Do not agree with the lies and most importantly, do not be fooled Kit mailing list asked Ukrainians to write letters to Russians on the anniversary of the invasion Meduza publishes them

February 25, 2023 Post a Comment

February 24 marks exactly one year since the full-scale war unleashed by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine began The Kit mailing list asked Ukrainians to write letters to Russians about how their lives have changed this year, how they feel and what they want to say to the citizens of the country that attacked them.

And there were those who agreed to write these letters - when, it would seem, a dialogue between Russians and Ukrainians is impossible Read these letters and show your loved ones - especially if they support the war.

And at the very end you will find several links to help Ukrainians — to convert emotions into useful action The text was prepared by the Kit team — this is the media in the mailing list from the creators of Meduza.

Most of the texts which are issued by the editors, can only be read in the mailing list But some are published by Meduza (like this one).

“I won’t be able to return the time that my son grows up without me” Oleksandr, 50 years old, Kiev region, civil servant To the question “how are you?” You can answer, but those who have not experienced this will still not understand There are two levels here.

The most difficult thing is to accustom the brain to live in the realities of war The main problem is psychological.

Everything Is Broken Families Are Broken

All this year I live with a dog I haven't been able to clean my apartment since March.

The children's things are scattered They gathered quickly .

Then there were battles near Kiev They wanted to take in the ring.

Managed to take them out and returned Now I plan trips to the subway so that they coincide in time with the most probable time of missile attacks.

And the solution of domestic issues - with a schedule of power outages Even if you're not at the front War takes a part of everyone's life.

I can't get back the time my son is growing up without me Similarly, children without childhood.

I still live in February 24th Lots of pictures in my head.

Very bright: in an empty shoe store, a saleswoman looks through the window at a traffic jam from the city Thousands of people flee, and she came to work and calmly waits for buyers.

Outwardly, Kyiv lives normally - only in the dark Air raid sirens.

But this is all nonsense Inside is emptiness and hatred.

Peace will come regardless of the outcome of the war But we are satisfied only with the peace that will come after our victory.

The "peace" that the aggressor offers us - "surrender and we will stop killing you en masse" - is a death sentence with a deferred execution Now there is only one dream - for the Russian Federation to quickly lose any opportunity to threaten anyone.

If they asked me how, being a Russian, you can help us Ukrainians, I would say that you urgently need to start helping yourself Squeeze out imperial chauvinism.

You can start simple: accept that other peoples have their own history that you do not know No one should ask you permission to live in their own country.

And call events by their proper names, do not substitute concepts and do not allow it to be done If this is the theft of someone else's territory, then this is theft, and not "annexation"; an attack is an attack, not a "liberation".

And stop being afraid “Everyone is involved” Fedir Shandor, 47 years old, Uzhgorod, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor of Uzhgorod National University.

Serves in the defense not far from the Russian border My whole life is connected with teaching and science — I have been working at the Uzhgorod National University for 27 years I head the department of sociology and social work, I lecture on the philosophy of religion, sociology and psychology of mass behavior.

I also have a hobby - tourism, and since I also head the Transcarpathian Tourism Organization, I founded the Department of Tourism at the university I went to the defense on February 24th.

I spent three couples in the morning - and made a decision I went [to serve] because I knew: if Russia started a war with someone, it would be a new Armageddon - raped wives, murdered children, everything was destroyed.

Because, as history shows, after the arrival of Russians in villages and cities, nothing remains of them: the destroyed Caucasus, Afghanistan, Syria, Georgia I am not drafted, professors and associate professors are not yet called up for the army.

In addition, I have four children I was faced with a choice: flee abroad or try to defend myself and protect my family.

I chose the second - as you can see, there are millions of people like me I realized that I was right when Irpin, Borodyanka, Bucha happened.

I was there, I lived in the villages near the Donetsk region, as well as near the Kharkov region, which we liberated And I just don’t understand how you can treat yourself so barbarously to dig trenches in the Chernobyl zone or live in a nuclear power plant.

Even if you rape, cut the enemy, how is it to live in a radiation zone or steal toilets? This is an illogical enemy, an illogical war My mission is education and the development of science, so I continued to lecture during the war.

Our battalion is from the Transcarpathian region, the principle of conscription was territorial, so we met here, from Uzhgorod University Now there are several dozens of our students and teachers here.

All my combat experience before that was blockbuster films, so I came here as a soldier And since December, I have been a junior sergeant and commanded a company for three months - such is my career growth in the army.

