Mychailo Wynnyckyj, Valerii Pekar, Taras Prokhasko, Volodymyr Yermolenko — April 10-17, 2022

Flash essays from the collection “Wars. Ukrainians. Humanity” tell about the insights, experiences, and beliefs of Ukrainians, which ignited their society in 2022, when the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine began.

The Cultural Hub community and curators carefully collected, translated, and illustrated these texts in order to capture the values ​​of Ukrainians — Freedoms, Bravery, Dignity, Responsibility, and Humour. 

A series of publications in partnership with Chytomo introduces this collection to the English-speaking audience. Volume 11 continues to present the series. You can get acquainted with the previous collection here.

Myсhailo Wynnyckyj: The Horde is once again advancing from the East. April 10

General George S. Patton once said:

“The difficulty in understanding the russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European but an Asiatic and therefore thinks deviously… I have no particular desire to understand them except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other amiable characteristics, the russian has no regard for human life and is an all out son of a bitch, a barbarian, and a chronic drunk.”

When I posted this quote in late 2014 I was widely accused of being intollerant and bigotted.

After Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel and now Kramatorsk do my readers still think we should “understand” russians???

The mobile crematoria in Mariupol are right now working 24/7 to cover up the attrocities other russians (not the same ones as in the Kyiv area) caused there. russians seem to never end and their despicable behavior (particularly with civillians) seems pervasive.

And don’t tell me that the russian soldiers in Ukraine who repeatefly committed atrocities and war crimes “were just following orders.” Raping children and the elderly, murdering the handicapped, enjoying the sounds and sights of torture — these are not “ordered.”

These activities are a part of the “russian world” (culture, values, practices…) that have now fallen upon us. The Horde is once again advancing from the east.

General Patton was a great man.

#ThoughtsfromKyiv

Myсhailo Wynnyckyj: Thoughts from Kyiv. April 11

Helplessness is what I feel. I expect this is what Ukraine’s friends in the West felt at the end of February, when the russian invasion was approaching Kyiv and many experts were predicting the imminent fall of Ukraine’s capital. That didn’t happen. The Ukrainian Armed Forces stopped the advance of the russians, and eventually the invader was forced to retreat. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

Now it’s my turn to feel helpless. Like every Ukrainian who is now in relative safety, I think I finally understand the pit in the stomach felt throughout the past weeks by my western friends — safely in their homes but living every moment with Ukraine.

Today, all eyes are focused on Mariupol. This key southeastern Ukrainian city has been holding out against a russian onslaught for over 6 weeks. For over 40 days Mariupol has been surrounded. Its brave defenders and population of several hundred thousand civilians, have endured lack of water, food, arms supply… No reinforcements. But they fight. Surrender is not an option.

Mariupol

Kramatorsk

Slovyansk

Severodonetsk

Kakhovka

Kherson

I have been to each of these towns. Good people live there!

Helplessness…

The people of Ukraine’s east and south are not helpless. I suspect they feel the same adrenaline (actually — much more) that the people of Kyiv and Chernihiv and Sumy felt when our cities were under attack.

In Mariupol they understand fully that the fate of Ukraine is being decided on their bombed out streets. If they stand firm, the border between Mordor and the civilized world will be drawn in the eastern Donbas. If Mariupol falls, that border will be drawn further west. And it will be more permanent because the invader will benefit from a land bridge to the once-beautiful Crimean peninsula — an ecological wonderland that the russians have turned into a massive, ugly, military base.

War is about territory. Some territory is more strategic, some less so. But war is also about human lives — all worth saving, living, loving. We are helpless to do anything to save them.

Several stories are circulating today through social media, supposedly posted by officers serving in the Ukrainian Marines and in the Azov battalion in Mariupol. Apparently, these brave men feel abandoned by Ukraine’s commanders. Whether these posts are real, or part of a russian operation aimed at sowing strife among Ukrainians in the “rear,” remains to be seen. At this time, we simply do not know enough about the military situation in Mariupol to make a judgment. And not knowing just adds to the feeling of helplessness.

