Hi!
It is so hot outside. Summer is having its crazy dance. I sit in a well-conditioned room and count the minutes until the next power outage. Soon, it will be hot inside as well.
Yesterday, I read that the CEO of DTEK (Ukraine’s largest private energy company) said:
- russian forces attacked DTEK thermal power plants more than 180 times. As a result, 90% of the company's capacity has been lost. According to preliminary estimates, the losses have already reached €350 million.
We were 'mildly' warned that the situation would be worse.
Oh my, let's talk something good. I have some good news from here. But before we start our walk over the past week, I will mention the origins of the photos in the letter. Yesterday, I visited an exhibition of textile works by Ukrainian artist Anastasia Podervianska, 'Needlework'. Her Instagram. She is a fantastic artist.
I promised some good news, and I will try to be short as my letters are getting longer 🙈.
The EU and Ukraine officially started membership negotiations.
Ukraine signed a security agreement with the European Union. The text of it can be found here.
According to the russian media, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used HIMARS systems on the russian Kursk Oblast twice this week. The first one destroyed an FSB building, and the second one hit a disused local school that housed russian soldiers.
Also, this week, a drone attacked an oil depot in russia’s Tambov Oblast, causing a fire.
One of the Ukrainian podcasts I listened to this week mentioned that Ukraine began to take offensive, not only defensive, actions in Kharkiv Oblast. Let's see.
We need a photo.
The good news is over. It is time for bad ones.
A warehouse belonging to the supermarket chain was destroyed in a russian attack on the city of Odesa on June 24. The supermarket chain’s founder said that weapons, missiles, or ammunition have never been stored in the warehouse.
Overnight on June 27, russians launched a missile and drone attack on Ukrainian critical infrastructure. Our air defence shot down all 23 attack drones and five of the six missiles.
russian forces carried out an attack on the city of Kharkiv on the afternoon of June 27, hitting houses and damaging student dorms of a local higher education institution.
On June 28, the russian army launched a missile strike on a nine-storey building in the city of Dnipro; one person was killed and 12 more injured.
The next day, it fired missiles at Vilniansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The attack took the lives of seven people, including three children. A total of 31 people were injured.
And today, before starting to write the letter, I had read that The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution recognising russia's actions as genocide of the Ukrainian people. I don't know how it will stop russia from continuing to kill us, but anyway, such actions mean strong support from the sane world.
As usual, I should stop and jump into our history/cultural part. On June 28, we celebrated Constitution Day. It was adopted and ratified at the 5th session of the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine, on that date in 1996. But it was not the first Constituion here. I will tell you a bit of a long (sorry) story to give you more understanding of Ukraine. Context is a king of truth.
The last Ukrainian Hetman who aimed to unite the two parts of Ukraine was Ivan Mazepa (1639-1709). At that time, the Left Bank Ukraine was controlled by the Tsardom of russia, and the Right Bank Ukraine was under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
At first, Ivan Mazepa had a good relationship with tsar Peter I of russia. However, their alliance ended in the autumn of 1708 during the Great Northern War (1700-1721) between the coalitions of russia and Sweden. Sweden appeared to have a significant advantage at the start of the war. After defeating the King of Poland, Augustus II the Strong, Charles XII, the King of Sweden, aimed to capture moscow.
The Cossack elite has long complained that Peter I used Cossacks outside the Hetmanate (it is a historical term for the 17th-18th centuries Ukrainian Cossack state), such as by digging channels around St. Petersburg, the future capital of the russian empire. The Cossacks suffered from cold and diseases in this area. Additionally, the new taxes and reforms instituted by the moscow tsar put the Hetmanate at risk of becoming just a province of the Tsardom of russia. All of these actions violated the protectorate agreement concluded by Bohdan Khmelnytsky with moscow.
So, after the King of Sweden decided to enter Ukraine on his way to moscow, and Peter I refused to provide any military assistance, Ivan Mazepa joined Sweden's side. In November 1708, he left the Hetmanate capital, Baturyn, with a group of trusted people and joined Charles XII's offensive army.
When the moscow tsar learned about what Ivan Mazepa did, he sent the military division to Ukraine. It captured Baturyn and killed 10,000 of its inhabitants.
Unfortunately, not everyone among the Cossacks and peasants supported Mazepa. The reasons included fear of punishment for what was considered Mazepa's betrayal and preference for an Orthodox tsar over a Catholic king or, in the case of Charles XII, a Protestant one.
At the beginning of July 1708, the 25,000-strong Swedish army clashed with the moscow military, which had twice as many soldiers, near the Ukrainian city of Poltava. moscow army won. Charles XII and Ivan Mazepa escaped to Moldova. Mazepa died the following year in the small town of Bendery.
Historians often consider the Battle of Poltava a crucial moment in the Great Northern War. By a strange coincidence, the control of the Baltics was decided in the battle on Ukrainian land. This battle undermined Sweden's leading role in Northern Europe and marked the rise of russia as a powerful state. russia won the Great Northern War in 1721, and that year, Peter I changed the Tsardom of russia into the russian empire and became an emperor.
Okay, where is the Ukrainian Constitution here?
After the death of Ivan Mazepa, cossack emigrants chose a new Ukrainian hetman in Moldova. It was Pylyp Orlyk. The signing of relevant agreements accompanied the election of the hetman. This agreement became the 'Pacts and Constitution of the Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Army'. The Pacts are known in Ukraine as the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk and are often considered the first Constitution of Ukraine. The document tried to limit the hetman's power and guarantee the rights of Cossack officers and ordinary Cossacks. It was about a sovereign Ukrainian republic that still kept the protectorate of the Swedish King.
Until recently, the document was known only in abridged copies published in Latin and old Ukrainian. The existence of it was often questioned. However, in 2008, Ukrainian historians found the original version of the Consitution in moscow (it is not strange at all, yeah?).
I tried cramming so much history into such a tiny passage. It wasn't easy, believe me. I hope it was helpful for you and that you might be interested in learning more about that significant time. If you notice any inconsistencies in my writing, please let me know. I am not a professor, but I try to be accurate.
Before I let you go to live your life, I want to mention briefly that I will use all the warcoffees I get these days to buy that little guy (EcoFlow - portable power station) who can bring some light into my home and turn the refrigerator from a decorative vase into something useful. So, a warcoffee is on a mission today. You may buy one here if you want.
Thank you for reading, supporting and maybe even sharing these letters.
Sincerely from Kyiv,
Yaroslava
P.S. After I came home, I read that one person was killed and nine others, including a baby, were injured by guided aerial bombs in Kharkiv. A fire broke out in a civilian non-residential building, destroying a post office and seven trucks.
Also, later, missile debris damaged a residential building in Kyiv... We are fine here.