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.
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).
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
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?
Good morning. This might be my last message from the city of Rafah. The occupation [Israel] is carrying out crazy fire. Violent belts. As you’re hearing, there are helicopters. Planes and gunfire from the vehicles. There’s a complete invasion of the city.
We don’t know what is going on in Rafah. The place that the occupation [Israel] claimed to be safe. This is happening all of a sudden; the people didn’t go out. They didn’t do anything. More than thirty targets were hit in just minutes. People were asleep. We woke up to the bombing, to the shooting from the helicopters. It was horrifying. Unacceptable. This might be my last message. Please relay it to the world.
— Hazem, journalist residing in Rafah; 02.11.2024
Rafah was Palestinians’ very last safe zone. There is quite literally nowhere else left to go. And now it’s being bombed with airstrike after airstrike.
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.
today, two years ago, all of Ukraine woke up to explosions, sounds of flying fighter jets, gunshots and screams of terror. today, February 24, is the anniversary of russia's invasion of Ukraine. full-scale invasion, escalation of ten-year genocide. I can't explain the feeling when I first saw wounded people, when I first heard a rocket flying overhead aimed at a residential building.
it is emotionally difficult to comprehend all the terrible events that happened during this time. everything I'm trying to cover here as soon as I get my thoughts together. and everything that I don't have enough strength for...
Bucha massacre
Mass burials in Izium
Mass execution of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka
The tragedy of Mariupol
Defense of Azovstal
Bakhmut Fortress
Ecological disaster in Kakhovka
The tragedy of Hroza
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children forcibly deported to russia
Torture of civilians
The battle for Donetsk Airport
The Ilovaisk Tragedy
russian manipulation and propaganda
burning Ukrainian books, destroying Ukrainian museums and entire cities, torturing people for tattoos connected to Ukraine. forced re-education of children and adults who are forced to learn the russian national anthem, worship portraits of putin every day and receive russian documents in order to receive water and food in the occupied territories. daily shelling and casualties, daily struggle for survival and freedom, which russians want to take away from us.
all the terrible cases of execution of Ukrainian soldiers: beheadings, castration, amputation of limbs, execution of prisoners. burning civilians alive, raping women, men and children, torturing even animals, even little mice. tons of photos and videos that I don't want to add here because even the slightest glimpse of all those images breaks my heart and causes me to have a panic attack. however, you can find it all freely available on the Internet by simply typing in keywords.
instead, I would like to show photos of rallies in support of Ukraine, which took place today all over the world. to find out where each photo is from, see the alt text for them.
despite the fact that in russia they celebrate the war, Ukrainians, who were forced to flee from the war, gathered at rallies around the world, together with residents of the countries that gave them shelter. the civilized world expresses sympathy and grief, with calls to provide arms to Ukraine so that we can defeat russia as soon as possible and return peace to our lives.
it's sad that more photos can't be added to show as many cities as possible that came out to support us today. but I've been looking at all the photos and videos of the rallies all day today and I have tears of gratitude in my eyes. thank you all for continuing to stand with Ukraine!
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.
hi friends
as we boycott in support of palestine, here is a little reminder of the companies that specifically supported israel in their crimes against palestine (taken from the al jazeera website)
do as much as you are able to during the boycott, but if you need essentials or need to go to work to support yourself, that is okay! anything helps and boycotting these companies specifically is great because of their direct role in the violence against people in gaza
free palestine
Noor Harazeen you are the world's hero. You're completely correct, this is not normal. This is evil and no human needs to make these decisions.
stories of children whose lives were taken by russians
1. Marharyta from Kharkiv region, 8 years old.
On June 21, cluster munitions fell in the yard of her family's house. Marharyta died instantly, her heart was pierced through. The girl's father, at the age of 36, has become completely gray. The mother cannot describe in words how she feels after losing her child.
2. Kyrylo from Kherson, 8 years old.
In April, the family evacuated from Kherson to Vinnytsia. On July 14, russia shelled the city, Kyrylo was in the car with his uncle. The boy died immediately from a fragment hitting his head, then an explosion occurred. The body was searched for several days. It was identified only through DNA analysis.
3. Daryna from Kharkiv region, 15 years old.
On March 13, a russian missile hit the family's house. When the father got to the hand of his dead daughter, he said: "Our Daryna is no more". She was buried in her native Dergachi. Mom recalls that the missiles flew over the people here and there. "Daryna, this is a farewell salute to you." said her father.
