Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. August 28 - September 3, 2023.

August 28 - September 3, 2023. Days 550-557 of war.
This week I brought a whole bunch of new Ukrainian words to discuss with my parents - including some that are related to my last name. And parents told me about their weather, and latest worries, and all the conversations with family and friends. How the school year is starting for kids in Kharkiv, how there are classrooms now organized in the subway so that if there is an air raid kids would be safe. How nature is going wild and birds are making nests inside kitchen cupboards because windows were blown by bombardment (a story from one of the friends who went to check on his apartment).  

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. August 21-27, 2023.

August 21-27 2023. Days 543-549 of war.
Every once in a while I think that I should stop counting days here. After all this week we crossed 18 months since the russian full-scale invasion changed our world. 18 months is a lot of days to count. 

But then I think about these 18 months as a series of single days. I think about endless air raids. Bombs exploding not two streets over from the house where I grew up. People living in the subway. My parents not being able to go to a bomb shelter. I think about 18 months made out of days and days of artillery hitting the city where my parents, family, and friends were. Out of surviving through uncertainties and cruel realities of war. Out of discovering what horrors russian army brings with it. And then again. And again. Out of panic attacks. Exploding mines. Faces of people lost. Growing cemeteries. Daily minute of silence. Bombed power grid and reality of a winter during the war. Out of a long road to safety, to a new normal. And then again and again. Out of building a life as refugees. 

This all continues and this is why I will keep counting the days. 

This week my parents celebrated Ukraine's Independence Day as refugees in Europe, with cabbage soup and calls from family and friends from all around the world. I am grateful to all who defend Ukraine, to all who support Ukraine's independence, and to all who help us in this fight for freedom and the right to exist. Thank you to all who are not indifferent!

Nova Ukraine is a non-profit organization in the United States that does some important work of supporting real people in Ukraine, medical facilities, and animal shelters. You can help them by donating or sharing a word about work that they do. 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. August 15-20, 2023.

August 15-20 2023. Days 538-542 of war.
Horrible attacks on Chernihiv this week. More attacks in the Kharkiv region. How little we used to know about some of the parts of the country and how much we are learning during this horrible war. An intense conversation about which book I should read next in Ukrainian. Some wonderful encounters with dogs on the streets from both parts of the world. Some hard questions (what is victory?) and some very mundane - (where to get medicine, how to organize help). 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. August 7-14, 2023.

August 7-14 2023. Days 530-537 of war.

I will make a special post with sketches from my trip to see my parents - this week I am back to talking to them through the screens - for which we as a family are always grateful. 

We often talk about how contemporary technologies make wars today so different from even 20 years ago and on so many levels. Especially the level of information access. How we cherish the fact that we can send and receive a message from a friend or family member who is in the army within minutes. And how we get used to having an immediate response and then cannot justify a delay in an answer. How much we want to have updated information about the situation on the front and how much harder it is to have so much information and the strategies to handle the quantities, check the sources, and sometimes how to take a break - and what works as a break for different people.

This week's conversation touched on where cats and dogs are allowed in the park (and Dad's opinion about it:) And a story of a dress that Dad brought from Uzbekistan for my Mom many years ago and how pattern that Dad saw recently reminded him of that present. I hope to get to talk to him more about those visits to Uzbekistan (where one of his sisters lived most of her adult life).