there from 2014 to 2022, at the period I was living there. I'm sorry for grammatical mistakes if they occur. It's not an essay, I'm not a writer, I'm writing this primarily for myself to put my thoughts in order, but if somebody finds this text interesting then... I appreciate your interest.
The phenomenon
I pondered where I should start and picked the main thought of a person who lives there and isn't a Russia's strong supporter. I use this formulation because not only pro-Ukrainian people expressed this but also those who just, even slightly, cast doubt on Russian propaganda and occupational regime's statements. This thought is a result of a constant feeling of doom that grew stronger over years of living there.
"I cannot change anything."
Of course, this thought can't be applied to the situation in general and, of course, not all people were that pessimistic. It should be only considered in the context of personal lives and overall feelings. Though there were people who thought they were capable of turning tables upside down here and there and, at last, globally, none of them succeeded. To those who were optimistic enough to not only behave cheerful but also keep up those who were at their lowest points (as your most humble servant), I'm expressing my greatest gratitude.
The beginning
I suppose I will never forget the day when this thought occurred to me for the first time. It was after I handed in my first yearly project in university, in summer 2016. I had a conversation with my supervisor of studies, a very clever and open-minded man, and at some point he mentioned that with our university's diplomas it's impossible to find a job even on the territory controlled by the occupational government, not to mention Russia. I remember the feeling of inner collapse that overflowed me.
I wasn't able to leave the occupied territory. I wasn't able to study in another place. I had neither money nor courage to go somewhere else. I was locked in that small world, physically and mentally. I had had a dream of leaving it, playing cards I was dealt, but at that moment they proved of no use. Everything felt pointless.
I stopped attending university on a regular basis from that moment on.
It's interesting that many other people started to feel the same approximately at the same time because of their own personal causes. It was the period when many people noticed the changes in the flow of time, the stagnation of their lives, the first touch of a repetitive limbo of doom. It's also should be noted that during exactly this period many people of pro-Russian views started to change their minds regarding the chosen side in this conflict. I still don't understand why, but feel that these events connected in some way...
The rotting
As the time passed, nothing changed for the better. If I was asked to describe what was happening to the city during the period from 2014 to 2022 overall, I would call it rotting.
Benches, garbage cans and paving blocks started to disappear from parks and streets. The concrete of the pedestrian roads that came across bridges started to crumble and soon, it was in 2017 when I noticed this for the first time, there's appeared holes in roads through which one could see the river water over which the bridges were built, and these holes kept getting bigger over time. A football stadium that formerly was the city's biggest pride was soon completely overgrown by grass, it's glassy walls disappeared revealing robbed interior.
Large propagandistic posters which unfinished constructions were covered with, flags of the occupational puppet government that could be seen in each restaurant and in each park (restaurants were forced to hang them at the entrances by the local law), the billboards and TV that radiated endless propagandistic messages and talk-shows... They all had an objective of cultivating patriotic feelings and pride for mother-Russia and hatred for Ukraine and "overseas partners".
Everything mentioned above provoked the feeling of the situation being eternal. Everything was rotting, including propaganda, and including our souls. The doom limbo spun like uroboros, devouring itself and all of us.
With the start of the pandemic the closed borders became a bottom line, the symbol of the end of all dreams about a better life, about freedom. And small people like us, not supported by anybody, even by our pro-Russian parents, were doomed by our thoughts and inability to change anything. We felt jaded, miserable, deserted by any hope.
A nightmare is also a dream. That all felt very much like a bad dream. The sleepy depression covered us with it's blanket and we thought that... At least we are alive! At least life's going on! We still have our limbs, heads and friends! Not everything is lost yet, we are still capable of!..
The war
"I cannot change anything."
I remember the night when Putin and Russia recognized their puppets like it was yesterday. I remember when my dear friend from Kazakhstan texted me and asked about my feelings. And I remember how I responded her: "I think the war is inevitable."
Pro-Russian people got what they wanted, at last. Recognition! After all these years! The appeals of puppets' leaders were recorded 2 days prior that day and started with words "Today we signed an agreement", so what? Such a happiness! We are a part of Russia and can live in peace and flourishing, at last!
Ha! Ha-ha...