4. Polina, 8 years old.
On March 13, Polina and her mother wanted to evacuate Mariupol. As soon as they took a few steps outside, the russian military started shelling with mortars. Nadiya's mother died instantly. Both of Polina's legs and arms were broken. The girl was operated on in the city hospital. But on March 16, Polina's kidneys failed and she died. Polina was shooting videos on YouTube, dancing. She liked to change into different costumes and perform on stage.
5. Anna, 9 years old.
On March 19, an enemy shell hit near the house where Anna and her mother Yana were hiding. They went down to the basement. In the morning, slag began to fall from above. Several basement floor slabs fell on people. The mother rushed to help her daughter, but she could not pull her out from under the rubble on her own. Anya and other people remained buried in the basement. The girl liked to work with computers. Her mother promised that when Anya turned 10, she would enroll her in programming lessons. However...
6. Denys, 9 years old.
On September 3, the twins were walking in a park in Dnipropetrovs'k region. Suddenly, MLRS shells started flying. "I felt the space around me with my hand. He was at my feet. I went to him: "Danya, Danya ... ", but he was silent. Although they told me to lie down, I started crawling to my son. Ruslan was screaming next to me," the boy's mother recalls the shelling. On December 22, Denys was supposed to celebrate his birthday.
7. Oleksandr from Chernihiv, 13 years old.
On March 9, Sasha and his mother Tetyana decided to evacuate from Chernihiv. However, a shell exploded near the pedestrian column, and the boy was hit by many fragments. "He couldn't say anything, his eyes were closed, he was breathing heavily, he wheezed three times and died. He remained lying there," Sasha's mother recalls. In 2022, Sasha was an eighth grader. He was interested in the crypto market and dreamed of developing a YouTube channel for an english-speaking audience.
original post : ukraina_topnews
"russia just invaded ukraine vs israel committing a genocide in palestine”
yeah just invaded.
yeah it a fair war of two relatively the same military powers.
yeah one side never said that the other never existed and shouldn’t exist now.
yeah one side is not targeting civilian infrastructure en masse.
yeah it’s just a conflict and not a continuation of a hundred-year conquest of an imperial power to destroy a nation.
it’s not like one side has killed at least 10 million people in the space of the last century while specifically targeting this nation in particular.
it’s great that you all read about palestinian history - this is a right thing to do and one of the ways to decolonise your own knowledge- but maybe pick up a timothy snyder or serhiy plokhy book and read when russians started killing ukrainians. you would be surprised that it didn’t start either in 2022 or 2014, its been going on FOR CENTURIES.
wording matters. check whether your country recognises holodomor as a genocide. if yes, read about it. if not, read about it as well.
and then check what constitutes a genocide and how both of this tragedies are genocides: of ukrainian people by russia and of palestinian people by israel.
I’d appreciate if you read and remember this:
Images source:
I swear we will never forget how the slow death of these babies was literally being televised.
The whole world knows now that these babies have had their oxygen cut off from them by israel and the whole world knows that the hospital they are in is being bombarded by israel and the whole world knows that the families of these babies were being held hostages at gunpoint by israel inside the Al Shifa hospital.
The whole world also knows three of these babies have died already as the NICU shuts down.
Those who are silent about Israel's atrocities have made a deliberate choice to go down in history as the most shameless cowards. This is a very avoidable tragedy that you have chosen to maintain with your silence.
a devastasting video from occupied left bank of Kherson region. A woman and her children plead for evacuation but rescuers nor Ukrainian soldiers cannot physically reach them. orcs left them to die along with other 22 000 - 40 000 people. russia must burn.
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.
Reminder that this is NOTHING like the Holocaust so please don't say it is. This is a definite genocide tho.
Before you say “Duh,” remember they are using the social contagion lie to make life saving health care from children and teens. Studies like this can be used in court to fight for the rights of children in our community.
If you’re fine with queer culture being destroyed then you don’t deserve to be a part of it. Why do you think we should respect your religion when you don’t respect our existence? You post nonstop about how queer people hate Jewish people, but are you surprised when you endorse takes like that? Nothing would be lost from the world if there were no more Jewish people. If queer culture gets destroyed, then millions of queer people will grow up miserable. That’s the difference.
i’m not gonna publish the rest of the asks i got abt that post bc some of them are vile but i think this one is probably the most egregious.
“nothing would be lost from the world if there were no more jewish people.”
calling what is happening to trans people in the south an attempt at genocide: correct and ok. it's going to get worse if we don't fight back now
comparing it to the holocaust: not ok and also i'm fucking blocking you.
no genocide is the same. not every genocide mirrors the holocaust. using the deaths of jews, lgbt people, disabled people, and poc during the holocaust as your "gotcha" card every time our rights are in danger today proves you know nothing about the history you're talking about.
i need all gentiles to watch this video immediately.
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