The last few nights in Kyiv have been so quiet that it's making some of us anxious. Due to the curfew, there's an eerie silence outside— at least in the city center. Usually, you sleep well until you wake up to the air raid siren, or to explosions, and start checking what’s coming —drones or missiles. But even though there's no air raid, you get so used to it that you wake up and anxiously scroll through the airspace monitoring channel to see what’s wrong.

One can only imagine what this girl has been through. Today, along with 74 other Ukrainians, 22y.o. Maryana Chechelyuk, a policewoman from Mariupol, returned to Ukraine from Russian captivity. She's been held as a prisoner for over 2 years. Maryana and her 15-year-old sister Alina were taken by the Russians during the evacuation from occupied Mariupol to Ukrainian-controlled territory, despite guarantees from the UN and the Red Cross. The Russians took the girls to the so-called DPR but separated them.

This is Natalia from Mariupol - before and after Russia bombed her city in 2022. Russians destoryed her home, business, health, turning her beautiful and active life into hell. Natalia miraculously survived but only two years after, she says, she wants to live again. 🧵

I met Natalia in Kyiv for a story (hopefully, it will come out soon, and you'll read it in full). For now, I'm posting this in case anyone would like to support this incredibly strong woman who's gone through so much pain that it is hard to grasp.

Some days it's just too much to handle. A simple question, a wounded soldier asking you for a direction, or just a song triggers you - and all the accumulated pain, the unbearable difficulty of everything the world sees in the news, breaks out. And you can only be understood here Last week, I visited my Polish relatives whom I haven't seen for ages because they live near the German border where I usually don't go. Unexpectedly, I still felt like we were from different worlds. At some point, I even had to explain why we, Ukrainians, have to keep fighting

Zelensky told @BILD that he's shocked by @UN’s and @ICRC’s lack of response to the consequences of the Kakhovka dam breach. “They are not here! Although the disaster happened many hours ago, they are not there.The UN and the Red Cross must be the first to be there to save lives” Zelenskyy is deeply disappointed with the reaction of @UN and @ICRC to inquiries from Ukraine: "We have not received an answer. I'm shocked." And if there was a reaction, it was "very diplomatic", - @BILD reported.

💔 Irpin, Kyiv Oblast. Posted in March by Alex Dayrabekov:
"This is my neighbor's car in the residential complex. Misha's car. They were refugees from Donetsk. He parked this car near mine a year ago. The car is still here. There is no driver. It has been a year already. On March 6, 2022, Misha put this sheet with the word "CHILDREN" on the windshield. He wanted to evacuate his family. A convoy of 12 cars set off for Kyiv through Stoyanka. This convoy was attacked and shot at by the assault units of the Russo-fascists.

Zelensky's private audience with Pope Francis is surely a big event. The only problem is both have a completely different vision and understanding of how to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Well, maybe it's not the only problem. Last year, frustrated with Pope's statements and reluctance to call Russia an aggressor, I and @josephaim18 wrote an article for La Stampa, explaining the Vatican's policy of neutrality and why it should change. It's still relevant - English version here ukraineworld.org/articles/opini…

My Portuguese friend told me that the dean of Coimbra University, where I wrote my diploma thesis, dismissed the Director of Centre for Russian studies, Vladimir Pliassov. He was accused of spreading propaganda among his students, "far from lessons on literature and culture" Unsurprisingly, the guy was sharing propaganda videos and even letters from Russian-occupied "south of Donetsk Oblast" (probably, Mariupol) with his students, as well as the fascist st. George ribbon. To top it all off, he was the President of "Russkiy Mir Foundation" in Portugal

Too many Ukrainians living in Germany write about this German obsession with 'peace building' during the war and 'neutrality' towards Ukraine and Russia. It looks like there're two extremes in this naive and dangerous thinking 🧵 The first thing you can often read from Ukrainians in the cultural sector is that they are often put with Russians as equals, on the same stage in public discussions and events.

