Ishtarmuz

Ways to support Ukraine 🇺🇦

More than 500,000 people have already left Ukraine due to the invasion by the Russian Federation. The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management estimates that roughly 18 million Ukrainians will be affected by the conflict in humanitarian terms, with 7 million internally displaced and 4 million seeking refuge elsewhere. To help those still in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian refugees, we’ve compiled this list of resources.

HelpUkraineWin.org has a collection of vetted and trusted resources, charities, and organizations to help Ukraine.

Some additional ways to donate:

Vostok SOS provides immediate evacuation support.

Malteser International provides essentials for Ukrainian refugees.

Ukraine Crisis Media Center provides fundraising links and a list of tips for sharing information.

Misinformation spreads fast on social media. It is more important than ever to share accurate, verifiable news and information. Here are some resources to learn how to identify misinformation:

This link from the nonprofit WITNESS shares tips for identifying authentic video sources (available in English, Spanish, Ukranian, Russian, and Arabic).

These visual verification tips, also from WITNESS, provide information on verifying images and videos (available in English and Spanish).

- my classmate's house got destroyed in the bombing and she had to spend 5 days in the underground shelter before she managed to escaped with her family.

- my best friend had to evacuate twice since 24th of February. Twice.

- my classmate and friend got stuck abroad with an abusive family. Also, many ukrainians have been hopelessly stuck with abusive family members in this war.

- many of my classmates experience all of this for the second time in their lives. They have been victims of the russian aggression in 2014 and now they have to live through this once again.

- my parents are still not in a safe and calm place. Hell, we're AWFULLY LUCKY TO BE IN A SAFE PLACE OURSELVES.

Now, about more global news that noone seems to talk about here:

— since 24th of February russian troops harmed more than 840 children in Ukraine.

— in Kyiv, on the day before our escape, russia bombed the television tower and THE MEMORIAL OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS. THIS IS THE MAIN HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL BECAUSE IN 1941 THERE WERE MURDERED MORE THAN 34000 JEWISH AND ROMANI PEOPLE, 752 PATIENTS OF THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL AND MANY OF THE UKRAINIAN RESISTANCE AND LITERATURE ICONS. Russia claims that we're the nazi ones but they bomb the memorials of the victims of nazism.

— We honor our dead heroes, while there were published documents of russian army, telling their troops to hide any names or passports of their soldiers. The dead ones will be buried together without names, burned on sight and destroyed to prevent leaking info about their losses in russia. They keep lying to their people while their dads, brothers, sons and lovers die here. Don't believe me? Here's the receipts:

— one of the captured russian bombers on a question "how are you able to murder innocent people by bombing civil houses?" answered that any place he bombs is just some coordinates for him. Not people, not children, not innocent civilians, just numbers he decides to wipe out.

— there were published documents that russian troops knew where they were going. The document says "people who agree to take part in war actions in foreign countries" (not "trainings" like they claim) and a list of signs from soldiers:

— my friends have been checking instagram for the accounts of russian soldiers. They found MANY MANY stories of the soldiers bragging how they were going to murder Ukrainians and using slurs against ukrainian people. They were taking pride in murdering civilians and the only thing that stopped them was death or being captured.

— AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW RUSSIAN CIVILIANS WHINE ABOUT THE SANCTIONS. It's the price they pay for their silence. You can "oh, they're scared of being arrested on the protests" but MY PEOPLE DIED IN PROTESTS IN 2014. MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE SHOT AND MAULED BY THE POLICE FOR OUR FREEDOM AND PRIDE. Our people are giving birth in bomb shelters (i think 8 kids were born there already) and fighting armies with bare hands. And you can't handle life without spotify and avocado toast. Stop being pussies and go act at least to get your spotify back, not talking about power over your own fates, lives, deaths, country and government. You're not looking brave while you're silent. Redeem yourself, act. For every dead civilian and warrior of ours, I have no kindness or sympathy to you.

Also, those who will blame me for not having sympathy to people, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE'RE GOING THROUGH. YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN THROUGH A WAR. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE. THERE IS NO SYMPATHY FOR THE MURDERERS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY. YOU CAN BE A PACIFIST FOR HOW LONG YOU WANT TO BUT WHILE YOU'RE STALLING, PEOPLE ARE BEING MURDERED.

— i don't think i have anything left to say. I feel numb. I feel tired and irritated. I feel angry.

bonus:

1) People of colour are generally not moved by their tears, and may even see those tears as a self-indulgent expression of white privilege. It is after all a great privilege to be able to express one’s emotion openly and to be confident that one is in a cultural context where one’s feelings will be understood.

2) Guilt is paralysing. It serves no purposes; it does no good. It is not a substitute for activism.