It has been months since we have heard any news about Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian fighter pilot that has been falsely imprisoned in Russia for over a year. At Planting Flowers of Freedom and Peace, we have done several posts on Nadiya, like this one.
Today, I would like to share the first update I have found on Nadiya, from Maidan Translations. It is a letter written by Nadiya and translated.
Nadiya Savchenko: “You will hear from me yet!” #FreeSavchenko
Image from Twitter: ВО Батьківщина
By Nadiya Savchenko, via Vira Savchenko (sister)
06.22.2015 Translated by Maria Stanislav and edited by Voices of Ukraine
To the people.
You write to me a lot. I’m sorry I cannot reply to all letters, but I am endlessly thankful to you for them, and for hearing what you think.
You would like to hear more from me, but in Russian prisons, not only are my hands tied, my lifeline is cut off, and also my mouth is taped shut…
I know and understand everything about Ukraine, inside and out, and this all pains me very much!..
But I want to offer you more than just words. I would rather act! In every way I can! And you will hear from me yet!…
I have a happy post to leave with you tonight. May these photos show you that even in the midst of tragedy and sorrow, there can be joy.
Courtesy of 1,000,000 People United Around the World in Support of Ukraine's Fight for Freedom(S.V.):
A and S wanted are a young couple that wanted to be married for the past year. However, it has been prevented by the war in Ukraine, as A is a soldier. He has already been in the hospital twice, treated for injuries. So, the couple planned to simply go into a registry office and sign. However, friends and volunteers put together a beautiful wedding for them, on very short notice.
Congratulations A and S! Many blessings to you in this new chapter of your life together.
"But buried deep beneath All our broken dreams we have this hope:
Out of these ashes... beauty will rise and we will dance among the ruins We will see Him with our own eyes Out of these ashes... beauty will rise For we know, joy is coming in the morning... in the morning, beauty will rise"
If you remember, I did a post a few days ago, on a group of Kyiv Soloists who were doing a concert on Friday night, called Night Serenades. Today I have some new pictures to share for the event that raised support and awareness for the political prisoners that are being falsely detained in Russia.
Here at Flowers of Freedom and Peace, we would like to extend our warmest thanks and support to the musicians, audience and everyone who made Friday night possible. Though we could not join you in person, you were in our thoughts.
For months, President Vladimir Putin has been denying the presence of Russian soldiers in the country of Ukraine. VICE News challenges this, tracking a Russian soldier moving into Ukraine by using social media.
Not only does this blog seek to celebrate Ukrainian culture, it also seeks to unite those working together to plant flowers of freedom and peace, no matter what country they are from. Hopefully, this article about a 17 year old Muscovite demonstrates this.
Courtesy of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
By Dmitry Volchek and Robert Coalson
June 12, 2015
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Aleksandr Herzen, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov. Now, a 17-year-old from a Moscow suburb is joining such notables in the long-standing Russian tradition of being exiled for his political views. "All the democrats in Russia were sent into exile," teenager Vlad Kolesnikov says, "and I feel like I have been sent into exile."
For some weeks now, Kolesnikov has been leading a quixotic and lonely campaign to protest Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea and Moscow's involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Most recently, he wore a T-shirt with a Ukrainian flag and the words "Return Crimea" on it to his school in the Moscow suburb of Podolsk. He tells how a school official met him outside the classroom.
"You know, I will never forget how he looked," Kolesnikov tells RFE/RL's Russian Service. "At first he looked at me like a normal, sane person. But when he saw my shirt, he looked into my face and I saw such hatred!"
In class a few minutes later, Kolesnikov says, the student sitting in front of him turned around and said, "Kolesnikov, do you want me to smash in your face now or later?"
A few days later -- after Kolesnikov published a couple of Facebook posts about the incident -- he was jumped by some classmates. He insists that he wasn't beaten up. "It was just a split lip, a few bruises, some bumps on the head, and three drops of blood," he says.
Last Straw That was the last straw for Kolesnikov's grandfather, a former KGB officer in whose apartment the youth was living in Podolsk. He packed Kolesnikov off on a train to his father in the Samara Oblast town of Zhigulyovsk.
[...] When he called to tell his grandfather he had arrived safely, he was told a couple of police officers had stopped by asking where he got a Ukrainian flag and what had become of the infamous T-shirt.
He has been unenrolled from his school -- officially, "at his own request," he has been informed.
The blue-and-yellow T-shirt, though, was not the beginning. Kolesnikov's life as an outcast began a few weeks earlier when he showed up at the local military commission for his medical examination and his conscription registration. Kolesnikov says he had no intention of serving in the military or fighting in Ukraine.
