I will also join my fellow Ukrainians in sharing how 24th of February 2022 went for us.
I didn't go to sleep that night. The day before I had a check-in call regarding my uni project. All of my group mates did. I don't remember what I was doing so late at night but the fact is - I didn't sleep. My partner was already in bed but still scrolling her phone. Suddenly she sits up and says that russians on social media are saying that "we all will be fucked", and that Ukrainians are commenting on hearing loud bangs in their cities. We sit in silence shocked for a couple of minutes. Then we hear it as well. A loud bang. The kind that shakes the ground. We hear car sirens. A moment passes before we hear another one. I started packing my backpack with my documents and money. My dad says it won't be necessary, that they are just attacking the strategic military buildings. I don't remember how the rest of the night/early morning went. I don't remember if I've slept. In the morning the president had announced that the war has started.
Two weeks later I would leave for Belgium with my partner to not sit on my family's shoulders, to not be a burden. Everything is going relatively well for me: I found a job, I have a place to live, I am not struggling with food. Of course I had to sacrifice my degree for the lack of language and my hobbies for the lack of free time. That is why I don't draw much anymore. I just hope that in the future I will be able to do it again.
Two years passed and I feel like people abroad got used to the war. I am not fully aware of the whole situation but from my side it feels like people are forgetting about us. Like we are receiving less support. Like we are starting to loose. I just hope that it's not true and that it just feels that way.
Though Internet has been really hostile to Ukrainian voices lately. And there is so much misinformation. My partner met a woman near the station who pretended to be Ukrainian to beg for money. She didn't speak any Ukrainian or, for that matter, russian, just English. She didn't expect someone to talk back to her in Ukrainian.
I just hope that we will win the war and it will happen soon. My whole being hurts when I read the news about russian war crimes and the tragedies that just keep happening to my people.
If you have anything to spare, consider donating to the Ukrainian army. Reach out to your government, show up to protests. I'm tired of seeing only Ukrainians doing it. We can't do this alone, we will need everything that we can get.
https://u24.gov.ua/
Слава Україні! Героям слава!
І мирного неба!
I've already reported some of her drawings a few days ago. Tumblr answered me that "the content you reported is not a violation of our policies". Same happened today.
Hi tumblr artists
Please report milanson
She is a russian who explicitly supports russian invasion of Ukraine, russian military, draws zwastika (z) in her works, draws humanizations of countries, and degrades Ukraine by doing so. Also spreads russian propaganda
She has the audacity to include Ukraine in her tags
Draws the conservative russian political party affiliated with Putin and Medvedev
We can create a space without russian supporters freely drawing russian propaganda by reporting it
Upd, last picture: she's also very obviously racist, but I don't want to scroll her telegram anymore. You can check it out yourself 💀
My boi in national Ukrainian clothes and my part in DTIYS by @/linyvets_chan (Instagram)! Drawing this was fascinating, I'm happy with the result. Thank you, linyvets_chan, for such an interesting experience.
😄
Мій хлопчик у національному українському одязі й моя участь у DTIYS від @/linyvets_chan (Instagram)! Малювати це було прецікаво, результат мене радує. Дякую, linyvets_chan, за такий цікавий досвід.
GLOBAL STRIKE FOR GAZA BEGINS TODAY!!!
To participate:
During the 21st - 28th of January...
Do not shop/online shop
Skip school/work if you are able to
Be present & active on social media and uplift Palestinian voices
Draw, write, sing, create art for Palestine
Repost & boost Palestine related content on social media
Educate yourself about the issue
We have been asked to strike during these days by the lovely & hardworking journalist Bisan from Gaza. Let's all try our best for a people being tested with the harshest conditions imaginable. The occupation must be held accountable.
