≠ violetta ≠ @v-ioletta - Tumblr Blog

png-heaven

Ace of Hearts ceramic ashtray

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May you heal so deeply that you remember what it feels like to be excited about your future, your creativity, and your life.

habiba-mohab

"مهما حدث بيننا

‏لا أستطيع إنكار طمأنينتي معكِ

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The new package of sanctions against Russia is finally supposed to include a ban on entry for Russians who took part in the genocidal war against Ukraine. But several countries are already pushing back, arguing that it should only be a recommendation rather than a binding measure.

It's the fourth year of the full-scale invasion and the twelfth year of Russia's war against Ukraine as a whole. Thousands of statements saying – "We are deeply concerned". Thousands more saying – "We must stand united".

And yet, when it comes to allowing Russian soldiers into Europe, the deciding factor is the money they bring as tourists. Some countries are literally worried about losing tourism revenue, regardless of where that money comes from.

People were outraged when the Olympic Committee argued that sport should be a "second chance" for people, regardless of what they had done during the war.

But Europe is effectively doing the same thing through tourism.

So in Europe, it's entirely possible for a Ukrainian refugee — a mother with her child, for example — to run into the very person who killed her relatives, committed sexual violence against civilians, took part in torture, or committed other war crimes, simply because he came there for a vacation.

Just fucking imagine that.

v-ioletta

That’s fucking sick. What can one do to help? Is there anyone we can write to? I am in Asheville, North Carolina USA.. I’m a first Gen here with my twin sister. Papa is from Ukraine and mama is from a small city in Belarus which is now part of Poland after the fall of the Soviet Union…we grew up speaking Russian and it s our first language and we had to take ESL (English SecondLanguage) classes but we have a Ukrainian Pentecostal church that my Papa , Alex Ostapovich built with my uncles. Ukrainian heritage and culture was and is part of my everyday life and my identity. This war has been a dark cloud in my life and my family that has emigrated here grieve over it. What can we do to help? In any way?

folklorespring

Concerts in a salt mine. Soledar, Ukraine

folklorespring

Many months ago, after a very rough week of bombings I was going through local chats of my hometown where tired and scared people were arguing with each other out of pure exhaustion. Main question you could see them asking in different ways was «Is it going to be this bad forever now?». We’ve had bad bombings before, but not like this and definitely not like right now. Before we used to have 1 or 2 days of quiet in between; they usually happened at night and when they happened in daylight we would joke about our bombing routine being disrupted. But gradually it turned into every type of weapon the whole day every day with breaks lasting hours at maximum instead of days. Air raid used to mean something: you hear an air raid, danger, air raid is over when the danger is over (with the exceptions of very fast weapons like ballistic missiles that we’ve often heard exploding before an air raid could turn on). Now, when air raid is just never-ending, it doesn’t really matter, you can’t be alert the whole day.

And one message in those chats has stuck with me. Some guy said: «We’ve all seen what Russians did to Mariupol, Bakhmut, Huliaipole. Move as far as you can and forget this place like a nightmare».

Forget this place? I couldn’t get this message out of my mind and thought about it while looking at everything as if for the first time, trying on this perspective.

Flowers waiting for spring in front of every apartment building, residents plant them and tend the gardens on their own, just to have a pretty communal yard (explosion). My usual route to school and another one we used to take when we got bored of the main one. My best friend and I have never ran out of topics to discuss while going to the school and back. We stood near her house for so long when going home because we couldn’t stop talking (drone buzzing). This is where my friends and I tried to smoke cigarettes for the first time when we were teenagers and thought that adults are crazy for doing this by choice (drone going down). This is where I almost won an e-book in a quiz many years ago and I still remember the right answers I didn’t give because I was scared to make a mistake (explosion). Books my parents bought me when I was a kid and jokingly asked me not to read them so fast this time (bombs in the air). My childhood plushie I’ve had almost my entire life, can’t imagine it in a different bedroom, he’s a homebody and a proud local (explosion). Pizza place where my friends and I celebrated end of the school year. My dad burned his hand here with a hot plate on my birthday once. The food was good (artillery somewhere far away). Listening to music in the backseat and looking at my favorite view in the entire world. One turn and we’re home (all clear).

Forget this place? This is the only place worth remembering.