#Russian and Ukrainian

[folklorespring]

If you want to support Ukrainians, DO NOT donate to Red Cross. Can't speak about their work in other countries, but they're useless in Ukraine. The only trustworthy international organisation I can think of is World Central Kitchen.

Donate to World Central Kitchen

And it's even better to donate directly to Ukrainian organisations. Here are a few good legit places:

hospitallers.life - "Hospitallers", Ukrainian paramedics on the frontlines

savelife.in.ua - "Come Back Alive", assistance to the army

prytulafoundation.org - "Prytula Foundation", assistance to the army, humanitarian causes

starenki.com.ua - "Starenki", helping elderly people

everybodycan.com.ua - "Everybody Can", helping disabled children, elders and hospitals

uanimals.org - "UAnimals", saving animals

[thyinum]

It's so wild to me to see under that Xiran Jay Zhao's post about the bombed ukrainian printing house comments like "I hope everyone is safe." And I get it, people are saying this out of kindness and pure consern, there's nothing wrong with it. It just shows how little coverage our war has abroad.

No, no one in Ukraine is safe. No one in that printing house was safe, in fact, 7 people died. No one in a huge hypermarket in Kharkiv on Saturday was safe, in fact, there were 18 killed and 48 injured. And all this happened in the span of only a few days.

No one is safe in territories occupied by russians because the whole family can get killed by refusing to give up their home to russian soldiers. And every time ukrainian army liberates some region, they find mass graves and torture chambers there.

No one is safe even far away from the front line and the border with russia, because missiles and drones fly all over Ukraine, and you never know when the next one will land on your house.

Hell, ukrainians aren't safe even abroad, because there's always a chance there will be some crazy russian or russian supporter who will decide to beat or kill us. And I'm not making this up.

I'm aware that I'm more safe than the people close to the front line and the border with russia or in occupied territories. I don't hear explosions every day, unlike my friend from Kharkiv. But that doesn't mean I'm completely safe. Missiles and drones fly by at least several times a week, especially at night, when I don't hear the sound of an air raid siren simply because I'm asleep. 

I am not safe.

My family is not safe.

My friends all over Ukraine are not safe.

We're not safe until russia is gone from our territories. That's why we need all that ammunition and aid. War won't magically stop if our allies stop sending us weapons; that's not how it works. We'll just be more unsafe, because russia won't stop unless it is forced to.

Here's ukrainian news sources you can follow that report daily:

United24: Instagram, YouTube, Twitter

Svidomi: Instagram, Twitter

WeAreUkraine: Instagram

[sidebee-hive]

I recommend reading the entire letter, but here are a couple excerpts:

[mj-thrush-gxn]

Oh my Talia- Я тебе кохаю

[vyvilha]

this is the art of nika kozhushko, an 18 year old ukranian artist from kharkiv. she was killed by russia yesterday.

[ed13d1]

a simple plea

photo by laura makabresku

[hussyknee]

Lmao.

[swamp-cats-den]

Will never forget how long the 2-metre walk from my bed to the window in the morning of 24.02.2022 felt as I was desperately trying to persuade myself that the booming, earth-shaking sound was just an unusually vicious thunder, and simultaneously thinking 'what if I pull the curtains open and there is no rain?' I pulled the curtains open, and there was no rain. No thunder clouds. Just the faces of neighbours also woken up by the missile explosions looking out of the window. That's when I understood that the war began.

Here's a reminder that Ukraine still needs donations badly to fight off the invasion.

United 24 and Come Back Alive are both verified charities that support the Ukrainian military. They offer various options, for example, collecting money for medical equipment, humanitarian demining and rebuilding Ukraine if someone doesn't feel comfortable donating towards weapons.

[anoonimthepoorchad]

You know, the story of that family in Lviv, who were hiding in the stairway of their building during the air raid... the father only survived because he went to get some water from their flat. While everyone else stayed in the place considered more safe than apartments, and got buried under debris when the stairway fell apart from the missile attack.

And I understand how far away and distant this story is for people living in safety. You can't imagine the sounds of the air defense and missiles exploding, because you haven't heard it before. But your heart really stops at this rumbling sound, it stops and then rushes so fucking hard, you want to run away anywhere safer. We hide in the hallways, because the closest shelter is not close, and you cannot get ready in time before the missiles are already around your city. Even if you prepare your clothes and wake up the second the air raid sirens go off.

When the explosions get loud and the house starts rumbling itself, I feel scared and I grab my dog's collar and think of getting down to the first floor by the stairway. They were hiding there. They were doing everything right. They were doing everything to ensure their safety. I would do the same! It's so uncanny you can't stop feeling nauseous. What am I going to do the next time there's a big air raid? Can I ensure safety for my family at all?