We're in this together!!
russia is currently executing civilians in ukrainian vovchansk. russian forces are taking civilians captive, executing people trying to escape captivity. they are also shelling the entire place with cluster munitions to kill any survivors left
Since 2014, millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other minorities have been locked up in China and subjected to torture and forced labour. Some of those freed talk about trying to rebuild their lives in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
Photography by Robin Tutenges
A Chinese course book
Saliman Yesbolat used to live in Ghulja county, Xinjiang. After she refused to denounce her Uyghur neighbours to the police, she was forced to perform the raising of the Chinese flag every Monday at dawn, and to attend Chinese lessons twice a week in the basement of her building, where she would learn the Chinese language, patriotic songs and Xi Jinping's discourses by heart. This is her exercise book.
Forced to leave China
At 65, Imam Madi Toleukhan is one of the oldest refugees in Bekbolat, Kazakhstan, where more than 100 families took shelter after fleeing the Chinese regime. 'We were richer back there. I owned a herd, but I was too afraid for my sons, my grandchildren and their future: I came to Kazakhstan to save them. I didn't want them to be the fourth generation to suffer at the hands of the Chinese government, he says.
Remembering Uyghur culture in exile
Two members of the Dolan Ensemble, a Uyghur dance troupe based in Kazakhstan, get ready before performing a traditional dance to mark 40 days since the birth of a baby. Founded in 2016, the troupe performs at festivals or private events that bring together members of the Uyghur community, some of whom have had to leave Xinjiang.
Torture, infertility and damaged genitalia
In Kazakhstan, medical care for camp survivors is poor. Most victims can barely afford to see a family doctor. Anara*, an endocrinologist in a Kazakh hospital who has examined about 50 camp survivors since 2020, noticed recurrent infertility problems among her patients. 'Men or women, many have damaged genitalia. Some told me they'd been given drugs, others said they'd been raped. As they didn't come to us right after being released from the camps, it's impossible to know what kind of drugs they were administered in Xinjiang, she says. *Not her real name
The tiger chair
Ospan* spent a year in a re-education camp. He says his mind and body were crushed by the tortures he experienced in a tiger chair - a steel apparatus with handcuffs that restrains the body in painful positions. Aged about 50, this former shepherd, who took refuge with his family in eastern Kazakhstan, is no longer fit for work. Physically wrecked and prone to headaches, he mourns the loss of his memory above all. 'I used to know a lot of songs and I loved to sing; I also knew poems by heart ... Now, I can't sing any more, I can't remember the words,' he says. *Not his real name
Broken families and imprisonment
Aikamal Rashibek saw the dreadful efficiency of the CCP's brainwashing on her husband, Kerimbek Bakytali, after he was released from a Chinese psychiatric hospital. 'He disappeared for a year. When he came back, he didn't tell me anything about what happened to him. He was highly unhinged, always nervous, and got angry whenever I asked questions. He couldn't stop repeating that he hated Kazakhstan now, and that he wanted to go back to China with the kids to give them a Chinese education, says Aikamal. They are now separated.
Missing loved ones in China’s camps
In March 2017, Miyessar Muhedamu, left, a Uyghur woman, was arrested in Xinjiang under the pretext that she had studied Arabic in Egypt when she was young. Her husband, Sadirzhan Ayupov, right, and her three children have not seen her since. Now that Miyessar has left the camp, Sadirzhan receives a short call every few months. He suspects she might have suffered abuse, yet Miyessar can’t speak freely. ‘She told me she’d been in a re-education camp, and that she’d been released. When I ask her what she went through there, she doesn’t answer,’ says Sadirzhan.
