April 26 is marked in Ukraine as the date of Chernobyl disaster. On this day, we commemorate the emergency service employees, the militaries and employees of the station who gave their lives and health to defending people from the consequences of the catastrophe.
Today, April 26, an expert mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. According to their radiological assessment, the level of radiation in this zone after the stay of the russian military there is normal. PHOTO CREDIT
Yesterday I learned the sad news that the russian invaders took the building of the regional administration in Kherson under their control. All employees of the administration, including its head Ihor Kolykhaiev, were forced to leave the premises. The Ukrainians refused to cooperate with the invaders. The flag of Ukraine was removed, although, despite the occupation, until yesterday, the administration of Kherson had worked under the Ukrainian flag. I believe that soon in Kherson we will again raise our beautiful blue and yellow flag: a flag of strong and independent Ukraine!
The flag of Ukraine has been removed from the building of Kherson region administration, but not from the hearts of the people of Kherson. PHOTO CREDIT
Meanwhile, the head of the Luhansk military state administration, Serhii Haidai, reported that in the occupied part of Rubizhne, the orcs are stealing children and forcing their mothers to spy on positions of the Ukrainian military. Women are forced to go to these positions and, under the pretext of asking for humanitarian assistance, reconnoiter positions and report coordinates to the occupiers. Otherwise, these bastards threaten to murder children. No one has long had illusions about the morality of the russian army and their ability to comply with international law and the customs of war. But even when I think about it not from a legal or diplomatic, but from a human point of view, I cannot understand how one can be so unscrupulous and inhumane as to hold children hostage and manipulate their mothers. This is unbelievably cruel.
The city of Rubizhne now. Part of the city is occupied by russians. PHOTO CREDIT
Today in Kyiv a bronze sculpture of two laborers, which was installed in the city center in 1982 in honor of the unity of "two fraternal peoples", was dismantled. You can watch a video of how it happened here. In this park, right above this sculpture, there is the Arch of Friendship of Peoples, which also symbolizes this "kinship". After russia unleashed a war in Donbas and annexed Crimea in 2014, a symbolic crack was painted on the Arch. Back then, there was no question of any friendship any more. Now the monument is being completely dismantled, and the Arch itself will be renamed and will be called the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People.
The crack, the removed statues. Whatever the goal of the russian invasion was, one consequence is obvious: no one in Ukraine will ever call them brothers or friends again. Bridges burnt. PHOTO CREDIT
Where do we order ours?
The US Embassy in Ukraine shared on Twitter a photo in which Ukrainians made a barbecue device out of a part of a russian rocket. This is called pragmatism and out-of-the-box thinking.
Screenshot from the Twitter account of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
I liked this picture so much that I wanted to share it here. This is Vania from Mariupol. He, his family and his cat managed to leave the city safe and sound.
The boy's mother says: "The scariest thing is when your kid asks you: Mom, am I going to die?" PHOTO CREDIT
The family is now in Zaporizhzhia. I pray and hope that everyone left in the city stays alive and safe. I pray that the occupants leave the city and more our brave defenders stay uninjured.