We know the russians are continuously engaging Ukrainian forces in the Donbas. According to military analyst Tom Cooper (whom I don’t know personally, but whose reports I find trustworthy), russian airplanes are flying over 300 sorties per day. We see the massive convoys of russian troops and heavy equipment approaching the border from the east. We see videos and photographs of explosions throughout the Donbas. Artillery is operating on both sides. Fighting continues, and its escalation is imminent. There is nothing we can do about it…

We know the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk are the key targets of russia next phase of invasion. Slovyansk is symbolic — the place where the supposed “uprising” of 2014 in the Donbas began (actually, it was instigated and commanded by russian special agent igor girkin, who later proclaimed himself “Minister of Defense” of the “donetsk people’s republic”). Since 2015, Kramatorsk has been the command center of the Ukrainian forces operating in the Donbas (incidentally, the actual command center is several kilometers from the train station — its true location is a very poorly kept secret). From my vantage point near Kyiv I can think of absolutely no way to really help the brave and valiant Ukrainian defenders in the direct vicinity of these two cities. Helplessness…

Escalation of russia’s ongoing offensive in the Donbas is likely within the next few days. That means it is too late to ask, plea, beg, request, demand (choose which one you like) heavy weapons from Ukraine’s western friends. What has been delivered, has been delivered. What is on the way, hopefully, will arrive in time to make a difference. Helplessness…

It is too late to scream, shout, cry, yell (choose which one you like) outrageously about the war crimes and atrocities that have already been committed by the russians in Mariupol and in other towns and villages of eastern Ukraine. The victims of these crimes are already dead. Nothing will bring them back, nor will the world’s outcry stop the russians from repeating their atrocities. At most it will intensify the pace with which they mop up their barbarity with their mobile crematoria.

The only worthwhile thing one can do in this situation is pray.

Pray for the innocent civilians, mothers, children, the elderly who will inevitably be caught in the crossfire during the coming battles. Pray for those who are already enduring the horrors of occupation.

Pray for the valiant Ukrainian defenders who will face the evil that has descended on Ukraine head on. Pray that they will fight bravely, effectively, valuing their own lives and those of their comrades. You are our inspiration. Our appreciation for your sacrifice is endless. We pray for your victory.

To my friends throughout the world, no matter what God you may believe in, tonight I ask for your prayers. I ask that you pray for Ukraine’s triumph against the evil Horde.

God help us!

#ThoughtsfromKyiv

Myсhailo Wynnyckyj: Thoughts from Kyiv. April 12

Sting was wrong. The russians don’t love their children (too). That is not only a fact, it’s consequences are frightening.

Let me remind you of the final verse of Sting’s famous song “The russians:”

We share the same biology, regardless of ideology

But what might save us, me and you

Is if the russians love their children too

Well, what if they don’t? What if the russians really don’t care about their children?

russia’s children are dying in Ukraine. In large numbers. Needlessly. Dying. Right now.

Meanwhile, according to formalized opinion polls and journalists’ ad hoc street interviews in moscow, st. petersburg, saratov, novosibirsk and other cities, the russian population overwhelmingly supports war in Ukraine. We can explain this away by citing rampant propaganda that brainwashes the population (which it does), and excuse the russians’ lack of opposition to putin as justified by fear of arrest (or worse), but the fact remains: the russians seem prepared to send their children (husbands, brothers, boyfriends, fathers sons…) to die in Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian officials, the death toll of the russian army in Ukraine is now approaching 20 000 KIA. Even if this number is inflated, real russian losses (including killed, wounded, captured) are enormous — probably over 50 000 troops. Not surprisingly, despite publicly voicing support for putin’s “special military operation” few russians are volunteering to join it.

russian commanders are doing everything possible to recruit new reinforcements for the coming push into the Donbas. They are offering “carte blanche” to rape and pillage the Ukrainian population. They are offering increased pensions to veterans, high salaries and generous family benefits while in action… But the efforts are clearly insufficient. There are simply not enough qualified reservists in russia that are willing to enter the killing fields of Ukraine.

