Fiona4Ukraine

 It feels like a long time since my last post. Life has become very busy, sometimes stressful, in the last few weeks, with changes in our foreign volunteer management coinciding with a reduced number of  volunteers. In past years I've posted around Vyshyvanka Day (День вишиванки, the annual celebration of Ukraine's traditional vyshyvanka embroidered clothing), but this came and went on 21 May. This year, as well as people wearing their vyshyvanka shirts and dresses, a more poignant tradition was initiated: embroidered ribbons to tie somewhere, as a reminder of those who have lost their lives in this war. Ribbons were placed at the door of Hell's Kitchen for us to take. I placed mine near my apartment, where I'll pass it every day on my way to work. Russia's attacks on civilians have taken a grim turn for the worse, with significantly more drone and missile strikes, reportedly, over the last 2 months. Last Saturday night Russia used its nuclear-capable Oreshnik missi...

Today, Sunday, I had an unexpected day off. (It's usually hard to fill the rota on weekends.) Whilst sitting on my verandah with a cup of tea, instead of a siren being the first sound I heard, as normal, it was the daily 9 o'clock clanging sound that precedes a nationwide moment of silence, to honour civilians and military personnel killed in the ongoing war with Russia.  But the first siren sounded at 09:48. Yesterday there were still lots of air raid alerts but short ones, almost nervy, as if it was expected that the 3-day ceasefire, 9 - 11 May, wouldn't last. Unsurprisingly, it didn't. During the evening the Russian army launched a drone strike on a nine-story building in the Industrial District of Kharkiv. Fortunately, no-one was seriously injured. Sadly, on the same day, one of the people injured in a missile strike on Merefa, Kharkiv Oblast (Region) on 4 May, died in hospital, bringing the death toll to nine. 35 other people were injured and the impact of the miss...