ukrainian-rhapsody - Tumblr blog

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

“On February 24, when the war started, I got up at six in the morning, I watched the news and saw oh, the war has started. Well, I took my contract and tore it up. It was almost over for me at that time. I said, that’s enough, I’m moving on. I came to Ukraine,” explains the former Latvian serviceman.

By specialty, he is a sniper. For security reasons, he asks not to reveal more details about himself.

A nice, young, smiling guy. If it weren’t for the war and the conditions in which we are meeting, there would be no way to tell that he is a sniper.

When asked how many enemy soldiers he has shot, Red Fox answers: “Twenty-one so far. But those are the confirmed ones.”

In Ukraine, he is one of the most decorated Latvian soldiers but doesn’t want to talk about his awards because he doesn’t want it to look like he is bragging. Besides, the war isn’t over yet and many other people in Ukraine deserve decorations.

The Red Fox made his career in the military field purposefully. He was in the Jaunsardze, (Latvia’s youth cadet corps), then served in the military until the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, then arrived in Ukraine on February 25. He can name that moment to the minute.

“At 8:43 I crossed the border.”

Originally he headed straight to Mariupol to help a Ukrainian friend.

“In the beginning, my motivation was to save a friend. Then the second motivation was when I started to see what was happening to people – on and around the borders, in all kinds of homes.

Dead ordinary people, dead children, dead pensioners. My motivation was to help the Ukrainian people, that’s all(..)

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

Uzhhorod Haiku Competition

We are launching the first yearly Uzhhorod Haiku Competition, following the formula of the Vancouver Haiku Invitational

Uzhhorod is a city on the border with Slovakia, relatively safe to visit in comparison with many cities in Ukraine.

Along with many Japanese cities, Uzhhorod has a sakura tree festival in April, when the thousands of Uzhhorod sakura trees blossom in pink flowers.

We are adding the haiku competition to the sakura festival. As per the Vancouver Haiku Invitational, we accept haiku entrants from all the world, based on cherry blossom themes.

Winning haiku and honourable mentions will be featured in a book to be published.

More details coming shortly. We look forward to your participation.

Haiku by Ese

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

❕❗⚕⚠️☢🏴‍☠️

We have known since August chemical weapons are being used by the ruscists in some local combat situations. I am sure further gas masks will be further needed at some point.

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

I took off my helmet and washed my hair in vodka today. Someone called me and asked how I was. Me? Ask about Pasha who died throwing his bullet proof vest off to protect children with it. Ask the blind woman from Dnipro that I went to try to help get away. Blind. In terror. Tragedy comes in many ways. Children do not cry. I have not seen anything sadder than children that do not cry. Women, too, rarely cry. Only men cry. One day I will walk to the meadows high in the Carpathian mountains. One day we will meet there. The only thing I know is there are different kinds of blind.

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

Youth in Revolt (2009)

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Waiting..Waiting..Waiting

we wait for the tanks but the tanks won't come soldiers have lived in the mud and ice far too long the second crime of the century is to be found in Berlin after the first, in the Kremlin Ukrainians, dear Ukrainians will go down in history as abandoned aid deliberately delayed

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

Winter Where the Tsars Summered

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War

And then the war came. "What's it like?" she ŕasked. It's like anywhere, really, but with war added. Some things break; windows, walls, souls. Woman have been joining up, have died fighting. Men have died too, but every man is there because of the law of the land. Every single woman that is here as a soldier is a volunteer. Or was before she was killed. Let that sink in. And us foreign legionnaires, we too have women, Norwegian, and American, maybe Canadian too. If we are caught, they will kill us. When I say we, I omit to say if the women with us are caught, they are raped first, then killed. 

But you would not begin to believe how people talk about tragedy now, I tell her. She says nobody understands. Nobody. I know why. They are trying to rationalise it. You cannot rationalise during a war. Nothing. Every single thing is different. A conversation here between two woman, on the street, one selling berries, has the tone of two talking about the weather. Except the woman is talking about how many bullet holes she had. And how she was lucky she survived. Her friend chats about those gone. Bombed. Executed. Murdered. Nobody outside of this war could understand. It is how things are. And the disparity between those in the war, and outside grows. We too begin to unravel, and her wonderful, beautiful story fades from me. The beauty of her stomach to my lips, of her wit at the corner of her smile, her dreams, fantasies, nail polish and soft, velvety voice, has gone, as I struggle to find her adventurous soul among the hubris of war...and so she departs, another casualty of this already endless war.

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

Dust. That's the change. Mud to dust. Train windows that are open, blowing everything around, and blowing dust onto sandwiches and white shirts. Luckily, my shirt is not summer white, or starched anything. Still attracts the dust though. Every evening we shake the scarves or face masks, curse the hot sun, the hot wind, the hot seats. But secretly we love it. Our memories of the frostbitten spring are still precariously near, like an encounter with a prostitute who lifts your wallet, mobile, watch and soul as you strive to decline her wares, leaving you chilled to the bone. So when this is all over, ŕqI'm going to Africa, where dust is the colour of gold.

cracked vase by the roadside, emptied of dreams

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

Ruscist War Recruitment

Ruscists tried to recruit veterans of the French Foreign Legion to take part on the side of the terrorists in eastern Ukraine, offering up to EUR 10,000 per month, the Ukrinform news agency reported,  citing veterans of the legion.

Veterans of the French Foreign Legion were approached while representing private security firms at Eurosatory-2014, the international defense and security exhibition, held in Paris, June 16-20.

They promised to provide full equipment and weaponry and to be smuggled to the war zone. They also promised payment of EUR 10,000.

No veterans of the Foreign Legion are known to have accepted this offer.

The Ruscist Federation members tried primarily with veterans of the Foreign Legion who were of Slavic origin, including Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Moldovans and the former Yugoslav republics.

