Hi!
Even yesterday, I thought:
- Ok. I will send the Public Letter next week.
And I was pretty sure that it would be like that. But this morning, while having my first #warcoffee, I wrote the key elements of the letter and told myself.
- Ok. I will send it today.
I thought about the short description of these Public Letters. At the moment, I have this version: letters about the war and culture in Ukraine.
Before we start, I want to express gratitude for the feedback on my test Public Letter. I listened, thought, and made some improvements.
And please resend the Public Letter to other people you want, also for those who are not on social media. You can quote any parts of these letters on the internet.
Now, let’s start.
Oops. Not yet. I was asked to describe the pictures in the letters. So this one I took today on the main street of Kyiv, Khreshchatyk. Also, I was asked to put the relevant pictures to highlight what I say, but I add pictures in my letters to give you a break from the words (to rest).
THE WAR IS HERE
In this part, I write what I have read about the war and found important to share. Please read other sources, too (I might miss something or don't go into details). I am not a journalist or war expert. Once again, trustworthy resources in English are here: Kyiv Independent, Ukrainska Pravda, Institute for the Study of War, General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Facebook), and National Resistance Center of Ukraine.
This week, russian forces started to attack more aggressively critical infrastructure with drones. Most attacks happened at night. Some data:
November 1: the Ukrainian Air Force destroyed 18 out of 20 drones that attacked a critical infrastructure;
November 2: a critical infrastructure facility was hit in the central part of Kherson;
November 3: 38 drones attacked Ukraine. Drones struck infrastructure facilities in Lviv and Odesa Oblasts.
November 5: this time russian missile hit an infrastructure site in Odesa Oblast, injuring 3 people.
The situation on the frontline is moving to the next stage: a ‘positional’ war, as our Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny stated in his interview on the Economist. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a joint press conference with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on November 4 that the current situation on the frontlines is not a stalemate even if time has passed and people are tired.
This picture was taken today on Khreshchatyk, too.
The situation on the temporarily occupied territories: where russian propaganda and humiliation of Ukrainian citizens are flourishing. You can read the National Resistance Center of Ukraine.
Some highlights from this week:
The growth of poverty in the temporarily occupied territories is due primarily to the lack of a logistical component, which makes it impossible to supply food products to local stores. The second point is unemployment and the blocking of transfers from Ukraine.
The russian occupying authorities have issued threats to fire people not holding russian citizenship from their jobs.
On November 4, there was a so-called ‘unity day’ in russia. The russians were conducting a series of events with a mass of pseudo-volunteer movements controlled by the Kremlin.
On our path to the EU: On November 4, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv. The purpose of her visit was to discuss Ukraine's accession path to the EU, financial and military support, and the 12th sanctions package.
The qualification assessment of judges resumes on November 13 (2,000 more judges have to pass it). Cleansing the judiciary is a necessary step in judicial reform.
Pay attention to this: North Korea is suspected of sending an unspecified number of short-range ballistic missiles, anti-tank missiles, and portable anti-air missiles to russia, in addition to rifles, rocket launchers, mortars, and shells. Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has reported that russia produces around several dozen Shahed drones on its territory every month.
I will finish this (a bit long) part with some good news. On November 4, Ukraine’s Air Force sunk one of the most advanced ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, a Kalibr cruise missile carrier.
The building on the Khreshchatyk.
And we are moving toward
WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR
Cultural heritage: Mykhailo Boychuk (1882-1937), a famous Ukrainian painter, was a representative of the Execetud Renaissance (a generation of Ukrainian poets, writers, and artists the Soviets killed in the 1930s). He was a founder of the Ukrainian monumentalism school - boychukism.
From 1908 to 1911, Mykhailo lived in Paris, where he founded his first school - Renovation Byzantine Studio. Later, he co-founded the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts and was a professor in Kyiv Art Insitute.
In the 1930s, the artist was accused of being too far from social realism, distorting Soviet reality, and that his Byzantine style was a religious opium. On November 25, 1936, Mykhailo Boychuk was arrested. He was charged as one of the leaders of a national fascist terrorist organization that supported Hitler's ideas and aimed to alienate Ukraine from the Soviet Union and create a Ukrainian national fascist state. Do these phrases remind you of anything? He was shot on July 13, 1937.
This page is from the gorgeous album of the works of Mykhailo Boychuk and his students.
We will never forget: United24 has a project called Stolen Art. It is a joint project with the Ukrainian brand Oliz. On the silk scarves are the works of artists whose masterpieces were destroyed or stolen by russians. The details can be found here.
A place for your future visits to Kyiv: Museum of Kyiv History. Instagram, Kyiv, 7 Bohdana Khmelytskoho Str.
Thank you for reading this long (not boring?) letter. Any thoughts on how to make these Public Letters more useful are always appreciated. Thank you!
And my final thought:
If we let Ukraine be forgotten, russia might win this war and ruin the democratic world. Please help me to make sure that people remember about Ukraine.
From Kyiv,
Yara (or Yaroslava)