For the first few months, I didn't tell the students where I was I just read all the subjects online - after the pandemic, everyone got used to this format.

Technically, it's simple - every platoon in my company has a Starlink and a generator that charges EcoFlow - big power banks I turned on Starlink, it even fits in a backpack, the main thing is that there is energy - and then there is a connection in the forest, and in the mountains, and on the roof of the car.

Once, during a lecture, two blows came to us - next to it, it began to thump heavily I went deeper into the trenches and asked the students to wait a bit, turned off my microphone.

They ask me: “Fedir Fedorovich, what is this?” I say: “Let's do this - finish the couples Do you want to see?" They wanted.

Showed them where I was Everyone was shocked and asked what I was doing there.

I say - I went to protect you, everything is fine My day used to start with the first couples.

If I didn’t travel for work, but I traveled a lot (I visited all five continents), then in the afternoon I usually engaged in public affairs - tourism, social projects, a student volunteer club Or sports: I took my son to hockey, played American football and rugby myself - I am the president of the American Football Federation of the Transcarpathian region, we are the champions of the Super League of Ukraine.

On weekends, my family and I constantly did something useful together, for example, we cleaned castles, mountain rivers, wooden churches from debris In 2021, the graves of World War I soldiers along the Carpathian Range were cleared with students.

My family participated in this together with me - both volunteering and loved ones are now very lacking for me Although I see them regularly: the phone and Starlink are an achievement of mankind, of course.

No cocked hat letters to you, just called and turned on the video They are all in Ukraine.

Now we are standing in the Kharkov region near the Russian-Ukrainian border The main thing that has changed is comfort.

Household elementary things: after all, a trench is not a house And I have changed.

There is no concept of "creative disorder" in the army The maximum that I allow myself to be creative now is lectures, and even then with the permission of the commanders.

You are on duty for four hours - then you rest (when you wash off after the trenches) Shower, shave.

While I was not a company commander, I served as a soldier in the infantry This means keeping the line that they showed you: dig a dugout, trenches, watch in the direction of the enemy, be on duty at night, and if something is incomprehensible, report by radio to the observation post - there the officers make decisions.

Now I am a company commander, and this, of course, is completely different - to draw up documents, keep a company count, draw up two hundredths, weapons .

Since I have long worked in the educational bureaucracy at the university, here all this comes easily to me.

Well, if a soldier, for example, falls ill, you go into the trench and watch for him Of course, it's scary.

It's normal to be afraid when artillery fires, and you're in a four-meter-deep hole And worrying is right.

When we were attacked by Russian drones, we understood that we were powerless in front of them - until the anti-drone gun appeared The main thing now is victory.

Peace will come faster than victory Because victory, unfortunately, will come only in one case - when the evil empire falls.

And the empire is huge, and the larger the corpse, the longer it will rot It's like the Roman Empire - it did not fall immediately, but died gradually.

Remember the attitude of Russians towards the Germans after the Second World War Fascist, Nazi and German - these were synonyms for three generations, 75 years.

I was ashamed to call myself a German The Germans were for everyone - the Holocaust, Auschwitz.

The Russians now are Irpen, Bucha, Borodyanka It will be a shame for a very long time, and it will be a shame to say that you are Russian.

I say this as a sociologist They will hide, distance themselves, like the Germans once did.

It is clear that this too shall pass The dialogue between us will someday be restored.

We live on planet Earth, we are not disappearing anywhere, the dialogue will definitely return, but not soon First, you will have to apologize, drop your weapons, and pay in full for what you have done.

It will take active repentance from generations of Russians I think that everyone should apologize - even those who support Ukraine, all one hundred percent [of Russians].

Someone rejoiced at the Colorado ribbons, someone simply did nothing Including journalists, teachers, writers, filmmakers.

Yeah, it's easier to run now and say that we are not involved in this Everyone is involved.

Many people also fled from Nazi Germany: to Argentina and Australia, but everyone was involved - they all created this demon together And now you need to step over your pride - and go through purgatory.

“Every day of war costs hundreds of lives” Dmytro Yasenev, 44, Kyiv, lead programmer at the Ukrainian computer game developer GSC Game World One of the creators of the games STALKER and STALKER 2 I doubted for a long time whether to respond to the Russian edition, given that my company refuses to give interviews to Russian media.

But in the end I decided that it could be important - and this opportunity should be used I am a cybernetician by training, just like my parents.