The reason russia cannot find sufficient numbers of motivated reinforcements is that this war is seen by potential recruits as another Afghanistan: a war on foreign soil, waged in the interests of the political elite rather than the russian people. Commanders tasked with filing the ranks of the russian army are faced with a fundamental problem: putin’s “special military operation: is being waged in Ukraine.

Now imagine what would happen if the population could be convinced that russia itself is under threat. This seems to be the purpose of recent “anti-terrorist” alerts in the russian regions adjacent to Ukraine’s borders. There, conscripts have begun digging defensive trenches on russian soil — hundreds of kilometres from the closest Ukrainian army position, and well east of Ukraine’s border with the russian federation.

Imagine a terrorist attack on moscow that could be blamed on “Ukrainian nationalists claiming to avenge Bucha.” There is ample evidence today that this was exactly the staged scenario used by putin to justify his army’s obliteration of Chechnya in 1999. russians supported that war because their heartland was threatened. Defending russia is radically different from invading Ukraine.

russian recruiters need to reposition this war from one aimed at “de-nazifying” Ukraine (a “brotherly” but nevertheless foreign country) into a defensive conflict: Ukrainians must be shown as directly threatening the russian heartland. If such repositioning can be done quickly, the war in Ukraine will become “patriotic.” Recruits may not flock, but certainly more cannon-fodder will become available.

russian commanders know how to fight “patriotic” wars. Their “patriotic” strategy involves insertion of massive amounts of poorly trained and poorly equipped personnel into battle with little regard for potential losses. Victory is achieved with numbers. An excellent illustration of how this works can be drawn from the battle for Kyiv in 1943: in 10 days German forces lost a total of 17 thousand (KIA, WIA, MIA) vs. over 118 thousand on the soviet side. Some victory…

The russians don’t love their children (too).

Finally, make no mistake: if by the May 9 Victory Day holiday the russian “push” on the Donbas is not successful (and I have no doubt it will fail), putin will have no other avenue but to escalate his war beyond Ukraine. I stand by my prediction of a tactical nuclear strike. Nothing else will be left.

His rocket may not necessarily fall on a NATO target, but nevertheless the message will be clear: unless russia is allowed free reign in Ukraine, the next launch will be on an EU capital…

That’s called blackmail, and I really don’t know how NATO leaders will respond.

“Surely putin understands that if he fires a nuke at NATO, that will be suicide!” claim the pundits. Indeed, the Cold War era MAD doctrine (“mutually assured destruction”) was specifically designed to deter the use of nuclear weapons by either superpower.

But it only works if both sides value their own people. What if the russians don’t?

It is high time to understand a simple fact. For russia, people don’t matter. Not even their own. I’m sorry Sting, but the russians don’t love their children (too).

They love “victory.” At all costs. That is the horror that we must face.

God help us!

#ThoughtsfromKyiv

Valerii Pekar: Ammunition detonation cycle. April 14

Ammunition detonation came as the result of fire that came as the result of ammunition detonation that came as the result of fire that came as the result of ammunition detonation that came as the result of fire that came as the result of ammunition detonation that came as the result of fire that came as the result of ammunition detonation that came as the result of fire that came as the result of ammunition detonation that came as the result of fire that came as the result of ammunition detonation that came as the result of fire that came as the result of ammunition detonation that came as the result of fire.

 Taras Prokhasko: Telling fortunes by the lines. April 14

Someone from Yalivets, I wouldn’t recall whether it was Franz or Sebastian, said that in order to stay yourself during the war, you would speak the same way throughout the war as before the war. It is another matter that in their case, it was hard to differentiate where it was not the war yet, and where it was already the war, where it was still the war, and where it was not the war any longer. After all, with us, it is the same like with them.

In order to remain yourself, a man who not only speaks but also listens, i.e. reads, shall have at least something to read, in any situation, during any stretches of history. In the sense that it shall be the reading other than instructions, combat reports, or executive orders. Something from the language you are trying not to betray in order to stay yourself. To survive and not to break down. And to be able to read many more nice books. Or, at least the best paragraphs from many different books. To make sure that the touch of beauty is as fragmentary as the nature of beauty that is cognizable and livable with your subtlest elements.