Then "Ukraine started shelling", "We started evacuation", "'Russia started special military operation'". It's interesting to think about this keeping in mind that all official video-messages about these events were recorded on the same day as the ones about the recognitions.
Until the evening of the first day of the war, I thought that everything was lost. I thought that from that moment on my life will never be mine again. With the fall of Ukraine, the last hope for freedom would shatter.
"I've never been able to change anything. And I'll never be. We'll be imprisoned here until the end of our lives. I'll never see the world, never find peace, never feel safe."
And I don't know how to feel about the fact that only because of this war I eventually found the way to freedom, peace and safety. Here, in Canada, I can be a mere observer of everything that happens in my country enveloped in flames of war.
Now I understand Ukrainians that were living on non-occupied territory of the country from 2014 to 2022.
Now... I can forget about war.
The conclusion
I know that my last statements are very selfish, shame on me. But I cannot actually describe how pleasant it is to feel free eventually. Many of my friends weren't able to take the risk of living their homes and when I talk to them they picture the feeling of that doom being much, very much worse than it was a couple of years ago. As one person told me later, "Sometimes you need courage to run away in fear, and you had it."
I don't feel malicious joy, I'm just sorry. This was a story about feebleness in a nutshell.
Hey, do you want to hear how smart occupiers are?
Russian military covers a military airfield in Sevastopol (Note: A city in the Crimean peninsula) with tourists and residents. Airport "Belbek" from where aviation to send missiles into Ukraina is placed in 2 kilometres from beach in Lyubimovka and in 4 kilometres from beach Uchukuevka. Over which occupants had shoot down a missile today (Note: yesterday as the news was posted yesterday).
It's obvious that military airport "Belbek" would be an aim for Ukraine Defense Forces and missles would fly into it. It's very easy for occupants to place the airplanes from which Ukrainian cities are getting shelled near the beaches with vacationers. And yesterday occupants decided to shot down the missle that aimed at the millitary airfield right over the beach Uchukuevka where the people were relaxing. And we are surprised by some crimeans who think that russian military equipment is protecting them. While the situation is quite the opposite: it's russian military that had shot down the missle, which aimed at millitary object, over a beach with people
Russian military had a hard choice. To allow the missle to hit a millitary object or to shot it down over the beach filled with vacationers. Between an airfield and a beach the annexators made an obvious for them choice. A beach. As an airfield is needed to keep attacking Ukranian cities
Russian culture is ethnic cleansing and islamophobia
Today is an important day to qırımlılar but many of them will be celebrating it in Russian captivity.
Ruslan Mesutov was illegally sentenced by the occupiers to 18 years in prison on charges of alleged "terrorism".
Even though the 58-year-old man's health condition has deteriorated, he is not being provided with appropriate medical care. Ruslan Mesutov is forced to go on hunger strike, because, contrary to his religious beliefs, he is fed food with pork in it. The prison where he is being held is called a "criterion" because of its harshness. There are four people in a damp cell, who are taken for a walk on the roof of the prison once a day.
Life before detention: Ruslan Ametovich Mesutov was born in Uzbekistan, in 1988 he returned to Crimea and got a job as a turner at a factory in Alushta, where he was allocated a land plot.
Later, he brought his parents and sisters to the Crimea, married Elzara Hodzhenova, and had two sons. Ruslan was a member of the Crimean Tatar People's Movement. In the village of Malyi Mayak (Buyuk-Lambat), Ruslan organized the Muslim community "Avdet", which is part of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea, and became one of the founders of the religious community of Alushta. He was a security guard at the mosque, engaged in social activities, organized Muslim holidays, helped with funeral issues, took care of paperwork, and held prayers. Representatives of the occupation authorities detained the man on June 10, 2019, along with other Crimean Tatars. The occupation investigators charged Mesutov with violation of Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Organization of a terrorist organization"), which provides for imprisonment for a term of 15 to 20 years. And even Part 1 of Articles 30 and 278 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Preparation for the violent seizure of power by an organized group by prior conspiracy"), which provides for up to ten years in prison. In May 2020, Ruslan was transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation. An illegal sentence was handed down on August 16, 2021, and the man was sentenced to 18 years in a strict regime colony with a 1-year and 6-month restriction on his freedom after release. Mesutov was arrested two weeks before the court hearing, which was to consider the claim of the religious community of Alushta regarding the transfer of the city mosque by the occupation administration to the illegal formation of the "Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea". The main real reason for Ruslan Mesutov's detention is his religious and public activities, identity, and support for his people. The 58-year-old man is being held in a Russian prison in the Lipetsk region. According to his lawyer, Siyar Panich, his client's health condition has deteriorated and he is not being provided with medical care. Since November 2022, Ruslan has had difficulties with nutrition, as pork has been introduced into the main diet. According to his religious beliefs, Ruslan Mesutov does not eat such food. The Muslims serving their sentences in this institution wrote an appeal to the administration, but the problem has not yet been resolved.