As a child, my father took me to work, where we played "Tanks" of the eighties, and he showed me the machines of the Kyiv Institute of Modeling Problems in Energy I became interested in game development back in the nineties - after all, if you write a program yourself, you can quickly go through the then popular Reversi.

Before the start of a full-scale war, I lived in Kyiv and worked as a lead programmer at GSC Game World He was engaged in artificial intelligence of characters and engine development - first in the Oblivion Lost project, and then in STALKER and STALKER 2 - the last two games are set in the Chernobyl zone.

There was a lot of work, but it captured In classical IT projects, I was often not interested enough: there were not enough challenges.

The war changed everything Already a few days before the invasion - after Putin's promises to show us what decommunization is - I realized that a war was coming, but refused to travel abroad.

To be honest, I didn't think that he [Putin] would go to Kyiv seemed like absolute madness Decided to sign up for the defense to be useful when it starts.

But didn't have time to complete it It was on the 24th that a medical certificate was supposed to be brought in, but in the early morning I woke up from the howl of a siren - I had never heard it before.

I read the news, called my friends and went to sign up for the defense They accepted already without any medical certificates, only according to the passport.

Once I had a military department at the university, I don’t remember anything from there That's all my experience at the beginning of the war.

I went in what I was: jeans, a jacket, a Stalker backpack I spent the night not at home, in the morning they gave me a weapon, a first aid kit, I called home and said goodbye just in case.

Sirens were constantly [howling] around, people were running around, fussing, explosions were heard in the distance - if I imagined the beginning of the third world, something like this would look like The first week was very hard, as little was ready.

And it's cold, the form - by the way, excellent - was given out only later At first I was wildly cold in jeans and a jacket, for the first five days I could not fall asleep - I was shaking from the cold, and this interfered with sleep.

Yes, and there were no sleeping bags, and the floor was icy, because the room had not been heated for a long time before Some kind of cardboard and foam lay on it.

Then they lived in the entrances of houses, and after a couple of weeks they went to the point of permanent deployment They were on duty at checkpoints - for four hours in turn.

I was constantly worried that wearing gloves would not be able to pull off the safety catch on the Kalashnikov assault rifle in time, although I bent it hard enough (one of our guys bent it so much that he broke it) I was in close proximity to Kyiv, which, of course, warmed me greatly.

The family managed to leave for Poland when the opportunity arose, but the parents stayed After some time, they began to let us go home for a few hours - I was able to wash and sleep normally.

And then we were disbanded and we went freelance again All this time I was trying to transfer to a place where I could be more useful.

Finally, I managed to do it, and now I am doing a job that is much closer to my specialty, closer to computers, to hardware Together with the team, we are developing a solution that, in my opinion, will strengthen our position on the battlefield.

Since February 2022, I have hardly worked on the game, only occasionally participating in working discussions and advising colleagues Despite this, the company pays me a full salary, I feel their support.

I have a lot of respect for the way GSC builds relationships with its staff in the Armed Forces and the Terodefense I constantly feel that they believe in us.

In December, GSC equipped the bunker and all necessary infrastructure Company employees and their families can live there in the event of power outages.

Since February 24, people I knew personally have died One of the developers of STALKER, Vladimir Yezhov, died near Bakhmut.

He was a good guy, calm, solid Semyon from the 72nd brigade died, unfortunately, I do not know his last name.

He told us a lot about MANPADS They can't be returned.

I have never been a pacifist I believe that evil should be punished, and good should win.

Russia is now on the side of evil The rhetoric of your officials repeats word for word the statements of Hitler, Himmler and other fascists.

“Ukraine must agree to the terms of the Russian Federation,” Peskov said The practice of imposing one's shortcomings on others is widely used.

The Nazis themselves, but they will call Ukrainians that Despite the fact that Ukraine did not invade the territory of other states, does not declare that the Ukrainian nation is the best, and others should be destroyed, we do not have any “Ukrainian world”.

But the "Russian world" exists "Russia's borders end nowhere" - these are the words of your president.

What is the "Russian world" can be clearly seen in comparison Remember Donetsk 2012: Euro 2012, one of the strongest football clubs in Europe, a beautiful stadium, a unique sculpture of an ever-rotating ball, clean beautiful streets, developed industry.

And Donetsk today: the football club has been in Kyiv for a long time, the stadium is abandoned, there are no competitions, the ball sculpture, like most enterprises, was “stolen” and taken to Russia But even this is not the complete picture.

