slava ukraini
The US cut off all military aid to Ukraine today.
It's horrible, shameful, and a clear example of how in thrall to Putin the U.S. government has become. I don't have much else to say here on that front, it's obvious what this signifies.
I set up a recurring donation to Ukraine's war effort today. I'd strongly encourage you to donate as well – this is the official platform used by the government of Ukraine. You can choose what your donation will support if you don't want to support defense; it can also go towards humanitarian demining or medical aid.
It feels awful that democracy hangs by a thread like this. Subscribe so that democracy can continue existing. Subscribe so that Russia can be kept at bay. Why do we live in this world? Why have we somehow wound up with this strongman fanboy in office, this propaganda campaign that not only swept over Romania and Georgia in their recent elections but wormed its way so insidiously into America that now our government is giving Russia everything it wants? How did we get here?
I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, and I hate that I as one person cannot stop the erosion of everything I value. Freedom from dictatorship, protection of our allies in their time of need, integrity and democracy.
I started learning Ukrainian this January. I am the only student in the class — it's a tutorial that my professor agreed to put on just for me. We go on a lot of digressions about history, etymology, and politics rather than just grammar, because why not, in a class that's so small? My professor is in his seventies, but he attended a protest in support of Ukraine last week. He told me that he's glad that his father, a Ukrainian immigrant to the US, is no longer here to witness this; that his father celebrated Ukraine's independence and did not live to see this day.
In the second year of the war, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in DC at a summit with Biden, Olena Zelenska visited my university to give a talk. I skipped all my classes that morning to wait in line to see her, and, incredibly, managed to secure a spot. She spoke in Ukrainian, with a translator's voice being audible through earpieces that were passed out.
She spoke about how books in Ukrainian are right now being sent to libraries around the world for safekeeping. Because the libraries in Ukraine are burning, and the schools are being bombed. There are children — who in the year 2025 are nine years old — who have never set foot in a classroom, because first there was a pandemic and then immediately afterwards there was war. Ukrainian children can only go to school if their school has a bomb shelter, so in 2023 only one third of Ukrainian children were in school.
People read books in the bomb shelters, and soldiers read books in the trenches. That is how important literature is to Ukrainian society.
She said, this is why we fight.
So that books will not burn as they did in Fahrenheit 451.
So that students won't have to study in bomb shelters.
So that Ukrainian children, Ukrainian adults, who have gone abroad where it is safe, can return home. She addressed the two dozen students from Ukraine, sitting in the front row, and told them that they must act as Ukraine's ambassadors. That Ukraine is fighting for them, so that they can come back home.
She spoke about orphans, about how Ukraine is seeking to give its children orphaned by the war a better life than they would receive in institutions. Ukraine is trying to place them in large foster families, so that they can have a family and a home. They've built 14 homes for these families so they can have a large enough space to raise 5 to 10 children and feel comfortable. The government even organized a vacation for 1,500 children in the Carpathian mountains, so that they can know a world beyond the air raids.
Olena Zelenska, as First Lady, is acting as the nation's mother. She is helping her country through this trauma, she is making sure that there are parents for the orphans. She has established a national mental health program to help people cope with the war.
She spoke about what keeps Ukrainians strong, through this war:
- gratefulness — that in Ukraine's moment of need, the world stepped up and supported Ukraine.
- action — almost all Ukrainians volunteer, taking care of their community and each other in some way.
- contact — because talking to other people, watching them manage their suffering, teaches you that your own suffering is less than you realize. Your suffering is bearable. Be strong and come through this.
- faith — belief in victory.
These are the lessons to carry forward. Lessons forged in hardship, that can be remembered in times like now.
Slava Ukraini.