"As I was going in, I decided to turn on the Ukrainian national anthem [on his cellphone] because I do not support the Russian Army and consider it shameful to serve in it. So I turned on the Ukrainian hymn and said, 'Guys, I will not fight in the Russian Army. I will not go.'"
Stunned silence was quickly followed by outraged shouting. In the end, the registration commission handed Kolesnikov a form in which it said he had "a personality disorder."
Social Media Solidarity Kolesnikov admits that very few people in Podolsk share his views. But, [he says] "I am already planning to leave Zhigulyovsk, go to Moscow, and stage a couple of protests," he tells RFE/RL. "If anyone thinks I am going to get a passport and leave for Ukraine and that will be the end of this, they are mistaken."
Life has been busy here! Banquets, ceremonies, final exams, graduation, gymnastics...the list continues! I have also been busy advocating for more Ukrainian orphans through Veronika's Prom. Now that the advocating has slowed down, I wanted to get the blog updated!
Here is a beautiful photo post, courtesy of Euromaidan Press:
I had the opportunity to see this documentary several days ago.
And my soul ached.
This is real footage from the Maidan protests that occurred from November 2013 to February 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine. Having been to Ukraine around this time, I can say that I have fallen in love with the country, the culture and the people.
I have celebrated with them. I have cried with them.
Even though I am not Ukrainian, I support them.
Their tragedies are my own tragedies.
Their heroes, my heroes.
I know that it may sound strange. How can someone feel so deeply about a culture that is not their own, whose people are not theirs? I do not know.
As column of vehicles with the bodies of the fallen Ukrainian Soldiers are brought home, Ukrainians fall on their knees in honor and respect of their sacrifice. (Kolomiya, Ukraine. Spring 2015) ~Shared by Euromaidan Press
Please take time to read Viktoria's story. This is story is not an exception. It is reality.
Ukraine suffering the world doesn't see
By Radoslaw Rzehak
Radoslaw Rzehak, Emergency Coordinator for UNICEF Ukraine, recently led an aid convoy into Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The views expressed are the writer's own.
(CNN)One-year-old Viktoria lives almost entirely in the dark.
She was born in Donetsk, as the crisis in eastern Ukraine was taking hold last year. Now, she and her parents stay in a putrid cellar that also serves as a bomb shelter, on the outskirts of the city. They are usually packed in tight with dozens of other people.
It takes torchlight to see their faces: children, women, men and the elderly, sitting in a sea of filth. There is no water and no toilet, just buckets overflowing in a space where people have to eat and sleep. This is the world Viktoria has experienced so far, the place where she is having to learn to talk and walk.
It's an extraordinary contrast with just a few years before, when Donetsk was a thriving city that helped host the European Football Championship. Now the streets are empty and most of the shops are closed. The shelling is so incessant that our driver tells me it feels like having techno music playing constantly in the background.
I hear a lot about the politics of the Ukraine conflict: which leader has said what to whom, the provenance of arms, the big picture. What is missing from the debate is the people -- it is ordinary citizens who are suffering the most. Behind the grand headlines, there are children in desperate need who are suffering now and who will continue to suffer the consequences of the crisis in years to come.
Around 1.7 million children are affected by the conflict in Ukraine -- including more than a thousand who are seeking refuge in bomb shelters in Donetsk. These are not modern bunkers. They are freezing holes, normally in the cellar of a house, which are simply unfit for human habitation. If a building collapses in a bombing, everyone will be buried.
That is why in Debaltseve, for example, aid organizations are bringing body bags with them. Children are unbelievably stressed. They have seen friends and relatives die. They are afraid to even step outside of the cellars, as they fear they will never come back.
On a recent U.N. aid convoy into Donetsk, UNICEF delivered more than 27 metric tons of essential hygiene supplies, education kits and drinking water. We made sure we prioritized the neediest children -- those in underground bomb shelters as well as those who are living with disabilities, who have been orphaned or who are affected by HIV. But this is not the sort of childhood one would imagine for 21st century Ukraine.
In a country where children are too often institutionalized, the ongoing crisis can only exacerbate the problem. Social systems are collapsing and children are bearing the brunt. In an orphanage for babies born to HIV-positive women, we found there were no tests to check if babies were HIV positive or not, let alone the necessary medication to treat them. These babies are in limbo -- nobody wants to adopt them and their status is not known.
This area of Ukraine had one of the highest level of HIV before the conflict began. Now we just have no idea how bad the situation has become. Elsewhere, we found children in detention in Donetsk who hadn't seen relatives in more than a year. In a center for children with disabilities, mothers told us they had no insulin for their diabetic sons and daughters.