Life after fleeing China
Sent to a re-education camp in 2018 at the age of 64, Yerke* saw her health quickly deteriorate. Locked a tiny cell with dozens of other women, she almost lost the use of her legs due to the cold floor she had to lie on. She was in the camp when she learned of her son’s death: pressured by the Chinese authorities, he took his own life. After her release, Yerke fled to Kazakhstan with some family members, but two of her children remain in China. *Not her real name
Forced labour and confessions
Dina Nurdybay, 32, was arrested in Nilka county, Xinjiang, because her traditional Kazakh clothing business made her a separatist, according to the Chinese authorities. She spent 11 months between two re-education camps, a CCP school and a forced-labour sewing factory. After proving she was capable of being ‘well behaved’ and having performed a self-criticism in front of the whole village, Dina was released and managed to escape when she obtained a week’s leave to visit her ailing father in Kazakhstan.
Cultural genocide
China’s repression of ethnic minorities also involves cultural genocide. As Muslim rituals are forbidden in Xinjiang, people are trying to keep their traditions alive across borders. Here, a family is praying together in Kazakhstan after the death of one of their relatives in Xinjiang. They could not repatriate the body because the border between the two countries was closed at the time.
(continue reading)
a conversation with the older brother; rivne, ukraine.
24th of February 2022 should have been my usual day. No, not usual. A wonderful day. I should have been checked with a doctor, gave notice to teachers in high school of my absence, and then fly away on vacation, my parents wanted it so much.
On 23rd of February 2022 I felt happy. I had a secure, happy life, preparing to finals, hanging out with my friends, already having an offer from university.
Until 5AM 24.02.2022.
I had not a single class in my school since then.
I haven’t seen my friend group in 2 years.
I didn’t have my finals.
We did not have that vacation.
“Daughter, wake up. This old psychotic man attacked us. We are leaving.”
That was my first photo of the day, trying sarcastically keep myself normal. I remember that actual emptiness, reading my classmates texts about how their windows were shaking because of explosions, the sky was orange. They sent that video.
He called it “a special military operation”.
I collected random clothes, some hobby stuff just to keep my sanity, grabbed my pet, emptied my safety locker. I was scared that russians would intrude into our home and steal all my savings, so I throw away key to that lock. This key became my symbol of war, I have never found it even after return.
When I with my parents and pet got out of flat to car we heard for the very first time air raid siren. We would hear so many more of them, we would learn to differentiate them, but then we were confused.
It was my second photo. People were going away. Foot, cars, bicycles. I remember such a surreal picture. Some moms were carrying their toddlers, one woman was carrying a bucket of water with turtles, other people were carrying cages with parrots, with dogs, with cats, with exotic pets despite air raid siren, temperature, rain. Everyone was so confused and scared.
Few days later the road we were riding was occupied. Bridges destroyed. Factories burnt. Supermarkets demolished. Houses in ruins. Road in holes. On the side of the road burnt cars with “DO NOT TOUCH, POSSIBLY EXPLOSIVE”. That gut wrenching feeling seeing photos of dead bodies and recognising the place.
But back then it was still lively, not a road of death. I remember reading news then. First victims, first shelling. Invasion from East. Invasion from Kharkiv region. Invasion from Crimea. Invasion from Chernihiv. Invasion from Zhytomyr. And we were in Zhytomyr region at that moment. Explosions in Kyiv. The border was destroyed.
I felt nothing. Just emptiness.
This precious girl was keeping my head cool all the road. She was also scared and irritated, but she was so strong, such an amazing girl. I am so proud of her.
We were heading to my grandparents who lived closer to West Ukraine, so we would be safer. The road that takes usually just 4 hours but that time it took 13 hours. 13 hours of driving exhausted and nerved. We saw soldiers, trucks, jets, how barricades were built, signs were removed.
But we made it. We were lucky. Lucky to be alive, to have family alive and mostly close to West, further from russia. Even though, part of my extended family still was under occupation in Chernihiv region, suffering from such close border with belarus.
When we arrived, we were just silent. Then collected mattresses for shelter, asked grandpa to grab some patrol (we knew that they would definitely destroy reservoirs and literally next day the started doing that), and just fell asleep in something that we arrived in, being so scared.
That day I also cut ties with russian friend who I am shamed to admit having. He was proving me that this is just a military operation, no one would be harmed.
