They killed intellectuals.

They killed queers.

They killed artists.

They killed Jews.

They killed priests.

They destroyed entire families on a whisper.

They claimed to be egalitarian yet no women ever made it to leadership positions within the government. All the top cabinet members were men. Hm. Weird. Plenty of TRAITORS were women and women were good enough to be trained as sexual traps for the enemy though. Hm. Weird.

They locked their people in the country and would not let them leave.

They did loyalty checks and if you failed you and your family would lose everything and there was no trial.

Yall can die mad about it and there was absolutely joy to be had in the USSR, but this stuff that happened.

Hi. I can't really answer this. I mean, I can try, but I'm not good at answering vague questions. I'm not well-spoken enough.

How come so many USAmericans worship Trump and see him as a savior of the poor when he's the exact opposite? How come far-right parties all across Europe gain more and more popularity, with people believing that fascists in power will resolve all their problems? Hell, we can take it a step further and ask how come people become anti-vaxxers and flat Earth believers? The answer is only one - propaganda. People fall under the harmful influence.

Russian propaganda has been extremely active in the southeast of Ukraine basically since we gained independence. Russia has been spending millions upon millions on brainwashing Ukrainians. The propaganda became more and more aggressive since the Orange Revolution. It was everywhere in the Donbas, you couldn't even wear a piece of orange clothing without risking being beaten up.

I was only a middle-schooler, but I remember it in detail. Propaganda materials such as leaflets were distributed everywhere. I remember one with Viktor Yushchenko (pro-European presidential candidate) against the background of the US flag and Uncle Sam who's saying, "Yushchenko is our pResident." I remember asking my mother what it meant, and she said it means that Yushchenko is a very bad person. This stuff was wild. And it only got wilder.

Russian propaganda claims over the years varied from the statement that "Donbas feeds the entire Ukraine" to "pro-European politicians and the US will make concentration camps in the Donbas for the Russian-speakers and will populate the territory with people from the West instead." I don't know how, but people believed in this purely artificial conflict. Not only were there never any persecutions against the Russian-speakers, but you would actually feel more comfortable speaking Russian in Ukraine. In most regions, the Ukrainian language was considered a "redneck" language and would get you nowhere. Of course, the Ukrainian government is also to blame for letting Russia control the narrative. But for most of these independent years, Ukraine was basically externally managed by Russia. During Yanukovych's presidency, we were like Belarus is now - a false "president" taking instructions straight from the Kremlin. So the brainwashing was getting worse and worse.

I told this story several times, and I'll tell it again. Before the "referendum" in Donetsk, most people laughed at the idea of the "republic." It was supported by some local lunatics, but mostly the whole thing was done by russian mercenaries and russian military. During this time, my aunt told me that those who support this are crazy and they're calling war into our homes. She was a reasonable person. She had a job, a nice apartment of her own, a happy family, and a bright future ahead. In 2015 they fled from Donetsk to russia, along with my grandmother. Why to russia? Propaganda. Then they got russian citizenship and used it to vote for putin. I asked how they could vote for him after what he did to them, after they lost it all. "We're thankful he gave us a home, gave us citizenship," was the answer. At first, he took everything from you, ruined your life, then let you restore a tiny bit of it - and you're grateful. I don't know how this works. It's not like they were welcomed in russia, they faced a lot of prejudice and oppression for being from Donetsk. To the point that my niece was bullied at school for being from the Donbas, not only by kids but by teachers, despite being an excellent student and graduating with honors. Russians are outraged that their state "rescues" and "helps" those Donbas khokhols instead of helping "true" russians.

In the second month of the full-scale invasion, my grandmother proposed that I move to them, to the moscow region of russia. "This is the country that is trying to kill us all, how can you ask me to move there?" "What difference does it make which country to live in? It's safe here." So along with pro-putin brainrot comes also apoliticalness, passivity.

It always happens in the middle of the night, to make sure everyone is exhausted. It is happening right now when I’m writing this.

First, russians launch a wave after wave of iranian-made Shahed drones. If the drones enter your region, you must wake up your kids and pets and go to a bomb shelter with them.

