Hi!
I am writing to you from a cafe in my hometown. It is a bit grey outside, but still warm after the rain. I ordered a warcoffee and silence. Okay, as for the silence, I don't have to ask for it, as it is very quiet here this morning.
In today's letter, which you may have received earlier than usual, I will briefly describe the recent attack on our energy infrastructure and the possible outcome the russians want to get from such attacks, add some photos I took here in my hometown, and tell you something about the period in Ukraine's history you might not know.
Oh my, they have such pleasant music in here. I noticed that my fingers were dancing on the keyboard.
So, these dancing fingers will start typing the war.
On the night of May 31-June 1, russian forces launched a large-scale missile and drone attack, the most extensive in more than three weeks, damaging the country's power system. The strike damaged equipment at energy facilities in five oblasts across Ukraine.
Our air defences shot down 35 of the 53 missiles and 46 of the 47 attack drones launched by russians in the overnight attack.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, said that two of its thermal power plants were targeted in the attack, resulting in severe damage to the equipment.
We felt the results of this attack almost immediately. Power outages were announced across Ukraine. In my hometown, we were without power for six hours; my son texted me that they had a two-hour outage in the evening in Kyiv.
The mechanisms putin is using now are very similar to those used by Stalin during the 1932-1933 Holodomor (a famine that took the lives of millions of Ukrainians). The mechanisms are based on the ‘forgiveness’ of his conquered enemies on the condition that they or a part of the defeated group join the so-called ‘russian world’. In the final part of the Holodomor, the only way out for millions of Ukrainian peasants who were on the verge of death due to malnutrition was to take food from the hands of a murderer. The survivors had no choice but to accept the superiority of their oppressors.
And now, by attacking the energy system and seeking to destroy it, putin is probably waiting for the moment when people are again desperate and will come to the ‘saviour’ and accept his help, agreeing to all the conditions.
It is crucial to prevent the russians from achieving their goal of destroying the Ukrainian energy system. We also need to develop alternative energy sources as quickly as possible. Power outages affect people's lives and result in the economy coming to a standstill.
I also want to mention the support we felt and got this week.
Ukraine has signed several bilateral security agreements this week. You can read the conditions of them by clicking on the country:
Thank you!
I froze for a moment as the words of the song stroked right in my heart. The woman is singing about her mother and that she will soon come to visit her. After writing the letter to you, I will return home, hug my mom, and promise her that I will come back soon.
Oh, I will. I will. I hope I will.
A sip of warcoffee, a deep breath, and I am ready to continue.
In the historical/cultural part of the letter, I want to tell you about Western Ukraine's joining the USSR.
On September 17, 1939, the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Polish eastern border and occupied Western Ukraine, which was under Poland in those times. Stalin entrusted the occupation of the Western Ukrainian lands to the commander of the Ukrainian Front, Marshal Semen Tymoshenko, who, in his manifesto to the Ukrainian population, spoke of the liberation of the Ukrainian people of Western Ukraine from the oppression of Polish lords and the protection of the lives and property of its people. ‘A new life begins in this country without lords, without oppression and violence,’ the manifesto ended with these words.
You may have noticed that russians always talk about 'liberation' when they invade certain territories. Let's examine what this 'liberation' actually looked like during those times.
On October 22, 1939, elections to the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine were held to legitimise Soviet rule in the Western Ukrainian lands. On October 27, they adopted the Declaration ‘On Western Ukraine's Accession to the USSR and Reunification with the USSR’.
The establishment of Soviet power in Western Ukraine was carried out in the usual way for the Stalinist regime: through the use of repression.
In September-October 1939, former leaders of Western Ukrainian political, cultural, educational, economic, and other organisations were repressed (taken to prisons, killed, or deported to remote russian territories).
In 1940-1941, four waves of deportations took place. The first mass deportations took place in Lviv on the night of April 13-14, 1940.
In April 1940, the second wave of deportations swept through the families of the repressed. The homes of the deported families were transferred to local authorities.
In the early summer of 1941, 26 prisons in Western Ukraine were overcrowded. As of June 1941, they held about 73,000 people despite a total limit of just over 30,000.
With the outbreak of the German-Soviet war on June 22, 1941, the bolsheviks, retreating, hastily destroyed the traces of their crimes. A telegram with instructions from Beria himself came from moscow: to shoot everyone who was charged with counter-revolutionary activity, and most of them were.
One of the worst tragedies happened in Lviv, where, according to various estimates, between three and five thousand people were shot in four NKVD prisons. Raids began in the city itself, and anyone could be detained on the street and declared a spy or saboteur.
After the end of the Second World War, humanity was unable to present these atrocities of the moscow bolsheviks to an international tribunal because it was guided by the slogan: ‘The winners are not judged.’
I ordered the second cup of warcoffee. I will re-read the letter, edit the mistakes I notice, check all the links to see if they work properly, and take a long look at the window. Maybe I just want to remember the slow rhythm of the place where a part of my heart lives. It's always hard to leave it here.
Thank you for reading my letters and maybe even sharing them with others. Let's not let Ukraine be forgotten and destroyed completely.
Sincerely,
Yaroslava