French intelligence suggested that in the case of the death in battle of former legionnaires in eastern Ukraine Ruscist TV could present them as individuals participating on the side of the Ukrainian army and as fighters in private foreign military units. In that case, the existing documents of the deceased individual would be used to accuse Ukraine.

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

There are hidden ways forward if you find them...

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And So It Was...

As monumental of a barbaric error as Putin's invasion of Ukraine was, he has still not grasped to what extent, probably because his very survival is determined by the direction it takes, and this in a country where defenestration is a maladie oligarchs often succumb to.

The invasion fed into his self-perception of all powerful Maoist figure. We have it on good authority — his, that he sees himself as the new Peter the Great, albeit one with a diffident grasp of history.

But Putin's nasty folly has been further compounded by his total rejection of overt efforts by France and Germany to come to some kind of arrangement early on that would stem the violence in lieu of some form of discussion. Stringing both these two countries along, massaging Macron's feelings of self-importance and Scholz's greed, eould have derailed Europe's decision to mostly line up against him.

In spurring any overtures, Putin showed that his country became the Ruscist State, with its dictator, rejecting even Orbàn's desperate need for attention and desire to see Hungary given some form of grandiose new birth. Orbàn would, of course, love to cock-a-snoop at the EU from under the shadow of Ruscim.

But Europe has shown it has, and will continue to have leaders bound into institutionalised thought patterns. Both Macron and Scholz see the EU as an organisation they have the reins of — almost disgracefully, and what does not fit into this well-layed out puzzle causes difficulties; a poor rationale. The first step should not be complicated, and should be just doing the right thing, not constantly pondering how this fits into the EU's agenda.

This makes it all the more important that Ukraine look eastward as well as West and make overtures to Kazakhstan, and seek to strike up a close relationship. This helps Kazakhstan too, which currently deals with the Ruscist state as an isolated country. Kazakhstan has made the first steps, sending generators to Ukraine, and refusing to consider any form of cooperation with the Ruscist State in this war. The population of Kazakhstan may not be large, at some 20 Million, but forcing a mutually supportive block with Ukraine will never be a military step.

However, both countries share much, including similar raw materials, industry and culture.

Ukrainian officials could accordingly do worse than organise a small summit between the two countries, in guide of any number of issues.

Any overt or covert threat to Kazakhstan would not be welcomed by China. It is fair to say this is a win-win move, for almost, but not quite, all parties concerned.

🇺🇦🎄🇰🇿

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

🐆🐆🐆

now that I got your attention with the cute Leopard emojis….

here’s a reminder that you should scream at your politicians to send heavy weapons to Ukraine (especially if you are German like me - go and shred Olaf to pieces!) and if you can then donate money to United24 and other Ukrainian charities. And for fuck’s sake, make sure the people around you are not looking away and forgetting. Too many people got used to things ~just being the way they are~ now. That’s unacceptable!!!

Russia is committing genocide right in front of our eyes and every day that we don’t give Ukraine what it needs to win this war is another day of Russian terror, rape and murder. Inaction equals collaboration with the fascist Russian regime. Doing nothing and postponing political decisions plays into the hands of Russia. And if you think I’m exaggerating then you are not educated enough on the issue and have to sit down and catch up on what you should have been doing for the past 11 months!

🇺🇦

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

A gate with graffiti reading “Welcome to hell” in a destroyed village that was previously the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region, on Monday, January 23, 2023. (Nicole Tung/The New York Times)

A woman crying over the bodies of her son and grandson moments after they were recovered from the rubble of the Russian attack on the Dnipro apartment building, Tuesday, January 17, 2023. (Lynsey Addario/The New York Times)

Ukrainian servicemen fire a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system towards Russian positions on a frontline near the town of Bakhmut, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, January 15, 2023. (REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

Olena Bubenko, 57, with her granddaughter, Nicole, 7, feeding dogs in the mostly abandoned village of Ruski Tyshky, north of Kharkiv, on Sunday, January 22, 2023. She now feeds about 90 dogs, more than half of them inherited when people fled the village during heavy fighting. (Lynsey Addario/The New York Times)

Oleh Valovyi, 50, recovering in the hospital, on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, after sustaining serious injuries in a Russian missile attack on his apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on January 14. (Lynsey Addario/The New York Times)

People gather in the subway station being used as a bomb shelter during a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, January 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Nadiia Yaroshenko, 38, desperately trying to locate her cat with a torch, that remains trapped in the damaged building on the edge to collapse in Dnipro, Ukraine, Tuesday, January 17, 2023. The white cat with blue and yellow eyes refused to go with the emergency service workers who tried to rescue him. The final death toll from a weekend Russian missile strike on an apartment building in southeastern Ukraine reached 45, officials said Tuesday, as the body of another child was pulled from the wreckage. The strike in the city of Dnipro was the war's deadliest attack since the spring on civilians at one location. (AP/Roman Hrytsyna)

Parents mourn at the a coffin of Oleksandr Grianyk of Azov regiment, who was killed on May 8 defending Mariupol from the Russian invaders, during the funeral ceremony in St. Michael Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, January 14, 2023. Grianyk's remains were identified recently. Azov emblem is on the coffin lid. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

​​Three people died, at least 7 were injured as a result of Russian night shelling of a critical infrastructure facility in the Zaporizhzhia region. In the morning, when the rescuers were conducting search operations, the Russians attacked this object again. Data on the victims are being clarified

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

Iced

innocuous it may be but trecherous for me for bound by stability I am not stagancy is for those who collect not disperse while in the wind is where my voice is found not frozen in ice cutting off the memories of sunnier times

[ukrainian-rhapsody]

Shinrin-yoku

The art of forestbathing; science for the soul, therapy in the breeze...