There are usually a few dozens of these drones launched. These days, Ukrainian air defence usually can strike down most of the drones (not all of them). However, even if the air defence works successfully, parts of the drones might fall on buildings and kill someone.

Second, you get a message: “xxx russian Tu-95 airplanes took off from the Olenya airport”. This usually happens around 11pm-12am.

I fucking hate this Olenya. I wish we could burn it down with the airplanes but some of our foreign partners either don’t provide us with weapons that could reach russia, or just forbid us from using their weapons on russian territory.

Third, if there are no drones in your region (for now), you might get a little bit of sleep. Meanwhile, the Tu-95 airplanes fly to the missile launching sites.

Fourth, the Tu-95s launch their missiles. This usually happens around 2:30-3:30 am. The drones are usually still flying around.

Fifth, the missiles enter Ukrainian airspace. This usually happens around 3:30-4:30 am. This is when Ukrainian air defence begins to shoot down the missiles - sometimes successfully, other times not because our air defence still needs more aid. At this time, you must go to a bomb shelter if you’re not there already.

This part of the attack might be happening for a few hours, depending on the number of missiles launched.

Around 5-6 am a russian Mig-31k airplane (or airplanes, if they feel like it) might take off somewhere in russia. This airplane carries cruise missiles which are hard to destroy with Ukrainian air defence. Sometimes it launches the missiles, sometimes it just flies around to annoy Ukrainians. When these airplanes are in the air, we always get a nation-wide air alert.

These huge attacks are usually over around 6-7 am. If you were in the shelter, you probably haven’t gotten any sleep, and you probably need to work/study right now. Coffee sales are usually up on such mornings.

When the huge nation-wide alert is over, it doesn’t mean the danger has fully passed.

For example, many communities in the Sumy region are getting shelled every day, with civilian casualties all the time. The region is bordering russia, so it can be shelled with artillery.

Almost every day explosions sound in places more or less close to the frontline or the border, such as Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro regions. There are casualties, and of course they are civilians.

And of course there is the Kharkiv region. The region is bordering russia, so it was never safe, getting bombed every other day.

If you’re following the news about russian-Ukrainian war closely, you might know about the new russian offensive in Kharkiv. They are actively trying to occupy parts of the region at the moment, so the whole region is in extra danger these days. russians being russians, they keep striking places with a big number of civilians, such as a hypermarket or a printing house.

There are also Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Parts of these two regions were occupied since 2014, some parts were occupied after 2022. The rest is pretty much a 24/7 battlefield. The air alert in Luhansk region hasn’t been turned off since 2022.

Now, if you’d like to support Ukraine:

- Come Back Alive foundation (military aid)

- Prytula foundation (military + humanitarian)

- Hospitalliers (medical aid)

- United24 (military + humanitarian aid, organised by our government)

Please donate here. Even $1 helps a lot!

Once upon a time, there was a Ukrainian writer of children's stories and poems Volodymyr Vakulenko.

When Russians occupied Izyum - the town he lived in - he hid his manuscripts under a cherry tree in his garden.

One day, Russians came in, took him, and killed him.

Once upon a time, there was a Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina. She came to Izyum after Ukrainian army liberated it and found Vakulenko's manuscripts and sent them to be published.

One day, when Victoria was showing foreign journalists around in a beautiful city of Kramatorsk, Russian missile flew in the café they were dining in and killed her.

Once upon a time, there was a Ukrainian book publishing agency Vivat. It was one of the biggest in the whole country. Vivat took Volodymyr's manuscripts from Victoria, worked diligently to compile them and published them.

One day, Russian missiles flew in the building, where Vivat publishing agency was, and destroyed it completely.

The End.

There's a reason why any post that compares us to Palestinians is never from Palestinians themselves but instead from ppl who proclaim themselves defenders of the innocent yet very easily turn their backs on us cos it's not "new" anymore even though our situation is getting worse day by day. And the reason is that people who actually know what it's like to live through unimaginable pain and sorrow on a nation wide scale would never think to discredit that pain in other people. Unlike someone whose worst struggle was a recent college exam and no chai latte in Starbucks.

Many things can be terrible at once. It is not necessary to downplay the years of suffering Ukrainians have undergone as a result of Russian aggression to prove you care about Palestinians.