The political prisoner's Quran was also taken away from him. "The Quran in Arabic was taken away from Mesutov to be examined by a specialist, who said it was a 'normal Quran' and not an 'extremist' one. Since then, since November, he hasn't been able to get it back, and it depresses him quite a bit," said lawyer Volodymyr Bilenko.
Info from @ ppu_gov_ua
That how our people look like and behave when they're finally free from Russian captivity.
I notice more and more that non-Ukrainians who see our posts about Ukraine, first of all, don't see a lot of them, and second of all, don't posses information over how to help us because of the first reason.
So let's try to break our informational bubble so that more people have the instruments to access the truth.
This is a video from the Ukrainian journalistic platform Suspilne Kultura that discusses russian propaganda inside and outside of russia. The video is in Ukrainian but has English subtitles.
Please give it a watch.
I wish everyone in the world started treating russia like they treat British Museum because there's exactly no difference. A colonial empire that looted/is currently looting other nations' precious cultural heritage and refuses to give it back. A big part of so called Great Russian Culture™ is build of stollen reliques, paintings, writings etc.
The whole thing with Okhmatdyt just makes me feel so fucking awful that I cannot put it into comprehend words. It wasn't just any place russia striked. It was a hospital. A hospital for KIDS. For the little children who should've never go through this hell. Kids who need surgeries and medical care to survive. And it's so fucking awful. What's even worse is that Okhmatdyt had probably threated children injured from other russian attack too. They literally prevent kids to heal from THEIR attacks. There's won't be enough words to express how inhuman it is
Honestly, I feel like Yellow ribbon (жовта стрічка) movement is so important. Because it makes you feel like you are not alone — something that occupation government tries to enforce you to believe by restricting all the support for Ukraine just so it would seem like everyone totally and completely supports russia. Because when everyone just seems to support it, it's easy to feel like you're on the wrong side.
This just reminds me of how shitty the situation with water in Crimea actually is.
So, some cool facts. Each summer hot water is getting turned off for around three weeks. For some "repair works". Another cool fact, that my mutuals may know. This year I didn't have hot water for over a month not for official turn off. According to official info, something was broken. (And it took them a whole month to fix). Is it reasonable to ask how they check shit?
And this is not the top of the circus. From September of 2020 to the May of 2021 we didn't have hot water at all. And the cold water often was turned off too. Eight fucking months without hot water at all. The fucking winter. (Yes, its pretty warm in Crimea, but we're still have temperatures around zero from time to time.)
And then we have river that is WHITE because of chemicals? And some people in Crimea say that they don't have water RIGHT now. It's extreme hot, mind me
This is the post I want you all to spread as much as you can. Do anything but I want it to be seen as much as possible. I don't care for any of my other posts as much as for this one. IF I DIE I WANT THIS POST TO BE SEEN. I WANT THE WORLD TO HEAR.
This is the memory of a 16 year old girl Katya from Mariupol. I translated it to English and I cried while translating. Please read this. Don't scroll. Don't be ignorant and indifferent.
Do you know the feeling of pain? Once I fell in love with a boy but he didn't love me back, and I thought that it was painful. Turned out that the real pain is to see your mother dying with your own eyes. And to see your brother coming to her again and again, asking her: "Mommy, please, don't sleep, you'll freeze". And we'll never visit her grave. She got left in the cold and dark basement.
We peed, slept and ate our last portions of food in the same basement.
Once uncle Kolya caught a pigeon, I think on the fifth or sixth day, and we fried it and we ate it. And then we all puked.
Mom held on until the end, she died three days before we evacuated.
