Let me see your smile

But at the same time, you realize how huge the whole SYSTEM of genocide working against us is, that sometimes you can’t even keep in your head all the methods Russians use to get rid of you, to destroy you completely.

Meet the incinerator IN-50.1K — a mobile crematorium designed for the disposal of human remains.

“I have a quote by Lina Kostenko written on my helmet: ‘Where there is heroism, there is no final defeat.’ They banned it. They said it was a political slogan, that it was about war, that it wasn’t allowed. I translated it for them word for word — no, it’s a political slogan. These are simply motivational words for me, for my team, and for my country. Why not? ‘Not allowed, it’s political, it’s propaganda.’”

I’ll say something that might sound controversial, but this whole situation with the 2026 Olympics increasingly reminds me of how Ukrainians were treated during the Soviet Union, when any Ukrainian position was banned and there were always “reasons” given: it discriminates against others, it violates equality, it makes Russians uncomfortable — meaning, ahem, it’s chauvinism, it’s an expression of aggressive Ukrainian nationalism, and so on.

“Oleh’s story repeats the experience of Ukrainian freestyle skier Kateryna Kotsar, whose helmet was banned because of the inscription ‘Be brave like Ukrainian.’”

And while on one side there is pressure from the International Olympic Committee, on the other side additional organizations get involved — institutions where, much like in key Soviet structures, Ukrainians simply are not represented. Yet it isn’t difficult to understand who is represented there, and with what views toward us — and this time it is the International Skating Union (ISU).

“My career right now is okay, but the future… ISU doesn’t really favor us, in my opinion. Because we have no representatives in ISU. I don’t like that we don’t have anyone there at all. So we don’t have support, and they can do whatever they want with us. And I was made to understand that it would be better not to do this for the sake of my future career. No, this wasn’t the IOC — it was specifically the ISU who banned it.”

Ukrainian athletes are currently being treated like dissidents within a hostile system, where any position is seen as a protest. And so we see a similar dissident behavior from Ukrainians like quickly pinned notes with words written on their palms.

So I’m just waiting for the infamous words to be said:

“A Ukrainian has been condemned for Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism.”

Unfortunately, I can’t add more stories due to image limitations

The metro has also stopped due to the lack of power.

The temperatures in the nearest are forecasted to get as low as -25°Celsius.

As a result of the attack, a carriage and an electric locomotive caught fire. There were 291 passengers on board. Three people were killed, two were injured.

Reserve buses have been organized to evacuate passengers and those waiting for the return flight.

UPD: Four people are known to have died, and four more passengers are being searched for, President Zelenskyi said.

Came across this video, and it's a perfect illustration of what life in Ukraine actually looks like. Just because you see people living "normal" lives, going to restaurants or concerts, celebrating holidays, doesn't mean life here is "normal" in the way people elsewhere mean it. Our normal is different.

That's what ground my gears so much in 2022, when world leaders kept saying that russian aggression against Ukraine wouldn't be normalized. Such obvious bullshit. It already was. Anyone with half a brain could see how quickly it was becoming the new normal, and how it would eventually affect what's considered normal worldwide. But I'm not going to get into geopolitics, trump, china, WW3, or any of that. I'm sick of thinking about it.

A couple of days before the New Year, we were walking our dog in the evening when we saw an explosion in the sky - pretty close to us, but not close enough to be dangerous. Probably an enemy missile being intercepted, we figured. We stopped for a second and said something like: "Oh yeah, our country is at war. Today's been so great that we kinda forgot about it for a while - how silly."

"Have you had your windows duct-taped yet?" my friend asked me over the phone, on February 25, 2022, the second day of the russian full-scale invasion.

"???" I said.

She explained that we have to put the duct tape over the windows. It might prevent them from shattering due to the shock waves.

So my mom and I did that with all our windows. We put over them a large duct tape X, from corner to corner, with a horizontal line in the center.

Lots of people did that as well.

But as we took the walks with our dog across the neighbourhood in spring 2022, I started noticing lots of people were more inventive. And I started taking photos of the windows, thinking that, at some point, I would make an art project out of this.

So, here's the project, named "42 windows from Obolon neighbourhood in 2022."

The translation of the text on the video specifically goes like this:

Lots of people who were in Kyiv in spring 2022 will recognize this shape.

Maybe your window was also duct-taped like this.

But lots of people got more creative.

This is the project about them. The Obolon neighbourhood windows in 2022.

It took me three years and about three hours to make.

Because it took me a long while to conceptualize how I want to draw my main characters.

Finally, I was inspired by the traditional Asian calligraphy practices.

Its elements are supposed to be created in one stroke, with one breath.

And people taping over the windows obviously haven't put any thought into the aesthetics of it all.

So I drew 42 windows like this.

Meanwhile Ukraine has to shoot down HUNDREDS of them on a near-daily basis by its own.

PS: yes, you read that right.

Location: Bumfuck, Oklahoma

"Dying in WWIII wasn't on my 2025 bucketlist 💀🫣"

Location: Sydney, Australia

"Look at the strawberry varenyky I made"