Aran 🇪🇺

I was, of course, thinking mainly of Ukraine that day, and the state of the world. Now I will need it very personally, too. I'll be around, but probably (re)posting less than usual. Fingers crossed that by this time next year, the light will have returned... for all who need it.

@The_Davos_Man It also gave us The Most Baltic Apology

Oikean suuntainen äänensävy. Jotain johtamista. Eurooppa on 10x Venäjän talous. Ukrainan sotilaallisesti kyvykäs. Meillä on enemmän varaa tukea Ukrainaa, kuin sotia Amerikan sotia Hormuzissa. Ei Trump tule meitä omista sodistaan palkitsemaan.

💔 Ukrainian elderly woman pushed husband 13km to safety through Russian fire.

Just to make sure Americans get this: The only three countries negotiating in the early 1990s the Ukrainian nuclear disarmament and NPT accession were Russia, the US, and Ukraine. Why? The Soviet nuclear ICBMs left in Ukraine were directed at North America and not at Europe.

If funds paid by NATO allies for Ukraine are redirected to refill US stockpiles for another war, that is not burden-sharing. It is a misuse of trust. European countries contributed that money for one purpose: helping Kyiv resist Russian aggression. Those resources cannot become a blank cheque for decisions taken elsewhere. Allies deserve transparency, loyalty and respect for the mandate attached to every euro.

It is a theft. Not a trust issue; that trust has long gone.

In Chernihiv region A 95-year-old man was killed as a result of russian drone strikes on one of the settlements. residential house got hit and caught fire.

This story from four years ago still gives me chills. The faint-hearted should not read it. Christina Jolos shares a horrific account of how they escaped Mariupol four years ago. Here is her story: Yesterday, at our own risk, we left Mariupol under gunfire. We stayed overnight in a field in a gray zone. It was freezing outside. Thank God we are alive. We are alive to scream that everyone who stayed in Mariupol needs help. This is not a city of heroes; this is a city of fear, death, and horror. We didn’t have a humanitarian convoy. No one evacuated us. We ran behind cars under fire, joined a group, and taped “Children!” signs on our cars. I personally put my own son in the car to the sound of a rocket exploding not far from us. No one saved us. We saved ourselves, with the help of God. There is no connection in the city. No water, no gas, no ambulances. People with torn limbs bleed in the streets, and no one can help them. These are peaceful people, our acquaintances and relatives. The dead are simply covered with soil where they lie. Their relatives can’t even find them later. Most often, these people are killed while searching for water, standing in lines, or cooking soup over a campfire. Yes, we collected snow, warmed it over a campfire, and cooked macaroni. My family was in the bomb shelter of a high school. Three days ago, a shell fell nearby and shattered some of the windows. A woman was wounded in her hip. She lay all night on the first floor of the school, asking someone to give her poison so she would not feel the pain. There was no one to take her to the hospital. Every day and every night, there are shots, whistles, shaking walls, and one question: “Where will it hit?” Doctors at the hospital, or what remains of it, work heroically. They perform surgeries. They save people. The woman with the wounded hip was taken by the Red Cross within a day. I pray for her to survive. Two shells hit our building and two struck our yard. One tore off a neighbor’s leg. My mother, Angela, and my three brothers, Roman (16), Vasya (11), and Vladislav (9), live in a city-center building on the fifth floor. My mother-in-law, Lyubov, and father-in-law, Anatoly, live on the ninth floor. This building is now completely damaged. There are almost no shelters left in the city, no bunkers with ventilation. At best, people hide in basements. My mom’s building doesn’t have one. People need to be evacuated: women, children, and the elderly. I pray for my loved ones, for every resident of Mariupol, and for every Ukrainian soldier. The enemy came to us and left us no choice. There is nothing more valuable than human life. This must end. There is no food, no medicine. When the snow is gone, people will not be able to collect water. Pharmacies and grocery stores are either looted or burned. The dead are not taken away. The police recommend that relatives of those who died of natural causes open the windows, place the bodies on balconies, and later take them to church. I know you think you understand what is happening, but you never will unless you have been here. I can hear sirens now, and I am no longer afraid. Earlier, there was no power for 16 days in Mariupol, so we were not warned before planes dropped bombs on us. I beg everyone to stop this. I don’t know what will happen next, but I pray this never happens again in any city in Ukraine or anywhere in the world. Nobody deserves this: not a pregnant woman in a hospital who lost her life when a shell struck; not a mother trembling in fear while shielding her child in a hallway; not an elderly man left without a chance of survival; not wounded civilians dying in the streets. Nobody. They show you how buildings burn, but they don’t show you how people burn. Do I need to burn myself for you to believe that this must stop? I beg you to stop this. Praying for the people of Mariupol.

KALLAS: Russia is trying to get those territories they haven't been able to conquer militarily in 12 years around the negotiation table. It's the Russian playbook of negotiations: they are demanding something that has never been theirs. This is a trap we should not fall into.