I told my brother that she's sleeping deeply and that we shouldn't wake her up. But, I think, he understood everything. He understood back then when our lady neighbor died and we couldn't put her outside and she started smelling. And then it became quiet for awhile, uncle Kolya put her outside and got blown up by a hidden grenade (my note, this word "rastyajka" means a grenade with a string attached to it, not a stray bomb. It was put to kill civilians coming out from the basements). Mom cried a lot. After Dad's death, uncle Kolya was the closest person to us.
The dead bodies stink so much.
They were everywhere. I closed my brother's eyes with Mom's scarf so he didn't have to see it. When we were running I almost threw up several times.
I don't believe in your god anymore.
If he existed, we wouldn't have had to suffer so much. My Mother never, you hear me, NEVER did anything bad. She never even left uncle Kolya in another room until she got married. She went to church and confessed often, and so did I. Uncle Kolya gave up smoking so Mom wouldn't worry about him sinning. And your god took her away. The pastor told me something about her helping god there, but it would be so much better for her to help god here, by bringing us up.
I hate russia.
My own uncle is there. Do you know what he said to me today on the phone? "Katya? Which Katya? Girl, I don't know you. What war, which Katya?". And then he wrote me from a different number: "Katya, don't write me. It's dangerous for me and my family. And your mom won't come back".
I hate them! It was his own sister?! How possibly can a person do this???
You know what? I think I'm going to come back to Mariupol. And I'm gonna live on the same place as before. And everyday come into the basement of the new building to put flowers.
It's also scary when the kids cry when it's forbidden. It's forbidden because we needed to not be heard.
These monsters found people in the basements and killed them. Those, who survived, told us that the russian soldiers could rape kids, the elderly and even dead bodies.
If there is a god, why does he let it happen?
I don't want to live anymore. We may be separated now, I suppose. I may not ever see my brother again. And why? Why did this putin "save" us? We lived so well, we even bought a car. Uncle Kolya promised to teach me how to drive. And they even burned the car. And our flat is no more. I want to die and I can't.
Please, hug your kids! Otherwise when you die, they might not remember your smell. If I handle it all and have kids, — I'm going to hug them 24/7.
***
This is it. Now it's time for you to do your part. Do a tag game, tag all your mutuals, do EVERYTHING BECAUSE THIS SHIT IS IMPORTANT. THIS IS MY HONEST HUMAN SCREAM TO YOU AND I SCREAM TO YOU TO SPREAD THIS MEMORY. THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS, NOT OSCARS, NOT MEMES, NOT EVERYDAY LIFE. EVERY DAY OF WAR, EVERY DAY WE DON'T GET OUR VICTORY IS THE DAY WE LOST MORE OF OUR INNOCENT PEOPLE. MAKE A GODDAMN CHANGE, PEOPLE!!!
Yours truly
Energoatom of Ukraine:
The second power unit was connected to the grid at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
Today, on August 26, 2022, at 9:15 pm, the second of the ZNNP power units that were shut down yesterday was connected to the power grid. Currently, capacity is being ramped up.
There are no remarks on the operation of equipment and safety systems.
As a reminder, today at 2:04 pm the first of the power units that were shut down yesterday was connected to the grid.
Thus, Zaporizhzhya NPP, despite numerous provocations carried out by the occupiers, keeps operating in the power system of Ukraine and meeting our country's electricity needs.
Zaporizhzhya NPP nuclear power professionals are real heroes! They tirelessly and tightly hold the nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine and the whole of Europe on their shoulders, and they’re working selflessly to get their home country to have life-giving electricity.
We are proud of you and thankful for your efforts!
Source: Energoatom on Facebook
It is horrifying even to imagine the situation the specialists of Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant are going through. russian occupiers have threatened, beaten, murdered workers of the plant, and shelled its territory. It is a nuclear plant, do you understand? Damage to it can make the soil, water, and people of entire countries horribly, irreparably poisoned. Now imagine operating this plant while a psychopath is shooting at it and at you. The specialists of Zaporizhzhya NPP are stronger than steel. Thanks to their willpower and bravery, we are still here today. They should not have been put in these impossible conditions! I hope the world gets serious and helps get the ruscists out of the plant.
Cliff diving competition from Swallow’s Nest Castle, Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine.
Международный форум «Креативная экономика — украинский start-up»
Международный форум «Креативная экономика — украинский start-up»
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