Compare this city, which allegedly “was bombed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine for eight years,” and Mariupol, which was destroyed by Russian artillery and aircraft in just a couple of months Do you think that the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not have enough funds to turn Donetsk into ruins not only in eight years, but in a few months? It's just ours - it needs to be restored later, our citizens live there, to whom we pay pensions.

Everything is turned inside out for you: allegedly, it was the Ukrainians who destroyed Mariupol, although it was stormed by the Russian army You are told that the missiles you are firing at us are aimed exclusively at military installations - but this is not true! You don't have that many high-precision missiles, and the old Soviet missiles, with all their desire, cannot hit accurately - so the missile hits where it hits.

In the latest shelling of Kyiv, missiles of the S-300 and S-400 air defense systems are used - they are generally not designed to hit ground targets As soon as such a missile hits a residential building, your propagandists immediately write about the “merciless” air defense of Ukraine, which destroys its own houses.

Attacking civilian infrastructure with missiles and drones is terrorism Are you still surprised that Russia was recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism? You are told that Russia is “rescuing” someone in Ukraine, “fighting” for human rights.

And this is what your state leaders say, who have completely destroyed human rights in their own country - free media has been destroyed in Russia, there are no independent courts, and terrible things are happening in prisons Donbass and Crimea are the territory of the state of Ukraine.

South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria, now Crimea and Donbass - this is not the first time Russia has created bleeding wounds on the body of other states under the guise of "protecting the Russian-speaking population" and "supporting the peoples who striving for independence " At the same time, when Ichkeria was fighting for independence, Russia took the opposite position, calling it separatism.

Ukraine itself will decide which military alliances to enter and which states to be friends with Without you.

2014 began with the occupation of Crimea The attack on the police and SBU administration in Slavyansk was started by Igor Girkin, a citizen of the Russian Federation.

All weapons, tanks, artillery, ammunition - everything is from Russia, there was nothing there until you brought it there Donbass has never been an independent state.

Are you outraged that monuments to Russian cultural figures are being demolished in Ukraine? This is the reaction of Ukrainian society to the use of Russian culture for propaganda purposes It is better to abandon Russian culture than to live in the "Russian world".

At the moment, the choice is exactly this - and you put this question point-blank All Ukraine now dreams of only one thing - a complete and unconditional victory.

The return of all territories, joining NATO and the EU, building up capacities on the border with the Russian Federation to such an extent that there is no desire to look crookedly in our direction So that not a single rocket flies.

What will happen when you can change power is unknown, but so far so Remember Mark Zakharov's film "The House That Swift Built"? There is a wonderful episode where the guard is told about his previous lives, and in each of them he stands in the square and guards the prison.

And nothing changes from life to life - that is, from generation to generation And then the guard decides to change something and, at the cost of his life, releases street performers from prison.

Think About It Don't Repeat Your Own Mistakes

Something needs to change - and do it right now, every day of war is worth hundreds of lives Otherwise, your children will live in the new North Korea, in complete isolation from the outside world and still demand respect for themselves just because they have nuclear weapons.

But the main value of any state is not weapons and resources, but people “I believe that flowers will sprout in my soul” Natalia, 42, Kyiv, hostess of a food delivery service.

From the first days of the invasion, she rebuilt her business and for almost a year fed the Ukrainian military and the needy - the elderly and people with disabilities On February 24, the world became black and white and remains so I am not one of those who calls to "live in the moment", look for the good in everything and so on.

The world has become black and white, mostly black, trouble has piled up And trouble is with us every day.

All this time I have been in deep amazement - I did not think that I could be surprised for so many days in a row But the Russian Federation strikes me every day - a monstrous lie.

I still can’t understand how it is possible to lie so incredibly, I still sometimes run on the ceiling and shout: “How, how, how ?!” It got to the point that I involuntarily see lies everywhere, I don’t know how to learn to trust at least someone And is it worth it? I force myself to believe - people, notes, blogs, my eyes.

And it's not easy But now I take death lightly - my own death.

She stopped scaring me, I began to think in other categories: I am not the most valuable shot, so my death, if anything, will not become an irreparable loss And other people's deaths still hurt me severely.

Fear is always finite, if you put up with the worst, but pain can be endless Every day you come across another evidence of the war - and it hurts like the first day.

For example, in a group of Welsh Corgi owners, someone asks about a female Corgi breeder And you see the short answer: she died in Mariupol, and all her dogs too.

Or you write to the old supplier, and he answers: we are in occupation, we cannot work Or a colleague from a former job calls and asks to pray for our other colleague - she is a widow.

