Since 2014, Ukraine has been affected by a conflict that was triggered by the Russian aggression on Crimea and the subsequent separatist war in the Donbass region. The conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries, with millions of Ukrainians being displaced. In this difficult time, volunteers in Ukraine have played an important role in helping the Ukrainian army and civilian population.
Currently, the hospital accommodates about 300 children of all ages. Halyna, the medical director of the clinic, takes us on a tour of the hospital and emotionally recounts the first months of the cruel war. In the corridors, we see full water tanks as the hospital prepares for future crisis situations. We are led to the maternity ward to see the smallest patients in the hospital. We ask if we may photograph and document, and all agree, smiling sadly at us. Sirens in Kyiv sound several times a day, prompting many of the young patients to be moved.
Freedom - a word with many meanings. For some, it's just a term, but for others, it's an indispensable value that determines their lives and actions. Freedom is at the core of the liberal context and is also crucial for Ukraine. Ukraine has faced many challenges in recent years and has sought to defend its freedom and sovereignty. It's a struggle that is often difficult and sometimes even painful, but it's also a necessary fight to secure the country's future.
Until recently, I was planning to publish my new article about the sacralization of women in Ukrainian society with different words, but having already completed my text and worked on my editing, I was scrolling through the feed on Instagram and came across a poem from my close friend Artur Dron. It was writing published a few minutes ago. Until February 24, Artur was just a student and wrote poetry, even publishing his own collection "Wohnhein Nr. 6". Now Arthur is at war. He protects the motherland.
A woman is a writer, volunteer and doctor. A woman is a teacher, an artist and avenger. A woman is a human rights defender and an innovator. A woman is a scientist. A woman is a singer and an actress. A woman is a postman. Ultimately a woman is a warrior.
“We are faced with a choice between slavery and freedom. We choose freedom!" said Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in the German Bundestag back in 1952. His words are to be understood in the context of the world situation between East and West at this time. It was about Germany's status back then. Which side of the Iron Curtain does Germany want to be on? On February 27, 2023 and 71 years after Adenauer's words, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation chose this sentence for a packed program of events in the heart of Berlin.
No, when I talk about the local "conspiracy theorist", I am not talking about the pandemic, which seems to be thankfully over. Unfortunately, it`s about a topic that is still current: the invasion of the Russian terrorist state in Ukraine.
I am a human rights politologist militant artist from Venezuela living in Italy where I'm now a citizen. I had to flee my country of birth because of my family's political history given that my father was practically the right hand to the last truly democratic President Carlos Andres Perez before the upcoming of the chavista revolution era.
I reached Ukraine after a long bus drive from Kraków to Leopolis. On the first part of “A Venezuelan in Ukraine” I talked about the moment when I crossed the Rubicon, when going across the border from Poland. I illustrated it with an image describing my first impressions when leaving the bus at the city’s main square, under full darkness across the train’s and buses’ station.
I am in a bus, going to Ukraine, weighing the look for adventures and choices that led to this trip, not without anxiety, but with, at the same time, the parallel courage and certainty, of being at ease walking at the right side of history. A nun is sitting next to me, on one side, and at a right a kid with his little brother and his mother, but missing the father; he is not with them. The kid tells me that he is fighting for them and their country.
