Hi!
Clouds and sun decided to fight here. Perhaps this is why my head is heavy and needs pills. Sorry for starting the letter with complaints. I am fine; I just will be very slow today. Like that: s-l-o-w.
Do you think I might get a cold after yesterday's trip? I don't know. The battle of clouds and sun suits my headache better. But I was super strange yesterday wearing a summer T-shirt when others had all their autumn wardrobes on them.
Okay, enough with these complaints. I have some photos from the trip for you. I visited several places in Zhytomyr Oblast, which is actually not far from Kyiv. More will come in the collection letter Ukraine Beautiful, which I will send to the members next week. Aren't you a member yet? Please consider it. Regular support helps me talk about Ukraine and show its beauty and vulnerability. The membership options are here. Thank you if you have already joined 🫂.
Let's start with the key news, as usual. This 'key' is my choice, and I might miss something or not consider it important, but it was. I hope you read other resources as well.
Our boys were marvellous this week again. Ukrainian forces struck the oil depot Logistics Center in russia's Kursk Oblast overnight on July 30. On the night of July 31, they attacked a storage facility for weapons and military equipment near Kursk. And the Ukrainian forces reportedly struck four russian S-400 air defence missile launchers, an S-500 air defence system, and the russian Black Sea Fleet's submarine in occupied Crimea on August 2. Wow-wow. The next day, they attacked the Morozovsk airfield in Rostov Oblast, successfully hitting its ammunition depot and storing glide bombs, among other weapons.
Photo-gift for the hard work? 
Of course, russians attacked also. I want to mention the attack on July 31. Our air defence forces destroyed 89 drones in the early morning hours of Wednesday. It was a massive drone attack with Kyiv as the main target.
Since the air defence shot down all 89 drones that night, many experts I listened to linked this to the arrival of the F-16s. A recent article in The Economist discusses how much of a difference Ukraine’s new F-16s will make. The first ones have already arrived. President Zelenskyy confirmed the arrival today. He didn't specify the number, but it seems that it is better not to tell it publicly.
I wish we had more protected our cultural heritage. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine informed that in July, the total number of affected cultural heritage sites increased by 11 and now stands at 1,096. Repeated attacks on previously damaged cultural heritage sites occurred in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and new attacks occurred in Kharkiv, Kherson, and Sumy Oblasts.
The Monastery of Discalced Carmelites is in Berdychiv town (Zhytomyr oblast). I recommend it as one of the places to visit in Ukraine.
Okay, let's finish with the news. Today, I want to tell you about Plast, a Scout organization in Ukraine. You might wonder: hm, is it interesting?
I consider it is. In this part of the letter, I will use photos from the https://100krokiv.info/ and https://localhistory.org.ua/ The first website is devoted to Plast and tells its story from the beginning. But let me remind you of the story of scouting.
The emergence of scouting
It all started with The Boys' Brigade, an organization in England that was engaged in the physical training of young men under the guidance of officers. It had 50,000 members. Baden-Powell didn't like the lack of enthusiasm in the eyes of these boys and developed the concept of working in small groups called “scouting.” He was criticized for being too militarized. He did not force anyone to take up arms, but his students were prepared for it. Scouts volunteered en masse for their national armies in the First World War.
The beginning of scouting is considered 1907, when Baden-Powell formed the basic principles of scouting, later set out in his book Scouting for Boys (London, 1908), which is still a fundamental work for scouting.
The team of the First Plast Kuren in Lviv, 1921. Oleksandr Tysovsky is sitting in the centre.
How did scouting spread in Ukraine? The emergence of Plast
In the early 20th century, some cities in the russian-controlled part of Ukraine had proto-scouting, similar to the secret Ukrainian circles typical in the russian Empire.
In Galicia, which was under the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time, the scouting movement was founded by Poles. Later, three centres of Ukrainian Plast members emerged in Lviv, Przemysl, and Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk).
The official beginning date of Plast is April 12, 1912, the day of the first oath of the Plast group, which Oleksandr Tysovsky founded (you can see him in the photo above).
When the war broke out in 1914, many Plast members joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, a Ukrainian military unit within the Austrian army that operated on the front from 1914 to 1918. Their goal was the liberation and unification of the Ukrainian people, creating a single independent, united Ukrainian state.
1918, Plast revived its activities and expanded to Central and Eastern Ukraine.
Teacher Dmytro Ostapchuk with Plast members, Strabychovo, Transcarpathia, 1933-1935
The prohibition of Plast
In 1927, Plast's activities in Volyn, a territory northwest of modern Ukraine, were prohibited, and the organization went into hiding. In 1930, Plast was banned in Galicia, a historical region in western Ukraine. Again, the organization was forced to act illegally here. The Polish authorities punished any manifestation of Plast's work with arrests and exile to a concentration camp. This ban did not benefit the Polish authorities, as almost all activists immediately joined the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists).
In 1939, World War II broke out. Plast tried to resume its activities in Ukraine, but the German occupation authorities did not allow the existence of a Plast organization. The Plast members were forced to continue their illegal activities.
Plast members, 1930s.
How did Plast recover?
After World War II, Plast functioned only in emigration.
The political situation in the Soviet Union changed in the late 1980s. The government eased control over free speech and foreign contacts.
By 1990, there were Plast organizations in Lutsk, Kyiv, and Donetsk, but Plast developed its activities most widely in Lviv and the Lviv Oblast. On February 22, 1990, the Lviv City Council approved the Charter of the Plast Society.
Plast members. July 1990
What is it now?
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, there were about 12,000 Plast members. In 2022, there were about 10,000. Of course, the centres in the country's East suffered the most. But in Kyiv, before the invasion, there were 1,600 Plast members, now there are 1,700. New centres have appeared abroad.
The standard is that scouts should make up 1% of the country's population or 5-6% of young people. Scouting is now very popular in East Asia. Indonesia has already overtaken the United States in terms of numbers. In 2013, the centre of world scouting was moved from Geneva to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The website of Ukrainian Plast is here.
I finishedddd. Soon, it will take you days to read my weekly letters. I do my best not to write miles. Believe me. Okay, I love writing to you and sharing stories about Ukraine.
If you want to say 'thank you' (and don't want to join as a member; I understand, don't worry), you can buy me a warcoffee or write anything in reply. Oh my, I appreciate everything you put your time and energy on.
How is my head? It's better but still heavy.
Sincerely,
Yaroslava