It is very good when from a large book you remember only one fragment, two stitches, one sentence, or several possible collocations. It is equally good when only one book fits into the grab bag or into the soldier’s backpack. In that case, both during a week-long train trip, or on a short-term stay in a prison cell, the book receives such a thorough many-layered labyrinth of readings that could even rival with Borges.

There are books that some people, when leaving their home, take as a must to pack in, neglecting all other things that turned out not so critical (such as the matches, cable stitches, blankets, or old photos). And there are books that you leave behind in that home, doomed to destruction. And there are books that would manage to remain more or less unaffected after all those things you saw happening to your home.

And there are homes, more or less destroyed, that did not have a book case, not even a single book.

From my childhood, I remember several books that came from the First World War. Wald’s fairy tales, Euler’s algebra. I picture the unrealistic X-ray image: the personal belongings of the soldiers from all sides, and of the refugees from all to all sides, which shows a huge library in different languages. I imagine the memorial made up of the volumes and folios orphaned in the trenches, in backpacks, in the wetlands, in gardens and fields, and in the ditches along the roads.

If anything, if there are any nice things in this life, those are the memories and thoughts about different books. About the library of Carpathian smugglers in Stempkowski’s, about Rilke volumes, about trips under Grabal’s special supervision, about the passage across the Chornogora mountain to get several bunches of ancient authors and Vincenz. 

I was reading the One Hundred Years of Solitude back in the army. The autonomous lasting mission, a combat duty. Springtime, a cold armored vehicle, Marquez. The forest had a railway track leading to nobody knows where and forgotten for nobody knows how long. I was lying on the folded camouflage net on a high armored deck. The sky was blue, the sun was bright, the grasses budding from beneath the snow were wet and cold. The days were getting longer, and the nights were turning shorter. The birds were returning from the south. On the tracks and rails, just a short distance away, almost between the lines turning green in the irritated eyes, thousands of fatty frogs were making love. They would climb on top of one another, sniffled, grunted, moaned, fidgeted their legs, and hugged at least something. A true Marquez. True beauty. True literature. Which sense is about adding to even some most perfect writings.

For, as the poet reiterated, I am going to die from other things than the war…

Valerii Pekar: And narratives matter. April 15

Narratives matter since they delineate the path for events development. The day before yesterday Father Heorhiy Kovalenko asked what biblical narrative the current war fits and suggested a possible answer – David and Goliath. Yesterday Mykhailo Kukhar mentioned that we live inside a number of narratives – both David against Goliath, and 300 Spartans, and “Fremen against the Empire of Evil” (there are many versions, with Dune as one of the latest).

Narratives matter and have power over us, but they also give us power. We know that David won using the “strategy of indirect actions,” hitting the opponent’s vulnerable spot. We know that the deed of the Spartans was not in vain. We know that all empires of evil collapse, no matter how many Death Stars they have, no matter how many Sardaukars are fighting on their side, since Fremen cannot be broken – only destroyed. And if we associate ourselves with the heroes of the narratives – we become those heroes, and the same things happen to us. They won – so we will win.

russian strategies consider semantic war – the war of narratives, senses, pantheons, versions of history, war for the right to give names to phenomena and events – to be the highest level of war (citation from a paper by the head of the administration of the rf president). As Serhiy Datsiuk has aptly stated, it is about who will finally be called fascists and by whom – Ukrainians by russians or russians by Ukrainians. He who is defeated is a fascist.

That is why the rf is paying so much attention to semantic war – since Ukrainians, labeled the Nazi, would be doomed to move along the famous narrative at the end of which the Nazi are totally destroyed and become subject to denazification. Narrative matters, and a healthy person cursed by the tribe’s shaman dies soon, having no other choice. Even children know: in children’s games “our people” always win over “fascists,” and it cannot happen any other way.

