And yet every day I wake up with the thought that nothing has happened, that everything is as before, that now I will have to take a shower, drink coffee and go to work, hold meetings with colleagues, teach English to students, laugh with colleagues during breaks, meet friends, go in for sports, study, go for a walk. All this without interruption by air sirens and reading news that is more and more terrifying every day. I need to force myself back into reality, this is a daily active effort. Because sometimes accepting the harsh reality is just too much.
Shelling consequences in Merefa, Kharkiv region - PHOTO CREDIT
I am still under deep impression and horror after yesterday's ruthless airstrike of Mariupol Drama Theatre. It was a place that served shelter for hundreds of civilians left without a roof over their heads, mostly women and children. What disgusts me the most is the fact that at the front and at the rear of the building, "Children" ("Дети") was written on the ground. It means the people executing the airstrike were fully aware of who they are targeting. What a psycho one needs to be to do that? Even when executing an order, there is always a way to "miss" the target, I refuse to believe there is no way to do that. And yet, they hit the building directly. The good news today is that the bomb shell withstood the bombing, and the rescue team started recovering people from there - alive. This was the greatest relief of the day for me.
Bird's eye view of the Drama Theater in Mariupol. The photo clearly shows the inscriptions on the ground. This did not prevent the russian bstards from carrying out the criminal order. PHOTO CREDIT
According to Mariupol City Council. the situation in the city is critical. The city has been in blockade for 16 full days already, and 350k civilians remain in bomb shelters there. 50 to 100 air bombs are target at the city daily, 80% of the residential complex of the city has been destroyed, some 30% of it cannot be restored. According to the local estimates that cannot be confirmed due to active war hostilities, the number of killed civilians may reach 20k people. Twenty thousand! TWENTY THOUSAND MURDERED UKRAINIANS.
In Mariupol, killed civilians are buried in mass graves right in from of residential buildings, as it's impossible to bury them properly. Center of Europe, 21st century. PHOTO CREDIT
In Chernihiv, 13 people were killed by a rocket attack while standing in line for bread(!). It doesn't fit in my head. Some people in Ukraine literally have to choose between starving to death. and those to die from a fragment of a rocket. In general, 53 people died from shelling in Chernihiv during the day. An innocent, civilian person. Who could still live a long, happy life in a prosperous country. But they died from someone's senseless, criminal ambitions.
Civilians killed while queueing for bread in Chernihiv. This is just so freaking wrong. PHOTO CREDIT
Our president, Mr. Zelensky, actively speaks before the governments of various states, for example, before the Senate or the Bundestag. I listen to his speeches as a linguist and as a translator, but first of all - as a citizen of a free country, from whom someone wants to take away that very freedom. Some countries help us more, some less. Someone realizes that Ukraine is an outpost of the free world, which holds the blow for everyone else, while someone still thinks that this does not concern them and "the economy is more important." I would very much like the world to be united in its desire to fight for all those democratic values for which thousands of Ukrainians are now dying.
Mr.Zelensky's address to Bundestag - PHOTO CREDIT
Today, March 17, my husband and I were supposed to go to our favorite Theater on Podil for the performance of "One Hundred Thousand". Ironically, this is the second time the performance has been postponed: it happened first a month ago due to the illness of Bohdan Beniuk. I would like to believe that after our victory, the performance will still take place in our beautiful Kyiv, which will begin to live a new life, and breathe deeply.
My favorite theatre in Kyiv - Theatre on Podil - PHOTO CREDIT
