Ukraina SOS Vol. 6 - May 22
Voices of Ukrainian refugees, Mariupolis, what's the deal with Azov?, a Eurovision explainer, and more
Welcome to Volume 6 of Ukraina SOS, a guide for how to help and what to read/watch/follow in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, I arrived back in the States after two weeks in Poland and Italy, where I spent time with family members who have left Ukraine. One thing I took away from my time is that every Ukrainian—every single person—has a story worth telling about how their life has changed since February 24. To that end, I published a series of vignettes in The American Scholar based on interviews I conducted with Ukrainian refugees while I was in Wroclaw, Poland. I hope that it will help people understand the uncertainty and shock that so many Ukrainians are experiencing.
How to Help
Sign up to receive letters from four Ukrainian artists and writers via the “This Bird Looks in All Directions” series and support the preservation and protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage
Donate to support the publication of Ukrainian-language children’s books in Poland
Volunteer to teach Ukrainian children English online via the organization Ukrainian EnglisHouse (write asundalova@englishouse.com.ua for more)
What to Read/Watch/Follow Etc.
🎥 Mariupolis, a 2016 documentary about Mariupol, is a beautiful tribute to the city that now acts as an elegy. Russian forces killed its director, Mantas Kvedaravičius, in the city in April. (P.S. 85₴ is less than $3 - don’t be intimated by the Ukrainian platform)
📖 I’ve found Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia by Joshua Yaffa, the New Yorker correspondent in Moscow, to be extremely helpful as an account for the double-think that has allowed many Russians to co-exist beside the Putin regime
The Azov Battalion has attracted a lot of (warranted) criticism for its early affiliation with Ukraine’s far right. Ivan Gomza wrote a useful overview of the battalion’s history and why it’s important to understand the battalion as more than its origins.
The Ukrainian medic Yuliia Paievska recorded her daily work caring for the wounded in besieged Mariupol. She was detained by the Russians in mid-March and her whereabouts are unknown. Her recording was smuggled out and is horrifying but necessary to take in.
🎥 I haven’t seen The New Greatness Case, a documentary film about Russian teenagers prosecuted for political extremism, but it looks good and is streaming in the U.S. from 5/20-5/27 as part of the Human Rights Watch film festival.
🐈⬛ One of Ukraine’s most charming public figures is a hearty tabby named Stepan. He normally lives in Kharkhiv but his neighborhood came under heavy shelling. Thankfully, he escaped and is now a refugee in France with his owner. I get much-needed dopamine from following his Instagram feed @loveyoustepan.
A Supplement to Ukraine’s Eurovision Win
As expected, Ukraine won this year’s Eurovision song contest with the song “Stefania.” The supplement below explains some of the elements of their performance.
Quote of the Moment
“Many Slavists have recognized a need to decolonize their field in the wake of Russia’s invasion. But prior to February 24, I had only ever met one European Slavist who, in 2014, deeply distributed by the Orwellian turn in Moscow, asked forgiveness from Ukrainians for having spent his life looking at Kyiv ‘through Russian spectacles’ as ‘the third city of the Russian Empire,’ and not properly seeing the capital for a 1,000-year-old local culture, a culture towards which the Russian Empire has behaved much as the Russian Army has behaved in Bucha: what it could steal, it stole, and what it couldn’t, it destroyed. Such realizations may now become more common. Because the road for bombs and tanks has always been paved by books, and we are now first-hand witnesses to how the fate of millions can be decided by our reading choices. It is time to take a long, hard look at our bookshelves.” - Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko in the TLS
About this Letter
The image at the top is by Lyubov Panchenko, an accomplished Ukrainian artist and dissident. A resident of Bucha, she died on April 30 at the age of 84 from the effects of the Russian occupation.