Margaryta Konovalets 🇺🇦 ꑭ

Ukraine has always been part of the European legal space. Russia is the heir to the despotic traditions of the Golden Horde.

The Metropolis of Kyiv was founded in 988. The Moscow Patriarchate appeared only in 1589, 600 years later, through political blackmail.

While Europe and Ukraine were building universities, Muscovy was constructing a system of brutal serfdom and isolation.

💔 A Letter of Pain I was born in a country named Ukraine. I was born into a poor family, because all the money my parents had saved over their entire lives by the time I was born to them at 40 years old was taken by Russia, which declared that the USSR no longer existed and all bank deposits would not be returned to their owners. During my childhood, I never saw meat even once; at school, I never had pocket money and couldn't even buy a bun. I had no toys as a child either; we had an old Soviet TV that broke when I was 7, and after that, I didn't have a TV. It's not even worth mentioning a computer or a mobile phone. Instead, I read books, I created my own worlds, I wrote my own stories... In the 8th or 9th grade, during the summer holidays, I went to work at a factory illegally, because by law minors are not allowed to work. I did heavy labor, receiving 50 UAH a day (which is 1 dollar now). With the money I earned, I bought a TV and a boombox. However, the TV brought me no joy, because everything shown there was in the Russian language, which I did not understand and had never known in my life. I had to guess words based on similar sounds and roughly understand what they were saying. In university, I also worked during the summers, but legally. They didn't want to pay me a full salary because I was a student, so I received 400 UAH a month for daily work as a consultant in a clothing store or a manager in various shops (now that's 10 dollars a month). This was only enough to pay for the bus ride to the university; I walked back on foot (public transport in Lviv is the most expensive in Ukraine (now it's almost 1 dollar)). I was rejected for several jobs because of my lack of knowledge of the Russian language, which is an absolute nonsense. Interestingly, among my clients, I had Russians who came to Lviv as tourists. They loved Ukraine and shared their admiration for what they saw, but I had to call my colleagues to translate. By the way, all of them were from Saint Petersburg, so I got the impression that this was the most reasonable city in Russia. I appeared on social media as a student—it was the Russian social network VK, where Ukrainians used to be back then. From the very first days, I received unprovoked hatred from the majority of Russians simply because I am Ukrainian, and seeing that I was from Lviv, they all declared me a Nazi, claimed that all Ukrainian heroes were Nazis, and said chauvinistic things, calling the Ukrainian language a dialect of Polish, Lviv a Polish city, Uzhhorod a Hungarian one, and the rest of Ukraine Russian territory. They used phrases like "You've played at independence, and that's enough," celebrated genocides, particularly the Holodomor, and blamed Ukrainians for it because we wanted freedom and did not submit. They orchestrated provocations on May 9th, and then lied and even deceived the east of Ukraine, telling stories about how we beat veterans in Lviv... So, as a person who cannot tolerate injustice, I began telling the truth and fighting against Russian propaganda long before it became mainstream. Russians threatened me and wrote reports about me to the Russian FSB, but Durov’s VK refused to block me. I strictly wrote in the Ukrainian language, but realizing that my goal was to reach Russians, I started using an online translator, and over time, I somehow began writing in broken Russian myself. In this endeavor, my friends helped me, with whom we played textual role-playing games together. There were quite interesting things, like when my friend Roksolana, who is attractive and has a rather large bust, would put up sexy profile pictures to lure Russians, who eagerly added her as a friend, while the account was filled with exposure of Russian lies about Ukraine. Although we had been doing this for a long time, we became especially active in 2014 with the start of Maidan. We demonstrated to Russians that this was not a coup d'état, as Russian propaganda claimed, and that these were not Nazis, but ordinary Ukrainians whose enemy had become the government. When Russia attacked Ukraine, we showed that these were not "green men" in Crimea or "separatists" in Donbas, but Russian military personnel. We showed how Russians were bombing Donbas, debunking their fakes. We wrote so much that we were put on hit lists by Russian terrorists, and our data was indeed held by Russian intelligence services. And when the full-scale invasion began—on the night of the attack, our accounts were blocked—a notice hung on our pages stating that we were blocked by order of the Russian Prosecutor's Office, including the order number. I looked for new social networks. I was attracted to Twitter, which back then was friendly to Ukrainians. Seeing that Russia was using the exact same narratives here, the same propaganda videos that had already been debunked long ago since 2014, I started doing the same on Twitter in English. People told me that I was the first Ukrainian woman who wrote in English from Ukraine and about Ukraine on Twitter, and therefore I began gaining followers very quickly. But along with the followers, I began to be attacked—people with NAFO avatars declared me a Russian, invented new accusations every month, cyberbullied me en masse, and some even discussed my murder, saying that I was harming Ukraine. But when they were asked to show at least one anti-Ukrainian or pro-Russian post, they blocked the people who did so. I met with people who confirmed my identity, and they also ended up blocked by these individuals. They searched for Russian bloggers whom I resembled to say that it was me, and whenever I wrote any post criticizing the mistakes of the Ukrainian government, because the problems pained me since I live here, they would appear saying, "See, we told you she's a Russian propagandist," and the bullying would start all over again. If you only knew how many people blocked me, how much harm they caused... Despite the attacks, I continued to do my job, fending off attacks from both enemies and those who should have been allies. I was not the only victim among Ukrainians, and I understood that this was a hybrid war by the Russians, who deliberately turn pro-Ukrainian accounts against Ukrainians. I realized my mistake, because instead of making excuses and proving them wrong, I just needed to ignore everyone. Now I live in Ukraine under rockets and drones, and I have a brother in the military who was wounded. Not once have I asked for money or launched fundraisers precisely because of the attacks on me, even though there was a need for money. Having no job, my only income was and still remains Patreon. Thanks to the blog, where I describe life in Ukraine, and publications similar to this one, I am able to buy food and survive, even though I have to save very hard when there is a need to buy something important. Out of hundreds of free subscribers, only a few have signed up for paid tiers, so I write, among other things, not only to show the truth about Ukraine—many people are doing that now—but also in order to survive. I have grown during this time; the war has changed me. I came to hate society but love individuals; I grew sick of hypocrites, but honest and kind people gave me breath; I stopped communicating with the identical masses and began to value personalities; it became repulsive to me to write the news, and I started writing my own thoughts. I wanted to be myself, regardless of whether the world accepts me. I read books, I eat 1–2 times a day, but I buy new books every month—for me, this is more important food, and even if I don't live to see victory, it is still more valuable than material food. I dream of my own home, I dream of my own book, I dream of a time when people don't try to kill me for being Ukrainian. And at the same time, I do not support the politics of hatred, which is why some Ukrainians consider me an enemy too. I want the collapse of Russia, not its destruction; I want the repentance of Russians, not their suffering; I want good for the world, not new wars! I want all of us to live well, to be happy, and for there to be no more evil in the world, so that it is destroyed in its infancy! I want a geopolitical order in which neither war nor terror would be possible! Someone will call it a utopia, but I see it as a reality... Subscribe to my Patreon—the link is in my bio—it is the only thing that sustains me here ;)