Some confront me that attacks on critical infrastructure is not genocide. Somehow they don’t want to remember that Russians have also raped, tortured, killed and deported Ukrainians based on our identity wherever they could reach. But hitting civilian infrastructure is just one of the methods of genocide. It’s a desperate measure to erase those whom Russians cannot reach directly. If you can’t comprehend the scale of impact on 🇺🇦 people, esp. in cities, watch any Russian TV show on the topic, they’re vocal

I’m losing motivation to tweet anything. Idk if it’s fall, stupid algorithms or me being tired of explaining things over and over when we see increasing complaints about Ukraine (for some reason not Russia) making their comfortable life less easy Kyiv, the heart of Europe, is in danger of humanitarian disaster (or already is). For millions of people electricity, heat and water is a blessing from the sky now. We don’t deserve this. Instead, we see accusations and we need to persuade the world that we’re indeed suffering

Someone from Mariupol found out that an unknown woman with a child illegally moved into his appartement. Like she got «a permission » from local thugs/ Russian occupiers.

«Someone’s living in my place, too, » - several people commented his post. Some are trying to ask their pre-war acquaintances in Mariupol to change a locker and leave their phone number at the doorstep. But what can be done when there’s no rule of law under RU occupation?
Most of them are just patiently waiting for the liberation of Mariupol

Enerhodar. For their pro-Ukrainian views, civilians "are beaten in the kidneys, taken to the forest, tied to a tree, forced to dig a grave," held captive in cells for 2 or 3 months, "they aren't allowed to sleep, they're given electric shocks, with a bag on their heads for days." *cellars. This is a testimony from a reportage story on life in Enerhodar by @the_ukrainians. "More than 300 employees of the nuclear plant have survived the basement"

OMG, Pope Francis hit the bottom with the Kremlin’s rhetoric again… Dugina is «an innocent victim of war, » he says. Can it get worse? To understand what’s wrong with the Pope regarding Russia and Ukraine, read our article for La Stampa, published in English here - with @josephaimroche ukraineworld.org/articles/opini…

Today is Ukraine's Independence Day 🇺🇦 Key abstracts from Zelensky's speech👇 "The Ukrainian people and their courage inspired the whole world. They gave humanity a new hope that justice has not completely left our cynical world. And it is still not force but truth that wins. Not money, but values. Not oil, but people. (Zelensky)

My friend just texted that her acquaintance, who lives in Lviv, went to visit her parents in Vinnytsia, together with her kid. She took her son to make some blood tests in one of central clinics... and it turned out the one that Russians later hit it with a precise missile. The young woman is under rubble, her little son was taken to hospital in severe condition, with numerous injuries. In the city centre, far away from the frontline, where many IDPs escape war. But Russia is deliberately killing us, our children. It is not just war, it's genocide.

Many are explaining Russian barbaric behavior in Ukraine with examples of its colonial, destructive literature. @portnikov shared a broader view on what's made this nation endorse or stay indifferent to mass murder and violence for decades 🧵 The main reason for Russian atrocities is the absence of any state safeguard. For any society it's religion or culture, and Russians haven't had either - journalist & writer Vitaly Portnikov, who specializes in post-Soviet countries, spoke in a podcast by @the_ukrainians

Here's a hand of a man who had lived in Mariupol until June 10. Maria K. posted this picture to show and tell the story of her uncle under Russian 'improvement'. He managed to flee 🧵 Maria's uncle lived in complete information vacuum. He thought Zaporizhia was captured but believed in Ukraine's victory. "He was able to get humanitarian aid only once - they gave him canned stew, oil, sugar and porridge. The stew was spoiled."

Remember Russian 'hero' on state TV? Now, she's given voice by numerous Western media to speak against sanctions, asking to lift them because 'her daughter cannot pay for her school lunch with a virtual card.' Just in case you thought that psy-op was against war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian children can't go to schools or kindergartens because those are deliberately destroyed. Millions of kids are hiding in bomb shelters, injured or killed by the Russian army. All this became possible with the work of propagandists like Ovsiannikova.

Foreigners preaching pacifism to Ukrainians is something special now. I even read an article referring to Tolstoy, and how non-violent resistance could be an alternative in Ukraine's fight against Russia. It could be a joke but it's a deadly narrative. These 'pacifist' comments appear under almost every article about Ukraine. Most often from people who have no clue about Ukraine's bitter history under Russian oppression and terror. I have bad news for those who believe that the war can stop itself

I can't believe what I've had to explain live on Italian TV show. Political activist said 'it's wrong to provide weapons to Ukraine', 'we know about nazis there', 'what about the right to self-determination'- what on earth?This is not about freedom of speech, ... it's reiteration of putin's propaganda, and so warmongering, not peacemaking. The argument 'let's find solutions, talk' is not only naive, it is fatal for Ukraine, the reason why so many civilians have already been killed.