It's so wild to me to see under that Xiran Jay Zhao's post about the bombed ukrainian printing house comments like "I hope everyone is safe." And I get it, people are saying this out of kindness and pure consern, there's nothing wrong with it. It just shows how little coverage our war has abroad.
No, no one in Ukraine is safe. No one in that printing house was safe, in fact, 7 people died. No one in a huge hypermarket in Kharkiv on Saturday was safe, in fact, there were 18 killed and 48 injured. And all this happened in the span of only a few days.
No one is safe in territories occupied by russians because the whole family can get killed by refusing to give up their home to russian soldiers. And every time ukrainian army liberates some region, they find mass graves and torture chambers there.
No one is safe even far away from the front line and the border with russia, because missiles and drones fly all over Ukraine, and you never know when the next one will land on your house.
Hell, ukrainians aren't safe even abroad, because there's always a chance there will be some crazy russian or russian supporter who will decide to beat or kill us. And I'm not making this up.
I'm aware that I'm more safe than the people close to the front line and the border with russia or in occupied territories. I don't hear explosions every day, unlike my friend from Kharkiv. But that doesn't mean I'm completely safe. Missiles and drones fly by at least several times a week, especially at night, when I don't hear the sound of an air raid siren simply because I'm asleep.
I am not safe.
My family is not safe.
My friends all over Ukraine are not safe.
We're not safe until russia is gone from our territories. That's why we need all that ammunition and aid. War won't magically stop if our allies stop sending us weapons; that's not how it works. We'll just be more unsafe, because russia won't stop unless it is forced to.
Here's ukrainian news sources you can follow that report daily:
United24: Instagram, YouTube, Twitter
Svidomi: Instagram, Twitter
WeAreUkraine: Instagram
(c) Oleksiy Kustovsky
Russia launched a combined missile attack on Ukraine on July 8, targeting the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital (c)
Despite everything, they will remain family for me ...
Попри все вони залишаться для мене сім'єю ...
Burning Ukrainian books isn't enough for russians, they are bombing printing houses.
This is Factor Druk, one of the largest full-cycle printing houses both in Ukraine and in Europe (located in Kharkiv region), where a lot of Ukrainian publishing houses print their books. And today russia bombed it. There are injured and killed.
After reading this horrible news, I went to my bookshelf, and the first comic I picked up was printed by Factor Druk. And you know what's fucking ironic?
It was one of Atla comics.
I have a collection of all Atla comics that are already published in Ukraine, and apparently they were printed by Factor Druk.
I'm sitting here completely devastated, holding these comics like the biggest treasure in the world.
Sometimes I see this misunderstanding and I'd like to clarify it. When Ukrainian say "russian drones/shahed drones/iranian drones," we don't mean this kind of drones:
We mean THIS kind of drones that can carry a warhead and are essentially used as missiles:
While they're not as large, destructive and difficult to intercept as, say, ballistic missiles, they can still cause significant damage. Russia launches them at us every night, but most are successfully shot down.
I love when people say that war in Ukraine is being constantly "shoved down their throats" in the news but for some reason I hear on a daily basis "oh I thought war was over a long time ago" lol
(c) @ ravlykart
Dismantling the Lies of Abusive Parents Masterlist
Resources
Giving you food and clothing is the bare minimum
You don’t owe gratitude for food and clothes you needed as a child
You had the right for basic resources
Parents shaming you for costing money is ironic and stupid
What it means when they say ‘This is MY house’
My house = my rules is blackmail
Children don’t owe absolute obedience for being fed and sheltered
Physical abuse
You are allowed to refuse any touch, not only violence
If they ‘don’t know they’re hurting you’, why do they ignore or punish you when you protest?
Hitting children is irrational and doesn’t work
You cannot ‘provoke’ your parents to abuse you if they’re not abusive
Why do parents hit, manipulate and traumatize children
Blatant Lies
Care, nurture and affection do not make you weak
They’re lying when they say it ‘wasn’t that bad’‘
You wouldn’t have grown up spoiled if not for abuse
You got too affected by it’ is a lie
Your parents are not ‘just too emotionally immature’ to understand abuse
‘You’re not living in the real world!’ is nonsense
You’re not worthless, a burden, ungrateful, or stupid, and your parents know that.
Constant undermining of your accomplishments is abuse
Not being allowed to talk about the past is symptom of abuse
Parents who want you to be happy vs look happy
You are not abusive for resisting abuse
When they claim ‘they didn’t mean it’, it’s still abuse
Your parents are responsible for their own actions regardless of how badly they try to shift blame on you
Psychological abuse
Blind Obedience is not required in a healthy upbringing
Disgust is a weapon abusive parents use on their kids
If they say they love you, but walk all over your feelings, they don’t
Parents don’t have the right to enter your room to scream at you
Parents insisting for you to be ‘tough’ are doing it to hide the trauma
Even if a kid acts like ‘they can take it’, it’s still abuse
Pretending abuse is discipline will leave children permanently scarred
It’s inhumane to control and shame children’s reactions to abuse
Why don’t you already know this? vs Teaching you necessary skills
Acting like they’ll change is escape sabotage
Parents are responsible for protecting children from harm
References to how healthy parenting looks like
Not being allowed to be angry with your parents is psychological abuse
If parents want you to act the way you did when you were little, they’re dangerous
Threats about how hard your life will be later on, are bad for you
Lack of continuity and ever-changing rules will cause anxiety
Forced obedience will lead you to abusive relationships
Parents acting like you’re a ‘bad child’ is a shame tactic to control you
There’s healthy and abusive ways to give children chores
Revisioning the past and insisting you remember it wrong is gaslighting
If your parents make you suicidal, they’re abusive
Parents threatening ‘they could be worse’ is abuse
Always assuming the worst intentions for your actions is wrong
Keeping children hostage in abuse is torture
If this hits home, also read Recognizing Abuse Masterlist
"Liberated Bucha" (Звільнена Буча) by Anton Logov
Ukrainian Cossack Hero by Ukrainian contemporary artist and illustrator, Kateryna Shtanko (Катерина Штанко)
This is an illustration to the book "Mykhailyk, the Cossack Orderly" ("Михайлик, джура козацький") by Maria Pryhara (Марія А. Пригара, 1908-1983), Ukrainian writer and poetess (Київ 1987).
It is a fan&didactic account, existing only for promoting Ukrainian heritage worldwide. Copyright belongs to the Artist/Museum.