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War in Ukraine – Diary from Kyiv

War in Ukraine

Resistance. Day 8

March 3rd

We are at home, we are Ukraine. That is why overthrowing our government wouldn’t matter. They will face resistance everywhere, be it from an armed or an unarmed Ukrainian, young or….experienced, like this lady. Because we are not going anywhere. More than 80 000 Ukrainians have already come back from abroad, to defend what is theirs. So go demilitarize yourself!
war in Ukraine

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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The Meaning of “Peace”

Dear peace-lovers,
Your “we just want everyone to live in peace” stance regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine is not really a stance. Under normal circumstances it is a given, we all want peace, love and prosperity for everyone. However in this case you are using a beauty pageant vocabulary in order to avoid picking sides. You either stand with Ukraine, a peaceful democratic European country, or you stand with Russia that sent over 150000 soldiers to terrorize its neighbor in an unprovoked attack. It is as simple as that, regardless of your feelings about NATO, the EU, Biden Administration or whatever else is bothering you.
No, our government is not sending its citizens to their death for no reason. This is some next level victim-blaming bullshit. My fellow Ukrainians are being killed by Russians because we don’t want anything to do with them.
No, we will not agree to just get rid of our Army, announce neutrality and let Crimea go. Russia needs to withdraw its troops from our sovereign land and give up its imperialistic ambitions. Actually, I reckon the whole world will be a much safer place if Russia gets rid of its army.
If Russia stops fighting us, it will be the end of this war. If we stop fighting them, it will be the end of Ukraine.
the mening of peace

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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Day 7 of the “liberation from the Nazis” operation

March 2nd

You’ve probably heard that the operation is not going well for the Russians and Belorussians. Instead of getting the message and going home, they are committing multiple war crimes every single day. You won’t hear about them on the Russian TV, what a shocker. But we have everything very well documented.
After their attack on the TV tower in Kyiv they started spreading news about Kyiv’s capitulation. Delusional puppets, they don’t get that we are not brainwashed idiots and don’t rely on our TV to know what’s going on around us. That’s just one of the many things that makes us different from them and why we aren’t and will never be “brothers”.
One more thing that makes us different – they are afraid of their police, we are not afraid of their army. That’s why we aren’t and will never be “brothers”.
They only recently started reporting publicly on their losses, but are obviously having trouble getting their math right. No worries, we are here to help!
The total estimated losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 02.03 were:
personnel – 5840,
aircraft – 30,
helicopters – 31,
tanks ‒ up to 211,
APVs ‒ 862,
artillery systems– 85,
anti-aircraft warfare systems – 9,
MLRS – 40,
fuel tanks – 60,
UAV operational and tactical level – 3,
light speedboats – 2,
vehicles – 355.
More than in the First Chechen War which lasted 2 years.
Day 7

Pictures: top – what they do to us, bottom – what we do to them (I won’t be posting any pictures of bodies, they already are all over the Internet).

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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Life in the time of Russian invasion (both funny and heartbreaking)

“It doesn’t matter how this war ends – Ukraine’s victory or Russia’s defeat!”
At a Ukrainian checkpoint:
Guard: “Documents, please. Close the car door faster, your kids will get sick! Here you go, three chocolates for the little ones, people keep giving them to us!”
A chat between girlfriends:
“I stopped putting on makeup when I go outside…”
“Me too! But my underwear is always extra nice!”
One more kid-invented game:
Arranging pillows in a way that resembles a shelter for toys and stuffed animals with the words “And now we are going to a shelter where all kids are safe!”
Volunteers are looking for an adoptive family for twins that were born in Kharkiv yesterday. Their parents have been killed.
To stranded Russian soldiers standing near a couple of armored vehicles:
“Hi there! What’s the problem?”
“We ran out of diesel.”
“Do you need help? We can tow you back to the Russian border”.
Ukrainian villagers keep stealing Russian armored vehicles and towing them to their property just in case they can be useful while farming.
Pet owners are worried about their animals starting hunger riots once they run out of their favorite foods.
A mayor of a Ukrainian city is paying $300 per captured enemy, a security company is offering $1000 for damaging a Russian tank in Kyiv or in the Kyiv oblast.
War in Ukraine

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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Russian imperial dreams. Day 6

March 1st

UPD Belorussian forces have entered Ukraine. I guess this peacekeeping operation hasn’t been barbaric, bloody and destructive enough for the occupants.
Day 6. Russism (Russian fascism) with imperial delusions is Russia’s own biggest security threat.
Putin wasn’t happy with NATO’s presence in the region. It has increased even more because its member states are feeling threatened and more countries want to join.
Putin didn’t want Ukraine to become a member of the EU. Yesterday Zelenskyy signed the official paperwork to join, you guessed it, the EU.
Putin speaks a lot about the genocide against Russian speakers in Ukraine. So, quite “logically” his people are bombing residential areas, schools, kindergartens and hospitals in cities and towns all over Ukraine, including those with the highest concentration of Russian speaking people. In response, Russian speaking Ukrainians are either killing Russian invaders or greeting them with chants “Go home!”, “Murderers!”, “Fascists!”, and “Sort out your own problems back home!”
Putin was concerned about Russiaphobia. Now he made most of the civilized world Russiaphobic. Even Switzerland ended decades of neutrality to join in on the sanctions and close its airspace to Russian planes.
Russia wanted to demilitarize Ukraine. Now Ukraine has access to the best selection of weapons from all over the world. Each day our army is receiving more resources, ammunition and weaponry. And people too.
Putin wanted to destabilize Ukraine, but we have never been more united. We are taking heavy losses, each one is extremely meaningful to us, but we will make Russia and Belarus pay for everything, and we will rebuild.
We won’t fail because we can’t.
Russian imperial dreams

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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This is what the so called “Russian World” looks like. Destroyed cities, humanitarian crisis, children born in basements. For some reason the occupants don’t ask the people they are killing if they speak Russian or Ukrainian.
Russia and Belarus are terrorist states.

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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Kyiv, not far from my neighborhood. Russian occupants targeted a TV tower in preparation of a massive disinformation campaign, killing at least 5 pedestrians. They also hit Babyn Yar, a memorial and site of massacres carried out by Nazis during WWII. I’m sure that the tragic irony of this is lost on bloodthirsty russists…

TV Tower

View the whole video here:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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Kyiv under siege. Day 5

February 28th
To all those who think it is appropriate to tell Ukrainians who they should and shouldn’t blame/be angry with and what they should and shouldn’t do in their own country. We have a wonderful saying here, sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut. Especially if you are doing the lecturing from the comfort of your safe homes and offices, if you know that you and your family will wake up to see another day tomorrow and you don’t have to ration your food and water because you can go to a grocery store or order delivery whenever you want. My life in Kyiv used to be just like that, but not anymore. And I know exactly who is responsible for that – Putin, Lukashenko, their soldiers who carry out criminal orders and their compatriots who sit and watch this quietly or cheer it on loudly, and a few Ukrainian collaborators.
I was born in the Soviet Union, when it was on its last breath, so I didn’t really know what it was like to spend hours in line to get bare necessities. Now I do. After almost a two day long curfew, we are finally able to leave our homes for a quick grocery or drug store run. 2.5 hours to get in and out of a tiny almost empty corner store to get at least some food, because I don’t know when I will be able to do it again. I saw a guy grab two cans of something, but while waiting in line to the checkout counter he changed his mind and put one back so that someone else could get one too.
I am so used to air alarm sirens and sounds of explosions that I barely notice them anymore. I also know that most explosions are our air defense system at work, so they even have a bit of a calming effect. However, nights are still very stressful.
I can’t sleep in my own bed, because I need to have two walls between me and the outside. My friends sleep in bathrooms, hallways and subway stations.
I am lucky, I can sleep under any circumstances, but I still wake up multiple times a night to read updates on the invasion.
My building chat now consists of warnings when to go hide in the basement, updates on building checks (they look for looters and enemy markings on the roof) and which stores are open or closed in the neighborhood.
Instead of discussing our multiple work projects (most of which had to be put on hold) with my colleagues, we have regular safety and food check-ins. The same with my friends and family members.
If I don’t immediately answer calls and messages, my family thinks I am dead.
I can’t remember the last time I talked to someone about something other than the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Or even thought about something else.
Ukrainian kids have come up with new games, for instance “I am alive”. This is a morning game. In the evenings they finish calls with their friends with words like “Let’s end the game tomorrow, I have to go to the bomb shelter now”, or “Putin wants to kill us again, so we are going to the basement”.
And, finally, this is my what my quiet neighborhood is like these days – trash bins, trolley busses and tires are used to block roads. I am posting pictures from a couple of days ago, for security reasons, our territorial defense has done a lot to reinforce the barricades since then.
So, if you want to tell me that I can’t blame Russian soldiers who murdered over 300 Ukrainians (including 16 children), are targeting residential areas and are looting banks and stores (among many other things), or Belorussians who are allowing Russians to cross their border and launch missiles from their land, respectfully, stay away from my page or shut the fuck up.
war in Ukraine

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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A school in Kharkiv, one of the biggest Russian-speaking cities of Ukraine, today. 87 residential buildings damaged.
We will not forget any of it.
school in Kharkiv

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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“Denazification” of Ukraine, Day 4