In 1658, literacy in Ukraine was among the highest in Europe. Even peasants could read, which shocked foreign travelers of that era.

@wakoppa Деякі особи династії Рюриковичів не існували насправді - їх вигадала Московія, бо не виходило пояснити стосунок Московії до Русі.

@MargoLevko x.com/wakoppa/status… How did Russia appropriate history of Kyivan Rus? Rurik dynasty more preserved in Russia than Ukraine. Mongol invasion, in 1253, declared Ukraine the Kingdom of Russia.

Kyiv was founded in 482 AD. Moscow in 1147 AD. A 665-year difference is longer than the entire history of most modern nations.

@Sigge_L Я не розкажу більше, ніж є в інтернеті)

@MargoLevko Miss Konovalets please tell us about this miracle of Ukraine

The longest gypsum cave in the world, "Optymistychna," is located in Ukraine. It stretches over 260 km. We are a land of hidden wonders.

Yes, I’m used to living surrounded by reasonable, kind people, but the internet brings us face-to-face with the bad and the evil, including even those who hate you simply for existing. To satisfy them, you must die; to become their enemy—be yourself and shine!

It was Russians who taught me not to care about what others think. By expressing negativity & hatred toward beautiful things, they showed me how pointless it is to worry about other people’s opinions, especially when those people come from a completely different moral framework.

Magdeburg rights (city self-governance) arrived in Ukraine in the 14th century. In Russia, this concept never existed—autocracy was the only rule.

The civilized world knew Rus' as the territory around Kyiv. The name "Russia" is a Greek transcription that Muscovy used for rebranding itself.

The Ostrog Bible (1581) was printed in Ukraine. Muscovy couldn't produce its first complete printed Bible for another 100 years.

The first Kings of Rus' ruled from Kyiv. Moscow was originally just a distant province subordinated to the Princes of Kyiv.

The Trident was the personal symbol of Prince Volodymyr in the 10th century. Today, it’s Ukraine’s coat of arms—a 1,000-year-old continuity.

Rus' is the ancient name of Ukraine. Russia stole this name only in 1721 by order of Peter I to hijack our thousand-year history.

When Anne of Kyiv became Queen of France in 1051, she was highly literate. Moscow wouldn't appear until a century after her death.

The library of Yaroslav the Wise in Kyiv (11th century) was one of the largest in Europe. In Moscow, not a single stone building existed at that time.

Prince Volodymyr the Great baptized Rus' in Kyiv in 988 AD. At that point, Moscow wouldn't even be founded for another 159 years.

Ukraine's national anthem is the only one starting with the words "Has not yet perished...". It’s an anthem of a nation that refuses to vanish despite all efforts.