Thread by @MelaniePodolyak

A painful thread about real horrors.

Retweet, if you’re Ukrainian.

If you’re not, it’s even more important that you share this thread. It’s crucial for understanding the Ukraine-Russia relationship.

Volodymyr Senyshyn was brutally murdered in Tula (Russia).

“Cause of death – skull fracture, stab wounds to the right temple, penetrating wounds of the face though the buccal area,” – Senyshyn’s wife, Natalya Kovalyova, said.

Senyshyn had been beaten to death. Several perpetrators attacked him on a well-lit street, with bystanders present.

They murdered him violently, right at the entrance to his home, and they took nothing. Except his life.

Citizen of Tula was murdered by Russians for one reason only: hatred of Ukrainians and everything Ukrainian.

Volodymyr Senyshyn was Ukrainian, and was building a Ukrainian community in Tula. He was killed in the end of December, 2006.

Not 2022, not 2014, but in 2006.

Volodymyr Senyshyn’s organization “Batkivska Strikha” (Father’s Roof) was basically a small room, where you could take some Ukrainian books to read or watch the game of Ukrainian national soccer team on the television.

His wife, Natalya Kovalyova, was a member of organization “Ukrainians in Russia”, and not long before Senyshyn’s murder, she was attacked as well. Also “unknown perpetrators”, also stole nothing.

Just attacked her and beat her until she dies. But after three days in the ICU she managed to survive.

Kovalyova-Senyshyn family, while understanding, what was happening, didn’t quit taking care Ukrainian community in Russia.
They didn’t stop being Ukrainians, and, of course, Russian Nazis had to punish them for it.

After the attack and a very difficult treatment, Kovalyova never left her apartment alone, and before taking her outside, her husband would go out on his own, turn on the heating in the car and look if everything was ok.

And it was in this very situation that he was attacked and murdered by Russian Ukrainophobes.

Did the Russian police investigate these attacks and murder, did they find perpetrators or punish them? Of course not.

Did the Russian police make any statements that these attacks were motivated by the hatred of Ukraine? No.

Did any Russian media write about the attack on the leader of the organization called “Ukrainians in Russia”? No.

Were there any materials about the murder of a Ukrainian by the Russian Nazis? No.

Did Western media write about it? No. Because where would they find out about it?

Did Ukrainians write about it? Yes.

Ukrainophobia is Russian reality. And this reality lasts not just during the last couple of months or years after the occupation of Donbass. This is the reality of last couple hundred years.

ONCE AGAIN: RUSSIAN REALITY = UKRAINOPHOBIA.
And if Western journalists, who have lived in Moscow for decades, still fail to see it, then I have some bad news: you’re not performing your main duty, which is SPEAKING THE TRUTH.
Because you didn’t speak the truth about Senyshyn.

You didn’t speak the truth about dozens, hundreds of other crimes. For decades you kept silent about Ukrainian libraries and cultural centers in Moscow being shut down, about the absence of basic access to Ukrainian language in the Russia’s education system.

You speak only of some made-up problems that Russians have in Ukraine. Russians that ended up in Ukraine because of their own invasive offensive – imperialist, colonial and militaristic. East of Ukraine is full of Russians that live there after the genocide of Ukrainians.

You have been protecting the rights of Russian colonizers, of murderers’ descendants, and of Ukrainian collaborators, whose psyche was raped by the russification, while forgetting the truth about purposeful annihilation of Ukraine and everything that is Ukrainian.

You only become active when Russia threatens you directly.

When you get scared, you notice Ukrainian nation, living in the hell of constant battle with the Empire of Evil.

But what happens when Putin withdraws his army, but keeps killing? Will you keep travelling to Moscow, loving Tostoy and ice skating on the graves of Ukranians?

You have already failed to save Volodymyr Senyshyn, and 15000 people in Ukrainian Donbass, already so abstract to you.
You couldn’t save millions of Ukrainians from the Holodomor in the 30ties. Maybe it wasn’t your job to save them, but at least you should remember. But you don’t

How many more victims do you need to start noticing the UKRAINOPHOBIA? To start noticing the RUSSIAN FASCISM?
How many Volodymyr Senyshyns do you need?
How many Ukrainian soldiers must die?
How many speakers of Ukrainian must die of famine?

How many Ukrainian artists need to be shot by Russians? How many composers hanged? How many attacks on Ukrainian activists must occur? How much blood do you need to start seeing the obvious? Wake up.

This thread was written by my friend @slavapolotence, who has allowed me to translate it and post it so people from abroad could read it.

Some important sources concerning the topic:

Open letter from Natalya Kovalyova:
kobza.com.ua/ukrajinci-v-ro…

An article about the repressions against Ukrainian activists in Russia (2021):
pravda.com.ua/columns/2021/0…