Read @Kasparov63's appeal to @RepDonBacon: "If young Ukrainian men and women can sacrifice their lives to defend the Free World, can’t an outgoing congressman sacrifice his partisan loyalty to defend Ukraine?" thenextmove.org/p/can-this-gop…

They skate because someone fights. At the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Ukrainian ice dancers Mykyta Pohorielov & Mariia Pinchuk performed despite an injury-filled season. Pohorielov is from Enerhodar. His father is defending Ukraine. They raised a banner signed by soldiers in Zaporizhzhia: “WE STAND so you can compete.” Standing ovation. While russian skaters return, Ukraine reminds the world who makes sport possible at all.

Fantastic to be here today in Lviv at Superhumans. We are speaking here today and also discussing how we can help them more in the future. We'll try to do a live stream today at some point with the soldiers who are willing to take part and discuss further the advances they're making here in treatments of extreme trauma. #StandWithUkraine #UK #SuperHumans

2 квітня 2022 року росіяни розстріляли тисячі молочних корів і телят ТМ "Агромол" під Харковом ,як расказують очевидці даже не давали корів годувати Росіяне нелюди #RussiaTerrorist

Just 1 person to make a difference & create a domino effect. @PuredaleSmith is that person who managed to get the Worlds greatest referee ever to retweet it @Nigelrefowens Well done Soup, 4,600 impressions already Help will come. We are totally over the moon with this

🧵 1/6 — During today’s parliamentary question session, Chancellor Merz gave a rare information exchange on the Taurus KEPD-350 – the delivery of which to #Ukraine he himself had vehemently demanded – and in doing so, he spread many half-truths. Here is my detailed fact-check.

Vielen Dank für den wichtigen Thread zum #Taurus @deaidua! Auch für die @bundeskanzler muss gelten: Fakten statt Fake News! Leere Versprechen helfen der Ukraine nicht weiter.

🏘️ A Russian attack damages journalist Andrii Hryn’s apartment in Kramatorsk for the third time The apartment of Andrii Hryn, editor-in-chief of News of the Kramatorsk District, was damaged in a #Russian strike on Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region on March 25. He reported this on his Facebook page. 🗣️ “Just some terrible luck… We had just finished the surgery when the enemy prepared its ‘surprise’ in the form of shelling. Yesterday, an enemy Molniya-2 UAV hit near my house. Fortunately, no one was injured. However, the apartment and equipment were damaged,” the journalist wrote. In a comment to Detector Media, Hryn said that the blast wave completely destroyed the balcony unit and frame in one room, shattered a window in the kitchen, and knocked a water heater off the wall in the bathroom. According to him, the enemy drone was targeting the wall of his home but fell a few meters short and exploded nearby. No one was at home during the attack. The journalist himself was undergoing lung tumor removal surgery at a hospital in Dnipro at the time. He learned about the strike immediately after being transferred from intensive care to a regular ward. #RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaIsATerroristState #UkraineNeverSurrenders

Venäjän media ei tällä kertaa syytäkään Suomea drooni-iskuista Leningradin alueella. On löytynyt aivan uusi, mielikutuksellinen reitti, jolla pyritään selittämään se, miksi drooneja ei saatu ammuttua alas.

Remembering the victims of the russian genocide in Mariupol. 🖤 Dmytro Shuvalov, 17 🖤 Nataliia Shuvalova, 48 🖤 Serhii Shuvalov, 45 "I know that in Mariupol, parents tried not to go out together — so that at least one of them would stay with the child, just in case… The story of the Shuvalov family — one of many, yet especially tragic. After both parents were killed, a boy with cerebral palsy was left alone in a locked house. He was found dead in May, 2022. Nataliia lived with her husband Serhii and their adopted son Dmytro in a private house in the Kalmiuskyi district. On March 27, 2022, the couple went by motorcycle to collect humanitarian aid. That day, russian troops entered the area. On their way home, Nataliia and Serhii stopped at an intersection near the Neptune swimming pool. Witnesses said the couple was killed by a sniper. They were buried by the traffic lights on the roadside. Dmytro had cerebral palsy. After his parents were killed, he was left alone. He could not take care of himself. Due to the lack of assistance, as well as cold and hunger, the boy died around late March or early April 2022. He was found dead in May. How long he survived after losing his parents is unknown. 🥀 Nataliia Shuvalova worked as a nurse in the surgical department of Hospital No. 4. 🥀 Serhii worked as a paramedic at an emergency medical station. 🥀 "Dima was a quiet and calm boy. He loved drawing and listening to music. He used a laptop. He enjoyed being around people and loved going for walks. He wanted to be like his peers, to play on the sports ground, but he was very ill…," said his aunt Nataliia. Eternal memory 🖤" Source: Memorial: Killed by russia, Natalia Dubchak Dedova.

Thank you to @Johnson4Dallas for welcoming First Lady of Ukraine @ZelenskaUA in Dallas and for supporting initiatives that bring our communities closer. The Ukrainian Bookshelf at the Dallas Central Library opens more space for Ukrainian voices, stories, and history to be heard.