But Ukrainian narratives have appeared to matter more. David, Fremen, and Spartans together started opposing “we can repeat,” and the “we can repeat” vanished. We have won in the war of narratives just because our narratives are about the fight for the future, while “we can repeat” is about the past. David, Spartans, Fremen were fighting for a better future, while the rf does not have any future – just the past.

Our narratives have won. And now they are repeated by the whole world, they are clear everywhere where the Bible is read or movies are watched. We don’t have to explain our special history – just to fit it into the well-known narrative. The former colony is fighting for freedom. Free people are standing against the army of slaves. The Empire of Evil. We are the defenders of the world of people against the horde of orcs. A small but blessed one is against brutal big blunt power. You won’t pass here. This is our land.

And narratives matter. That is why the russian warship sent to the exact address finally gets to the point of its destination.

Myсhailo Wynnyckyj: Thoughts from Kyiv. Early Morning of April 17

Today is a very holy day for Christians throughout the world. In the West, today is Easter Sunday. In the East, today we celebrate Palm Sunday.

I was baptized a Ukrainian Catholic. My wife and I were married in a Ukrainian Catholic Church in Kyiv, and our children were all baptized in this faith as well. Our church has a Patriarch (i.e. a separate hierarchy from Roman Catholics), but we recognize the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. In Ukraine, the Ukrainian Catholic Church follows the Julian calendar which means Easter will be celebrated next week.

Although the Ukrainian Catholic Church is autonomous, we are in communion with the Pope. This week that communion was shaken to its core. On the Roman Catholics’ Good Friday, at the insistence of Pope Francis, during the annual Way of the Cross procession held in the Roman Colosseum, at station 13, the cross was held jointly by two women: one russian and one Ukrainian. The liturgic gesture was meant to symbolize reconciliation and hope for peace.

Peace and reconciliation are both noble aspirations. They are the result of mutual forgiveness. However, when one side is clearly the aggressor and the other the victim, to require forgiveness equally of both is to cultivate injustice. To insist on forgiveness equally (i.e. reconciliation) without prior penance on the part of the aggressor for having wronged, serves to justify sin. Such an act can only to demean the dignity of the victim.

Pope Francis was wrong to insist on a public display of reconciliation between Ukraine and russia without a prior display of penance by the latter. The Ukrainian Catholic Patriarch Sviatoslav told him as much, stating publicly that the joint liturgic gesture was “inappropriate and ambiguous, and does not take into account the context of russian military aggression against Ukraine.”

Pope Francis was also wrong to state that the world has reacted differently to the displacement of 4,7 million Ukrainians than to other refugees because of skin colour. Rather than raising the profile of non-European refugees, the Pope’s statement to Italian television RAI was interpreted by Ukrainians throughout the world as a denigration of the suffering and hardship experienced as a result of russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine.

Finally, Pope Francis was wrong to dispatch Cardinal Konrad Krayevsky of Poland, together with the Papal Nuncio in Kyiv (i.e. the Pope’s official representative in Ukraine), to meet with the Abbot of Kyiv’s Monastery of the Caves — a staunch pro-moscow Orthodox cleric, who is widely seen as an agent of the kremlin. Their meeting occurred at the Monastery on Friday 15 April — the same day as the Pope’s interview with RAI and concurrent with the Way of the Cross procession in Rome.

As a Catholic I am appalled by the political and moral insult perpetrated against Ukrainians by the nominal spiritual head of my church. I was prepared to accept the Pope’s liturgical gestures and allusion to racism with respect to refugees as unfortunate mistakes or misunderstandings — after-all Francis is human. However, the fact of an official meeting on the same day with high ranking representatives of the moscow patriarchate in Ukraine indicates that these statements were not off-the-cuff or chance remarks. The Pope has chosen sides. He has chosen to attempt reconciliation with the aggressor at the expense of the victim. That is wrong.

Just last week, several clerics of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (moscow patriarchate) asked the special synod of the old Orthodox Churches — an inter-church body that includes five eastern patriarchs — to rule on whether the head of their church, moscow patriarch kiril, is guilty of heresy. They accuse him of propagating the principles of the “russian world” within the russian orthodox church: an ideology that has resulted in death and destruction, and the spread of heinous crimes including rape and murder.