Then, arrived spring that I will never forget but at the same time never remember. I remember 10 people in one floor house. I remember the whistle of rocket that woke us up. I remember sirens. I remember news. I remember losing hope. I remember first photos after deoccupation of Kyiv region. I remember how forgotten friend of my dad suddenly called him saying that his city is fully destroyed, his neighbour right on his eyes was exploded attempting to get into the car and evacuate.
I remember my first mental breakdown. How I was crying in the darkness, but quietly so no one would notice.
We were able to return home three months later. But we are just lucky. Someone would never return. Someone is not even alive to see their home again. Someone’s home is forever destroyed.
I was lucky that I have secured my place at foreign university before war, but my whole family is still in Ukraine.
War is not over at all. 20% of Ukraine is occupied. So many displaced civilians, so many deaths. No one could even count, we do not have any access to bodies. Only way to identify is to deoccupy and find mass graves. No other means. Children are suffering from PTSD even in such a young age. Almost in every city, big or small, you would find graveyards covered in Ukrainian flag, grave of the soldier.
Maybe media does not talk that much of us, but it doesn’t mean that everything is alright. Avdiivka is destroyed, right now operation searching for people under debris of the civilian house after attack is undergoing.
And this is happening all the time.
Who was punished for Olenivka? Who was punished for destruction of Kakhovka Dam? Who was punished for all fully destroyed cities? Who was responsible for all that absolutely atrocious videos torturing Ukrainian soldiers?
Please, remember, Ukraine is still on fire. People are still dying. Soldiers cannot even counterattack because they do not have enough ammo, just for protection. Information war is also waging, sharing all that misinformation, Nazi narratives, russian propaganda.
Remember.
Help.
Share.
russia is a terrorist state.
Y’all I genuinely urge you to stay up to date with world politics.
In my country, Venezuela, elections have just been held and the blatant disrespect that the so called government have for their people is astonishing.
How can they claim that Nicolas Maduro, one of the most hated dictators of our time, won 51%/5+ million votes?
How is it possible that he won when the voting panels have been updating every hour how Edmundo Gonzalez (the opposing candidate) has been winning by TRIPLE the vote?
How is it possible that most of the 7.3 million Venezuelan immigrants can’t vote and have no say in what goes on the country that gave them life?
How is it possible that Venezuelans have to fear for their life in voting stations because the military are set there to prevent them from voting?
How is it possible that the pig that’s called president is currently celebrating his “well-earned” victory?
Countries like Chile and Peru are already making statements that they will not recognize the results given by the CNE (the Venezuelan electoral system)
FREAKING ELON MUSK IS MAKING TWEETS REGARDING THE SITUATION
I think it’s sickening how all people can do is talk about it and not do a single thing about it, especially because as a society we try to condemn any harm to human rights just like how we did Russia, who by the way, is one of the dictatorships biggest supporters.
VENEZUELA HAS BEEN FACING AN HUMANITARIAN CRISIS!!!!
People have been facing literal hell since the late 90s and people in power DO. NOT. CARE.
Educate yourself, educate others, and most importantly TALK ABOUT IT, because I’m certain we’re not the first or the last country to go through this.
This is as much as I’ll say.
I hope they all rot in hell.
🇻🇪
Source
Your daily reminder that RUSSIA IS A TERRORIST STATE.
The war is not over; Russia is still invading Ukraine. Ukrainian civilians are dying at the hands of russians every day, and our cities, civilian and critical infrastructure are getting destroyed.
If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.
I JUST WOKE UP AND THERE ARE LIKE 166 NOTES WHAT
ТІЛЬКИ РОЗПЛЮЩУЮ ОЧІ, А ТУТ 166 НОТАТОК(??) ЩО
🇵🇸🍉 Небосхил | 🇺🇦 | artist | укр/eng/pol | https://linktr.ee/neboskhyl
297 posts