Easter - celebrations, death, destruction and no sirens for a day

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 city with 3 ballistic missiles, equipped with cluster munitions. The strike killed one person and injured 113, including nine children. More than 50 apartment buildings and over 30 vehicles were damaged.

The day after the Kharkiv strike, Putin announced his cynical PR exercise, an "Easter ceasefire" from Saturday evening until midnight this morning, only for it to be violated by Russia’s military thousands of times, according to reports. President Zelenskyy has called on Russia to genuinely halt drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure for at least 30 days, but this is unlikely to happen.

All that can be said is that there were no air raid alerts on Easter Sunday, which was something to celebrate...an entire day without sirens - a taste of what normal life would be like in Kharkiv. In Hell's Kitchen it was an ordinary working day, with the entrance beautifully decorated and Paska cakes in abundance...


When I returned home, just as I was beginning to think I would have no Easter chocolate, a present awaited - from the wonderful couple who maintain the garden outside my flat, and also look after me!


Hell's Kitchen is continuing to struggle to fund its multiple commitments, which include providing daily nutritious food for hospitals and some military institutions, taking humanitarian aid to mostly elderly people in frontline villages, and other ventures that are too sensitive to mention. This is due to further reductions in funding from our main donor, Nova Ukraine, which has had its funding cut by US Aid. Liuda, Hell's Kitchen's manager, is looking for ways to save money, starting with no longer providing free coffee and biscuits/cakes for volunteers, which is a pity but we foreign volunteers should be able to contribute enough to keep this going. More importantly, Liuda has only been able to pay the kitchen's food bills for the first 10 days of this month - just for chicken and cereals. Vegetable oil and spices are donated, and we have an adequate flour supply for now, but there are daily fresh vegetables, sugar, salt, and other meat and fish to pay for, not to mention things I haven't thought of. Any donations, however small, will make a difference.

There are always unexpected positives to be found, amidst the difficulties. Today, Franklin walked by a local library that was open, unusually, and discovered that there would be a Chopin piano recital in just one hour! I had a day off and lived near enough to make it...a lovely old building and a wonderful piano player.


The weather is beautiful and so are the parks...the flowers are now real!



To make a donation, please:

Open PayPal and, when asked for email, enter sunflower_house@hotmail.co.uk

These are the causes to which I regularly donate - you can specify where you would like your money to go, otherwise I will send it where I think the need is greatest:

Adults For Children supports families displaced by the war.

Hell's Kitchen provides daily, nutritious meals to hospitals in Kharkiv.

Franklin, Hell's Kitchen foreign volunteer coordinator, supports local soldiers and medics.

Fabric for camouflage netting, ghillies and stretchers/seamstress costs 

If you would like to donate to charities that support animals - Animal Rescue Kharkiv 

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