And the worst part, I fell asleep as soon as the missiles turned from my city towards Lviv tonight. I was so exhausted, I didn't wake up until the very morning. I didn't check the danger at all tonight, and if russians decided so, I could have woken up from the sound of explosions, or not wake up at all anymore. It's fucking real, it's here and it's just a pure destruction.

Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Kryviy Rih, Sumy, countless cities, towns, suburbian houses, villages, even cities as far from the frontline as Lviv, everywhere danger is to be expected. I'm lucky to have people protect me and my city, but fuck, one fucking stray missile or drone and there's no me anymore. I didn't think about this before like this. I was just distracting myself, like there's no me at all, and it wouldn't make a difference if... you know... but it is real, and as far as I feel like I exist, while writing this post on my phone during an air raid, I feel how real this danger is after all.

[unhonestlymirror]

[kamogryadeshi]

‼️Approximately 110 missiles were launched by Russia, most of them were shot down, - Zelenskyi

Maternity hospital, educational institutions, shopping center, high-rise buildings and private houses, commercial warehouse, parking lot. Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and our other cities.

Today, Russia was fighting with almost everything it has in its arsenal: "daggers" ("kyndzhaly"), S-300, cruise missiles, UAVs. Strategic bombers launched X-101/X-505. Approximately 110 missiles were fired, most of which were shot down.

Unfortunately, as a result of the shelling, there are dead and wounded.

[folklorespring]

Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine after russian missile attack.

[thyinum]

Please, when you see something written in Cyrillic, don't assume right away that it's russian. Russian is not the only language that uses Cyrillic. There are also Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Mongolian.

It's a sensitive topic especially for us Ukrainians because russian language is a weapon. It's a colonial language, it's presented like one and only true slavic language, it erases and replaces other languages. Belarusian is literally on the verge of extinction because of russian. Ukrainian has been banned 134 times throughout history, it is still called a "village language", a dialect of russian. Russian colonialism is literally the reason why there are so many russian speaking people in Ukraine (I was one of them btw). Ukrainian is banned on russian occupied territories and people are getting in trouble or even killed for using it there, Ukrainian POWs in russian captivity are getting brutally beaten for speaking Ukrainian.

Like okay, I can get why there's this confusion, so here's a clue to understand that the language you're looking at definitely is not russian — the letter і. If you see ї (like i but with two dots) it's 100% Ukrainian. If you see j it's Serbian. Russian alphabet also doesn't have such letters as Ђ, Љ, Њ, Ў, Џ (dont confuse with Ц ). Yes, it's not always gonna be easy to detect that the language in front of you is not russian, but when you have trouble with it just ask or run it through any translation app and it'll probably tell you the language.

Hope this will be helpful.

[helpukrainenow]

Help demine Ukraine with a small donation of $5

About 156,000 km² of Ukraine needs to be demined. This is an area the size of Belgium, Denmark and the Czech Republic combined!  Help #DemineUkraine for a small monthly donation of only $5.

This is how to do it:

Go to https://u24.gov.ua

Then, click the "Donate now" button.

Then, go to "Humanitarian demining".

Then, click "Credit Card or PayPal".

Change the option to "Monthly".

Enter the amount you want to donate.

Proceed with the payment.

Make the lives of Ukrainians more safer.

More than 1,000 people have died in Ukraine since the war began due to mine explosions. Approximately 12% of verified mine casualties were children. This is not counting the scores of people who have had their limbs amputated or have been maimed due to mines. Estimates suggest that at least 15,000 people have lost their limbs, with numbers continuing to grow. More than ten million people in Ukraine live in areas in need of mine action assistance. If each of us donates $5 monthly, Ukraine would be much safer.

Slava Ukraini

[nereidaa]

DO NOT SCROLL!

this morning, russians bombed Ukraine again. this is Children's Hospital Okhmadyt in Kyiv, and it's the largest children's hospital in Ukraine. there are dead and injured, the exact number is currently unknown. under the rubble there are people, it is possible that there are also children.

the blow to Okhmadyt fell on the building where children received blood purification for kidney failure: intensive care, operating, and oncology departments were damaged. some children could not physically go down to the shelter due to their health.

you can donate to the Foundation Okhmadyt, or donate to the Fund to help children with cancer Tabletochki.

PLEASE SHARE AND NOT FORGET ABOUT UKRAINE

[vyvilha]

today is the birthday of ukrainian visual artist lyubov panchenko. she would be 86 today but she died in april 2022 after suffering prolonged starvation during russian occupation of bucha