Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima!

the swan-maiden and the swan-ships

Tonight (24.05.2026) russia attacked my city (Kyiv, Ukraine) with drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. It's not anything unusual, and lately we've been getting better at deflecting these attacks, but not tonight. Due to the lack of defense weaponry, my city suffered a lot of damage. The worst damaged area – my neighborhood, Lukyanivka.

My neighborhood is famous for several things, among them is the first McDonald's in my country, an old farmers' market and a fine mall right by the subway station. Almost all of these things got destroyed tonight by ballistic missiles:

The mall:

The market:

The station suffered minor damages, but the smoke and dust from the explosions got underground to the people using the station as a shelter. They had to be evacuated to the nearest station to prevent suffocation or poisoning. I've experienced this before, you really feel like the whole 80 meters of earth above your head are going to cave in at any moment.

By the sheer force of luck me and my family happened to be outside of the city. We heard the missiles passing by and exploding in Kyiv. The explosions were so loud, we heard them clearly even being 50+ kms away from the city!

If we were home during the attack, we would have gone to the neighboring underground parking lot. One of missiles fell right outside of our neighboring building, the one with the parking lot. It shattered glass in several buildings around it, the explosion wave hitting my building as well. Some of my neighbors lost their windows as well from the explosion wave.

I am devastated to say the least. It doesn't feel real to see your home gone. Everything I grew up with, places I frequented with the people no longer with us, they're gone. I know we'll rebuild, but I can't shake off the guilt for not being here for my home.

“He has dwelt in the West since the days of dawn, and I have dwelt with him years uncounted; for ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains, and together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat.”

rough concept and final design for Ecthelion of the Fountain, done in 2024

extensive ramblings from what I can remember of my thoughts under the cut: