I stand with Ukraine
Russia-Ukraine War: Info and ways to help
Visit this site to help Ukrainians in the wake of raging war:
It has been so hard to talk about this and like most, I feel physically ill by all of it. My friends in Ukraine have left for Poland but some stay to fight off the Russian soldiers. Some, I’m sure, not even with proper training. Most still have families in Kyiv. I sit here, in my home, I have heat and water and no one is bombing me. I feel defenseless, hopeless, wishing there was something I could do.
I walked the streets of Kyiv a few months ago. The sky was blue, the buildings and architecture were filled with gold and color, they resembled the boldness of the Ukrainian people.
The restaurants were fancy and vibrant. My friends and I walked through the streets, joking and laughing, pointing at cathedrals where they were once married, and buildings where they got too drunk, a feeling of freedom formed around us. I remember military aircraft twice the size of any plane I’ve ever seen flying overhead. My friend Dasha joked that the next one would hit us. She told me they were transporting Ukrainian military supplies.
In the city center, we’d hear them flying above us throughout the night, waking me up every now and then. I realize now, the apartment I stayed in probably won’t be standing there in a few weeks. The floor would shake as the aircraft flew by. It was then, I could feel what most Ukrainians had felt - uncertainty and fear but it was masked as routine, something I wasn’t entirely familiar with. I had never experienced war in my life.
One day, we were sitting in an expensive restaurant where the portions of food were the size of a pea and I decided to talk to Dasha about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, I asked for her take. “There are places I can’t go to in my country that border Russia because I will be killed.” I shuddered at the thought, I couldn’t imagine feeling that unsafe in my own country.
I looked at my friends who felt like family despite a large language barrier. I was proud to be in their presence. Even though they had been fighting off hell for every century since 1149 AD, my Ukrainian friends walked the streets of Kyiv with me in strength, with their independence, with their freedom. I hope that one day, again very soon, I can relive that day, most importantly, that they can too. That all of the incredible people of that country can walk their streets with their lineage and their history and feel safe, and feel free. That they can look back and remember the difficult days that are behind them. One day. Once more. I hope. I pray. I stand with Ukraine.
