October 22nd, 2022

I write again under air raid sirens in the whole country, as usual these days.

As you might have seen in the news, electric system has been hit in several places in the whole country, also in Kyiv, and today we don’t only have air raid sirens but also alarms of electricity shortage which says that at any point electricity can be cut off (which has been happening already, at least where I am).

These days have been harder as I am grounding, even more, what this whole thing means, realising how vile (or whatever other word with such sense) can be such continuous bombing with various aims including, for sure, leaving millions of people with no energy supply. The winter here is very tough normally and without heating system, gas supply and/or electricity can become unbearable and deathly. I don’t know what you would think about it, for me I feel it like a proper genocide from here.

So far, it is not that cold and not so severe problems regarding electricity supply, but for sure it will be if bombing power stations keeps happening every day, as reparation work and the strategy on shifting/decreasing electricity usage won’t be enough.

A couple of days ago I was having a meeting with my dear friend Olesia, a walk around the city, a coffee, it very special seeing each other again… then sirens were on (as it happens). As we were engaged in a very deep conversation we even didn’t realise about sirens but how I knew about them was because a friend of mine from Spain told me that Spanish TV said that sirens were on in Kyiv, live broadcasted. It is weird how news representation can be fluctuating that much from such immersive focus to non, however, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen anymore.

I would like to share some images of that day, after that moment, when I was for some hours at Lva Tolstogo underground station in the center of Kyiv, taking this place as shelter, sharing space with many people who gathered there waiting for the attacks to end.

Being surrounded like this is very powerful but also stressful and emotional at many levels. That day a group of teenagers gathered together to sing, they sang for hours. This music accompanied us in those waiting hours, it was very very important for many of us who gathered around.

Still I don’t reject a single moment that I am here, I am fine dealing with the situation, trying to be useful while living what I chose. I hope this text keeps adding something for those who read. I keep thinking that I am not such good writer and maybe such testimony isn’t useful but I want to share, at least, some words.