I know there are many publications that the proximity of death makes life brighter, but this is not about me Sometimes I remember my past life, what I did and what I didn't do.

Life goes on, but it is completely different For a year, I almost completely turned gray.

And in my wardrobe there was a bulletproof vest Lightweight, but can save from splinters.

Now I walk with two dogs instead of one: we took the youngest impulsively, she comes from a burned-out kennel near Gostomel Before going to work, I call the administrator to ask if there is electricity.

The kitchen (I have a small delivery service) works even without electricity - but I can’t, I need the Internet I do not walk in the evenings in the park with my girlfriend Dasha - the park is not lit, it is very dark, and Dasha is afraid.

Dasha's husband went to the front on February 25 last year and has not yet returned I always go with a flashlight.

Sometimes - with a walkie-talkie I am writing to my mother and sister: “We have a missile attack, communication can go down.

” Never had to write this before I do not plan business development, investments (I wrote this word and already laughed).

I don't know how much longer I can work I read a lot of obituaries - and I force myself not to flip through them.

I want to remember Every day I transfer money to strangers: a lot of young people were left without work and money, often they have children, old people, animals on their shoulders.

I no longer study Italian on Skype: it is difficult to reconcile with the instructor our electricity-connection availability schedules But I am learning Ukrainian.

Previously, it was not necessary, and there was not enough time Now I do it methodically and consciously.

Ukrainian is like Russian, just the other way around, that's what I noticed My husband and I don't go to visit friends in Irpen - their house burned down, the children and their mother are now in Australia.

Every day at home I stumble over a bottle of water - drinking and technical Russian missile attacks can leave us without electricity and water for a long time, we need to be prepared.

Now I buy everything I need in double or triple volume, otherwise I can’t Last March, I stood in line for bread (and bought it), and then for cottage cheese (didn’t buy it, it ran out), and now I have a deformity.

I don't drive At first it was difficult because of roadblocks, now because of broken traffic lights.

Can't read, can't watch movies can't concentrate I swear and curse incredibly much.

Now all dreams have disappeared, I don't want anything and don't know what to want, except for one But there is an allegory that I often think about.

A private arboretum "Dobropark" operates near Kiev Russian troops also visited it: as usual, they looted everything, burned outbuildings, children's carousels, ruined everything.

But the tulips in Dobropark still bloomed - they are planted in November, so the bulbs were already in the ground, and at the right time they came to life, drove out the leaves and arrows Fields of blooming tulips stretched out against the background of the black skeletons of buildings.

I believe that the same thing will happen to me: flowers will sprout in my soul, I will again live and dream of beauty But not now.

Not today Sometimes I think about the "other" side, about the people who live in Russia and do not want this war.

What can they do? Here I would like to recall Peter Mamonov, his quote "Save yourself - and it will be with you " The situation can no longer be corrected, everything that could help should have been done long before.

Now the main thing is to save a person in yourself, save yourself Think about the principles (I realized that these are not empty words; the principle of "freedom or death" turned out to be the cornerstone) and think about how you are willing to pay for your principles.

Think about what you are ready to do so that the black evil does not capture you And if you can, do it.

Not for us, for yourself You can help with money - find friends who will specifically help the front or those in need, find a fund.

If you can't, save yourself, take yourself away If you can't, sabotage what you don't want to do.

You can always think of something not to do You can always delay, forget, do it somehow, do it and not do it at the same time.

Do not agree with lies and, most importantly, do not deceive yourself And further.

Don't feel sorry for yourself, don't, it's counterproductive And we don't have to be sorry.

We don't need pity, we need empathy We know what we are fighting for and what we are dying for.

We are at war, not the end of the world It is very important to continue helping Ukraine and Ukrainians as actively as you can.

Here are some options If you are abroad and want to help Ukrainians move to a safe place, join the Rubikus project.

You can help with money, housing, transportation, or volunteering (fill out the form to do this) If you want to help pets that have come under shelling, transfer money to the Ukrainian non-profit project Zoopathrul.

If you are in Russia and want to help Ukrainians who were forced to find themselves on its territory, contact the charitable organization for helping refugees and migrants "Civic Assistance"* You can transfer money or bring things.

If you want to help people who are still in Ukraine, transfer money to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) He works in a war zone and provides clean water to local residents.

In the future, the ICRC plans to help rebuild infrastructure, provide hospitals with medicines and equipment, and families with food and hygiene products An important point: in the purpose of payment, you cannot specify a specific direction.