Fiona4Ukraine

Easter is a big, important religious celebration in Ukraine. The decorations in Kharkiv are wonderful, as always. Easter traditions are very different here, at least from what I'm used to -  there are no aisles of chocolate eggs in the shops, for instance, but plenty of traditional Paska bread and decorated hard-boiled eggs. For many, going to church is important and so is being with family. This is a nice article about some of the Easter food traditions. https://kyivindependent.com/6-ukrainian-easter-basket-essentials/ Putin, of course, does not respect religion, tradition or human life. As you will know, on Palm Sunday morning, Russia launched two ballistic missiles at a crowded Sumy city centre, in a "double-tap attack." The second missile, fired minutes after the first one, was armed with cluster munitions, designed to inflict even greater devastation. 35 people were killed and  nearly 120 injured. In the early hours of April 18, Good Friday, Russia attacked Kharkiv c...

  Kharkiv Cemetery Number 18, 26 January 2025. I read that a few dozen soldiers, who died in Russia’s first Donbas incursion in 2014, made up a corner of this graveyard. But, after the full invasion in February 2022, their ranks expanded as far as the eye can see. One more fallen hero was added to the ranks today but this one was very personal - the son of one of the Hell's Kitchen volunteers, killed on the frontline. The kitchen was closed so that volunteers could attend his burial. Words/coherent sentences don't seem sufficient to convey the magnitude of the experience; these are images/impressions: - to begin with, the initial shock of the sight of mound upon mound of freshly dug, sandy earth, the graves covered by artificial flower displays, a Ukrainian flag at the head. I was ready for the vastness of the cemetery and the unfathomable number of graves, having seen photos, but not the rawness and immediacy of these piles of earth, not yet settled, and the unsaid implication...