There were a few days during my conscious life which I remember and most probably never forget, most of them are similar to yours, like the 18th birthday party or the day when you met your love. Usually, the human brain tends to reinforce good memories and neglect those not-so-happy moments, but this year, February 24 has been started for me and approx 40 million other Ukrainians at 00:01 AM, and today, six months later, on August 24 it has not ended yet. This day started with a Russian attempt to invade the independent state of Ukraine.
The first few hours were so surrealistic, after I read the title of the news article “RUSSIA ATTACKED UKRAINE”, my first thought was that it was not possible, am I dreaming? What CAN and what SHOULD I do now? Almost immediately I called my family to ask if they are safe and 2 hours later my fiancee and myself were standing in a mall queue buying “everything which could be handy” and looking for a way to send it to Ukraine as quickly as we can. It was very chaotic, we didn’t know what to do, I guess no one knew at that time.
Few next days were almost sleepless and at some point, I was getting scared to read online news or listen to the radio in a car, because the situation was very unpredictable and russian occupants tried to land in Kyiv, every hour there was news about invaders attacks in big cities like Kharkiv, Chernihiv or Sumy. That internal anxiousness mixed with personal helplessness will stay for long years in my memory.
As time was passing two things became to be clear:
- Vladimir Putin’s plan is to completely destroy Ukraine as an independent state in a political, economical, military, and cultural sense.
- Ukraine will not surrender. With the support of close and distant friends – artists, politicians, athletes, and ordinary people over the world, Ukraine has been resisting unprovoked invasion.
This is true, that russia was preparing for this invasion for a long time, in a military sense, but what is more important – in a geopolitical sense, in a way, when many European economies became dependent on russian fossil fuel, which limited them to act more decisively. But now, everyone wants to get rid of and be distant from everything “russian”. Today, no one in Ukraine or the rest of the “west” (in a broad sense) world believe in the nonsense of russian propaganda about Neo-Nazism or defending russian language and minorities from infringement.
Every day Ukraine becomes stronger, because of the bravery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, because of the unity of the people inside the country, because of new friends far beyond the Ukrainian borders, because of support of the world, because Good Conquers Evil.
Last, but definitely not least – unfortunately, it is impossible to mention in this post everyone who is helping Ukraine on its way to defending democracy and basic human rights. Nevertheless, I’m so grateful to the people in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, and all other countries which opened their doors and hearts to refugees from Ukraine. Also, I want to thank the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and even Australia, who despite of geographical distance between our countries, helps us to protect ourselves and “west” values, by providing financial and military aid. We will not forget any penny of donating, yellow-blue lighted skyscraper, dedicated song, or even support Twitter post. Thank you for that!
Happy Independence Day!
Glory To Ukraine, Slava Ukraini! ??
P.S. Below you could find a few links if you would like to make donations to support Ukraine. Every penny matters! ❤️