February 27th

Here is how Putin and Lukashenko are denazifying a 40-million people European country governed by a Russian-speaking Jewish President, highlights only.
  • A Russian diversion intelligence group shot up a car of a family of 5 inside in Kyiv, the parents and one child were killed, doctors are working hard to save the other two children.
  • Shots were fired near the country’s main Children’s Hospital Okhmadyt (Kyiv). Ambulances and hospitals are getting hit in other regions too.
  • Another 9-floor apartment building is on fire, and that’s just in the Kyiv area.
  • The night before Ukrainian air defenses shot down a Russian missile heading in the direction of the dam of the Kyiv reservoir that would flood residential areas in Kyiv and suburbs, as well as cause catastrophic damage down the river.
  • An oil storage in Vasylkiv (near Kyiv) is on fire, Russians also attacked a gas pipeline in Kharkiv and targeted a radioactive disposal site in Kyiv.
  • Two days ago Russian invaders deployed GRADs in Vorzel (near Kyiv), an orphanage with 50 children inside was hit. A child died after sustaining injuries in a kindergarten in Okhtyrka after cruise missiles “Hurricanes” were fired.
  • During the first two days of the invasion they killed 198 civilians, including 3 children.
  • People is cities with a subway system are basically living underground, with their pets, of course!
Despite all this, the Ministry of Defense has set up a hotline for Russians looking for their sons, fathers and brothers who could have been sent to Ukraine.
A couple of days ago Putin called for the Ukrainian military to take the matters in their own hands. He doesn’t understand that this is exactly what they are doing, with the help of tens of thousands of people in the country and abroad. As a result, within just the first day Russia lost more military personnel than in 8 years in Syria.
There are no signs of demoralization or disorganization here. Some Ukrainian heroes blow themselves up to destroy bridges, others die protecting cities and towns all over the country. Unarmed civilians block tanks and armored vehicles, stalling them or making them turn around. And a lot of them are saying that after this they are done with the Russian language forever.
No, we are not neo-Nazis, we are patriots, and because of this denazification operation we are more united than ever before.
Denazification of Ukraine Day 4

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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How to defend your country

February 26th

This is what defending your country is like when you don’t want to be “rescued”, “demilitarized”, or whatever bullshit some Russians believe in. Emptying liquor bottles to use them for Molotov cocktails and cooking for the territorial defense. This and what other amazing Ukrainians are doing. For instance, in no particular order, being very skillful with NLAWs, Stingers, and Javelins, shooting down jets and rockets, blocking tanks and armored vehicles, blowing up bridges, finding and demotivating Russian saboteurs, ruining Putin’s plans, removing road and street signs, keeping civilians safe, treating the injured and helping give birth in basements and subway stations, donating money, blood and food, speaking out about what is going on in Ukraine, lobbying sanctions and foreign aid, and countless other things that make me feel especially proud of being Ukrainian.

Source:

Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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12 facts about Ukraine

February 26th

This night was tough and loud, but we survived. Kyiv is under control, our Army and volunteers are fighting tooth and nail all over the country. After taking a breather I would like to clarify a couple of misconceptions about what is going on here.

  • The President is here, not hiding somewhere abroad.

  • No, Russia is not defending itself by doing what it is doing, one defends itself within its own borders.

  • No, Ukraine has not been bombing civilians in the East for the past 8 years, why would Putin wait for 8 YEARS to come save them?

  • No, Russian soldiers who came here and are coming here are not innocents. They don’t have guns to their heads. They came here to kill, but are going to die instead.

  • No, Russians who are sitting at home too afraid or not caring enough to speak out are not innocents. Getting rid of their dictator is their job, not anyone else’s.

  • No, it was not the US that installed the government in Kyiv in 2014, and it was not a coup. This is what overturning a dictator is like. We made our choice and, as you can see, we are willing to defend it.

  • No, we are not a bunch of drugged neo-Nazis, our President is a Russian-speaking Jew ffs!

  • No, we are not all nationalists, but we all are patriots.

  • No, Ukrainians and Russians are not one and the same. We are not one culture, one history, one language or one religion. We also know what freedom is, and its cost.

  • Ukraine has an absolute right to have 1 official language, it is not the only country in the world to do so.

  • Ukraine has an absolute right to join NATO, or want to join it. Our only reason for doing it is because we feel threatened by Russia.

  • Russia doesn’t want NATO to increase its presence in the region? Then it should stop attacking and threatening sovereign countries around. Or even better demilitarize itself. Problem solved!

If you have access to the Internet and still believe in Russia’s lies, you are a moron. If you have doubts, do some digging and stop watching Russian TV.

12 facts about Ukraine 1 e1646150329510

This is the latest from the Russian peacekeeping operation, apartment buildings are getting hit (like this one in Kyiv) and babies being born in basements and subway stations.

12 facts about Ukraine 2 e1646149631679
Help Ukraine Instagram Posting

Author

  • Nataliya Melnyk

    Nataliya Melnik is a longstanding partner of the Free Market Road Show. She lives in Kyiv and is sharing her Facebook diary. We wish her all the best! If you want to support the Ukrainian people, have a look at http://helpukraine.center/en

The views expressed on austriancenter.com are not necessarily those of the Austrian Economics Center.

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