For us, there are no safe spaces. I look at my friends and acquaintances in Switzerland. Everyone is living a reasonably happy life. They have their personal joys, traumas and dramas. I look at them in envy: while living in the same space, we are living such different lives. I may not live under constant threat of shelling, but as a Ukrainian I’m always in a risk zone. I’m still not being accepted …
For my Grandma this is already the second war. When the first one ended she was 15. When this one ends, hopefully she will be still 91. On the 24th of February when I called her to tell that the full-scale war had broken out, she started neither crying nor lamenting. She was calm and organized. She said: «Take care of yourself and …
At the train station, I met a family from Kramatorsk. Two Russian-speaking mothers. A fifteen-year-old, some boys around 8 and 10, a four-year-old named Seva, and a year-and-a-half-old named Sasha. It’s so cold outside your hands are about to freeze off. The smaller kids are awfully stressed after a day-and-a-half of being on the train, in the coach with a total of 15 people in it. There are no free buses …
Melitopol arrived today, March 17. A local teacher told us how they would hold rallies and get shot at. A young man who was protesting nearby was shot in the leg. Then the enemy soldiers asked the organizer of the rally about the «appointed mayor.» The girl answered that in Ukraine mayors aren’t appointed, we elect them. They abducted her. We’ve had had …
IDPs from Severodonetsk showed up today. Countless families on a huge train, literally packed to the rafters. Many of the people immediately said: «We're from Severodonetsk. Excuse us, can we have some tea?» But that’s not what struck me. I was amazed at how much they wanted something sweet. They would put three tablespoons of sugar into a small cup of tea. They asked for cookies. They …
