The Hellish Dimension of This War and War Poetry by Halyna Pastushuk
LETTERS FROM ATTACKED UKRAINE (LeFrAtUk)
MARCH 8-9, 2022
1. A letter of despair from the area of Irpin, near Kyiv
March 9-10 are Taras Shevchenko days in Ukraine. They commemorate the national Ukrainian poet’s birthday and the day of death.
"Good morning. The humanitarian catastrophe is approaching in a dead run in the village of Ivankiv, in the north of Kyiv region. Residents who are still there are suffering not only from the occupiers’ violence. They lack electricity, water, food and medicine. They live in the basements. My wife's parents, 72 years old, and the family of my wife's brother (with two children aged 10 and 12) remained in Ivankiv. They are constantly haunted with the threat to be killed by the occupiers. In this place there are units of so-called "Kadyrov men" (guys from Chechnia famous for their cruelty). It is they who kill civilians, crush them with armored vehicles, kidnap them. These are inglorious bastards. However, they do exist. And the earth still holds them and suffers from them. When people try to leave the village, they simply kill them. There is a video on the Internet with my compatriots killed. Please help. I know the capabilities of the International Committee of the Red Cross. They are not limitless, but you can help the civilians of an ordinary village. Please pay attention! I'm begging you.
2. Information reports of the metropolitan police cannot be read calmly, despite of the dry official language of the report:
On March 8, at about 12 pm in the village of Shevchenkove, Brovarskyi district, Kyiv region, Russian servicemen fired at an Opel car of local residents Yesipenko Serhiy Mykhailovych, born in 1980, and Vashchenko Yuliya Oleksiivna, born in 1984. As a result of the gunshot wounds, the couple died. Due to the fighting in the village, it is impossible to go to the scene.
On March 8, at about 4 pm, in the village of Bohdanivka, Brovarskyi district, Kyiv region, Russian servicemen fired at a VAZ car with three people inside and rolled over it in a tank. As a result of the received injuries the junior inspector of the squadron №3 UPO FB in Kyiv Mironenko Alexander Anatolyevich, born in 1993 died, the other two people`s identity is being investigated. Due to the fighting in the village, it is impossible to go to the scene.
3. Death toll among civilians continues to grow:
As of today, official statistics, obviously lagging behind the real figures, we have 474 civilians dead, 861 severely injured, among them – 52 dead Ukrainian children. Two children born in 2021 and three adults died as a result of an airstrike in the city of Malyn (Zhytomyr region) just two hours ago. 7 private one-story residential buildings were destroyed. The shelling took place at about 9 p.m. There are new corridors established today for evacuation between 9 am and 9 pm
4. The fact that the occupiers will be shot from every window ceases to be an allegory. The Territorial Defense of Ukraine received Instalaza C90 light jet grenade launchers.
WAR POETRY
I’ve got a wonderful PhD student Yulia Vintoniv who’s been investigating the problem of Godforsakedness, a complex topic that became more than relevant at this time of war. She has not yet submitted her thesis, but she has meanwhile produced a whole collection of white verse prayers in Malcolm Guite style. A couple of days ago she produced this piece on Ukraine’s struggle for the basic human values in the world.
THEY CANNOT DESTROY US by Yulia Vintoniv
I know they cannot destroy us
even when I scroll down the news, look at the photos of those remote, unknown, yet dear people
see broken homes, ravaged gardens and
hundreds of frightened faces
I don’t feel anything I used to feel before
horror has covered my body
guilt is desolating my soul
anger is tearing my heart
how shall I overcome the distance to feel the pain of the other’s pain?
if they all have now become so dear, how shall I hold them in my heart and not go mad from losses?
I want to help, to hide the whole country
on the other side of the world,
every centimeter, every little soul and I can’t
between the ruins I see a little girl, embraced by her mother
she is crying and kissing her little ears, forehead, counting her fingers
and I understand, they cannot destroy love
I know they cannot destroy us
Even when I hear the sirens
I am not thinking
of what day it is today, whether it is winter or spring, of which year
of wishing to sleep at least a few
minutes without war
of the fact that night is so short and long at the same time, when you hear explosions around, tanks and fear
of the fact that someone dares to stay alive,
to fall in love, to rejoice, and, after all, even to die with their own death
I am not thinking even of the fact, that there can exist somewhere a shelter from human insanity
the heart is beating so fast, that it suffices only
to run from one corner to another
just to lean against the wall and breathe out
I am thinking of those who are protecting me all day and night
whose names I do not know, but I do know that as long as their hearts are beating, mine will be too
I hear the sounds of the sirens; I see fear in the eyes
around and suddenly, I hear the birds’ song
and I understand they cannot destroy the spring
I know they cannot destroy us
even when I see tears
they are wiped with a manly fist, fingers and then swabbered into a sleeve
they are clutched between the teeth lest they overflow the banks
I am not saying these are the last
I am not asking for anything, even for crying louder
so that I could also yelp between the sobbing
between my thoughts I can hear prayers and curses
although I cannot utter even a word
everything inside of me
is wreathed from anger, hope and helplessness
in the heart that is invisibly grieving for its losses
with the soul that was not preparing for the war
to become our lifestyle
with the faith that is silent like You are,
I know that not a single word will comfort even
if You started talking in all the languages of the world
now Your Crucifix is too essential and enough
and I understand that as long as
we are crying to You
with our hatred, tears, and hope
they cannot destroy us
© Yulia Vintoniv
TARAS SHEVCHENKO AND HIS POETRY
March 9-10 are Taras Shevchenko days in Ukraine. We commemorate the birthday and the day of death of our national Ukrainian poet. Oleksiy Reznikov, the current Minister of Defense of Ukraine quoted his immortal poems standing near poet’s monument: “Fight and you will prevail, as God helps you! As there is justice, there is glory. And the will which is holy”. Maybe these words will finally become a prophecy.
Halyna Pastushuk: Philologist, radio journalist, publicist, translator, PhD in Medieval Literature. Graduate of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (majoring in English Language and Literature), Oxford University (majoring in English Literature). 1994-1999 - worked as a live broadcaster on the local FM radio "Lviv Wave", 1998-2011 - taught literature at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Since 1996 she has been working as a freelance correspondent for the English service of Polish radio (Warsaw) within the framework of the analytical weekly radio magazine "Europe-East". Freelancing experience in consecutive and simultaneous interpretation since 2001. Author of more than 20 literary studies (mostly on English literature), journalistic articles on current topics, a member of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Center (Zaporizhzhia). Married. Mother of three daughters: Halshka (20), Martha (14), Agatha (8).