Ukraine Invasion: Part 26

[MagicFox]

Here we are, on top of our rock

I think you'd be hard pushed to find a parent who hadn't had those thoughts. I've never been so grateful that my children are autistic and therefore unlikely to ever be sent to a frontline.

I think the best response to awful acts is to make the point to do something good. It doesn't have to be connected to Ukraine. It is a form of defiance and rejection of harm and destruction.

And everyone can do this in someway.

I'm so sorry for what you went through but glad that wonderful people helped and supported you. Its true that there is so much good in the world despite all the bad, important to remember when we hear of atrocities.

RedToothBrush, eloquently put. Thanks for taking the time to write that. The horrors that one human being can inflict on another knows no bounds and has been going on since the dawn of time. I have to remind myself of the indefatigable human spirit and kindness. To stop believing in that is to lose all hope.

@RedToothBrush · 20/05/2022 11:53
I think the best response to awful acts is to make the point to do something good. It doesn't have to be connected to Ukraine. It is a form of defiance and rejection of harm and destruction.

And everyone can do this in someway.

RTB that is a good idea.
Bearing in mind that being religious is not necessary to do this, ”The Little Way” of St Theresa was related to that approach; or Mother Theresa of Calcutta and her group of nuns who tried to help each person they could, one by one, rather than despair over what they couldn’t do.

✊🏻 "Well, that's all. Thank you for the shelter, Azovstal – the place of my death and my life."
Dmitry Kozatsky, a soldier of the Azov Regiment, callsign Orest, shared what is likely to be the last photographs from the territory of the blocked metallurgical plant in Mariupol.

Does this mean he is going to kill himself rather than surrender? What does the answer matter. I cannot imagine what his mother and loved ones must be going through. Damn you Putin.

The Dalai Lama posted this on Facebook an hour or so ago. So I'm just chucking it in - no idea if it's of any help or solace. I'm not sure I can tell at the moment. Words seem so futile. And yet they're not. Anyway - feeling for all of us who are feeling terrible about all this and anything else, really. IYSWIM.

  <strong>When I was 16, I lost my freedom and when I was 24, I lost my country. And over the last 60 years and more there has been a lot of sad news from my homeland, tales of violence, destruction and killing, which leave us with a sense of helplessness. However, if you let sadness overwhelm your mind, it will ruin your health. Here human intelligence can help, because by reconsidering them, the very events that provoke a sense of helplessness and demoralization can be used to build inner strength.</strong>  Dalai Lama, 20/52022.

Marking place, thank you @MagicFox cor new threads and all other contributors as always

heldinadream that is lovely

Oh thank you blueshoes 🌻

Was the upsetting thread about a particular news story? It doesn't seem to be there now.

@heldinadream thank you for posting that, particularly at this point in this thread. It feels very pertinent. Thank you too to @Igotjelly for sharing your experience and for the hope that you found through the help from others. I thought that was very courageous to mention that here. bought Christina Lamb’s book Our BodiesTheir Battlefield a couple of weeks ago. The extreme violence and brutality against women and children in Ukraine has had and extremely powerful visceral affect on me. I feel such rage, such utter powerlessness and such a longing to be able to make any sort of difference. I cannot bring myself to find the Twitter thread being referred to, the reports over weeks have been so horrifying. And yet as many of you have said: we cannot turn away from the reality of what is happening. This is why I bought the book - to confront the truth of what women (and men) have done to them and yet endure, and in some tiny way, bear witness……

• have HAD done to them. Hate typos

@whenwillwegetthereholly it was a tweet detailing instances of child rape by soldiers. It was unspeakable. I could barely look at it, let alone take in the details.

Orest is posting links to a google drive of his pictures and talks about after being released, so I think he is surrendering. I had assumed he was going down fighting.

I won't judge anyone for the decisions they make in such circumstances.

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Checking in

@heldinadream · 20/05/2022 12:27

Thank you for your quote from the Dalai Lama. It does help, heldinadream.

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@heldinadream Yes thank you.

thank you for the new thread too, MagicFox

Thanks for the new thread, Magic Fox. I'm so sorry for your experiences, igotjelly.

I read the end of the last thread earlier, including the link to the twitter thread but didn't get a chance to post. It's horrific that anyone would do that, especially to the most vulnerable. I spent the morning pottering around the house with my beautiful, cuddly, innocent little toddler and watching them play and learn about the world in safety, it hit home even more.

Good suggestion to do something to help Ukraine (or anywhere), it helps us do something useful and not feel as hopeless about the world when faced with such horrors.

Absolutely not. No judgment at all only admiration beyond comprehension.

Thanks for the new thread.

I've read a lot of contemporary documents from WWII and yes, good people pop up everywhere, often. Soldiers who offered to stay after the war was over to look after starving civilians, civilians who helped POWs at great risk to themselves, women who took on the care of other people's children so they wouldn't starve.

Podcast in Chatham House entitled “war in Ukraine - Disinformation and Cyber War” - well worth a listen.

www.chathamhouse.org/2022/05/war-ukraine-disinformation-and-cyber-war

Talking of good people and BRAVE people - this is AMAZING!

Report by BBC's Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg on a one-man protest against the invasion in a tiny town called Russko-Vysotskoye, eight hours north of Moscow.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61515365