We have to help these children now, but also plan for when the fighting stops -- people will need new homes, and we'll have to deal with unexploded ordnance and the terrible psychological damage on children, among other things. This is not a case of delivering aid now and that's the end of the story. We need to commit for the long term.
Until then, though, the needs are huge and resources are scarce. In December, UNICEF called for additional support of $32.4 million to scale up its humanitarian response to address the urgent needs of children and families in conflict-affected areas in Ukraine. Today the needs are even greater.
In the basement shelter, Viktoria's parents cradle her tightly. They ask me the same question again and again: "When will it all be over?"
26 world leaders to attend Putin's Moscow Victory Day parade
Russian troops march during the Victory Day Parade in Red Square in Moscow, Russia,
May 9, 2014 (AP Photo)
Many Western leaders have rejected invitations from Moscow to attend WWII anniversary parade .
Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine reports that a total of 26 world leaders have confirmed their attendance at Moscow events to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, according to a statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "Invitations have been sent to 68 heads of state, as well as leaders of the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the European Union. As of yesterday, leaders of 26 states, UNESCO and the Council of Europe confirmed their attendance,"Lavrov said at a meeting of the Victory Day organizing committee.
Confirmed attendees include the leaders of China, North Korea, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Greece, Slovakia and Cyprus,according to the minister. However, a number of prominent world leaders have snubbed the celebrations over Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has confirmed that she will not attend Victory Day celebrations in Moscow this year. US President Barack Obama has also confirmed that he will not be joining the ceremony on May 9, which marks 70 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Also not attending are the leaders of France, the UK, the Baltic states and Poland.
The snubs from major world leaders will have particular resonance in Moscow, where the Soviet victory in WWII is regarded as a source of great national pride and serves as one of the cornerstones of the post-Soviet Russian national identity.
**Update March 21, 2015: Bulgaria has also declined the invitation to the Victory Day parade
Among the “nationalities” some in Crimea declared were Elves, Hobbits, Goblins, Orcs, and Martians — or “simply a human being” or “a resident of the world.”
There are many ways that the powerless can protest their status – jokes, indifference and contempt, among them. But some residents of Russian-occupied Crimea have come up with a new one – they’ve come up with some invented nationalities to show what they really think of their new Russian overlords. The occupation authorities conducted the census last October but released the results only last week. Most people answered in conventional ways, although the Russian officials said that some did not want to answer any questions at all and others provided answers that suggest that they didn’t take the Russian measure at all seriously. Among the “nationalities” some in Crimea declared were Elves, Hobbits, Goblins, Orcs, and Martians — or “simply a human being” or “a resident of the world.” Others said they were Arians, Scythians or Novorossiyans. Moscow may not be unhappy with the latter, but it can hardly welcome the former. There are, of course, precedents for making such declarations. Small but statistically significant numbers of Russians made similar declarations in the 2002 and 2010 censuses in that country, apparently because they wanted to invoke their constitutional right to declare any nationality they want or not to declare one at all. Indeed, for many in the Russian Federation, that right which has been trampled on by the Putin regime which wants to fix the nationalities of its subjects as tightly as possible is a terribly important one because it gives people a freedom they never had in Soviet times to decide who and what they are. Now, some in Crimea are asserting the same right because they too want to be free, a status that the Russian occupation forces oppose and certainly have reason to fear. If the residents of Crimea refuse to fit in to the categories Moscow has established, Russian officials will have another problem that they don’t know how to cope with – except by force and lies.
Edited by: A. N.
About the Source:
Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. Earlier he has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
We would like to invite you to take part in the global movement to call for the release of Nadiya Savchenko.
Nadiya is a Ukrainian pilot who was taken across the boarder into Russia and falsely imprisoned. Tomorrow will be her 79th day on a hunger strike. People not only in Ukraine, but also France, Ireland, Japan and even Russia have been calling for her release. In a recent interview, Nadiya expressed that she believes she will live for only two more weeks.
We would like to cordially invite you to stand up for Nadiya and tell the world about her bravery, courage and sacrifice.
Tomorrow, we would like to invite you to make a nametag or a sign that says "Ask Me about Nadiya," or "Free Savchenko" etc. Even if you could only wear the nametag for 15 minutes, anything will help to raise awareness for Nadiya.
If you choose to participate, we ask that you would kindly consider sending us the photo of you with your nametag or sign. We would like to collect as many photo's as we can and post them on the blog!
Thank you for your time and we sincerely hope you will join us and others around the world as we take a Stand for Nadiya.