Since the launch of russia’s full-fledged invasion, 16 Orthodox bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (moscow patriarchate) have ceased to mention patriarch kiril during liturgies. Given the obvious split that is underway within this branch of the nominally russian-led Orthodox church in Ukraine, for representatives of the Catholic Church to hold an official meeting with one of kiril’s closest allies in Kyiv is nothing less than provocative.

In the official statement published by the Monastery of the Caves after the meeting, the Nunciature is said to have “condemned any and all attempts to limit the activities of any church under any circumstances” — an obvious allusion to calls emanating from multiple sources within the Ukrainian political elite to restrain the pro-russian activities of the moscow patriarchate in Ukraine. By holding such a public meeting, and by agreeing to such a public statement in its aftermath, the Vatican is clearly signaling that it is choosing moscow over Kyiv (and Constantinople) in the current conflict.

During the coming Holy Week, I will pray for the Pope to see the light of reason. Perhaps this is presumptuous of me, but as a Catholic I believe we are all called to atone and to repent. Pope Francis — the man — has erred. I pray that he may recognize his poor judgment and act to rectify it. The consequences of not doing so are immense: the issue involves not only lives, but souls.

Ukrainians deserve better. Their (our) children are victims of russia’s evil, and until that is recognized by the russians themselves, no reconciliation or ecclesiastical intermediation can be righteously considered.

First atonement, then forgiveness. Anything less amounts to condoning injustice and sanctioning evil.

God help us!

#ThoughtsfromKyiv

Volodymyr Yermolenko: the russian ministry of defense proudly announced that… April 17

the russian ministry of defense proudly announced that they destroyed an ammunition plant in Brovary. Three missiles really did hit the town this morning. None of the Brovary residents, however, has ever heard that we have or have ever had such a plant. Perhaps, it’s hidden somewhere very deep? I now expect some kind of subversive action against our beautiful aircraft of the late (very late) Cossack Baroque era on a pedestal in the park, followed by an announcement that a repainted NATO fighter has been downed. We also have a tank (Early Bronze Age) and an armored vehicle (High Middle Ages) on pedestals that can be defiled with Latin-alphabet ‘Z’ and to be able to announce “comrades, we deestroyed column of Ukrainian meeleetary equipment”.

The editorial “rule of small letters” or the “rule of disrespect for criminals” applies to all the words related to evil, like names and surnames of terrorists, war criminals, rapists, murderers, and torturers. They do not deserve being capitalized but shall be written in italics to stay in the focus of the readers’ attention. 

The programme “Wars. Ukrainians. Humanity” has been created by joint effort and with the financial support of the institution’s members of the Cultural Business Education Hub, the European Cultural Foundation, and BBK — the Regensburg Art and Culture Support Group from the Professional Association of Artists of Lower Bavaria/Upper Palatinate.

Authors: Mychailo Wynnyckyj, Valerii Pekar, Taras Prokhasko, Volodymyr Yermolenko

Translators (from Ukrainian): Halyna Pekhnyk (Valerii Pekar’s essays), Svitlana Bregman (Taras Prokhasko’s essay), Halyna Bezukh (Volodymyr Yermolenko’s essay)

Illustrators: Victoria Boyko (Mychailo Wynnycky’s essays on April 10, 11, 17), Christina Katrakis (Mychailo Wynnycky’s essay on April 12), Max Palenko (Valerii Pekar’s essays), Yuliya Tabenska (Taras Prokhasko’s essay), Nastya Gaydaenko (Volodymyr Yermolenko’s essay), and plasticine panel by Olha Protasova

Copyeditors: Yuliia Moroz, Terra Friedman King

Proofreaders: Iryna Andrieieva, Tetiana Vorobtsova, Terra Friedman King

Content Editors: Maryna Korchaka, Natalia Babalyk

Program Directors: Julia Ovcharenko and Demyan Om Dyakiv-Slavitski