Terrible symmetry of war: Russian missile strikes claim whole families

What a terrible, unbearable symmetry.

First, in Lviv, a whole family was killed by a missile strike — a mother and three daughters, with only the father surviving. Then, in Sumy, another entire family perished — a woman, her sister, and her 14-year-old daughter, while the father survived. Now, in Kryvyi Rih: first, the mother’s body was found, followed by the bodies of three children. Kyrylo was 10 years old, Demid was 2.8, and Ulyana was 2 months old.

And then I saw their father's face in one of the photos, waiting outside while the debris was being cleared...

I can hardly imagine anything worse than this. I keep thinking about these men. About all the other families. I think almost every day about that family from Kyiv, where a 15-year-old girl recently died: debris from a drone hit her room directly, while her parents in their room on the other side of the building survived.

Read also: Russian missile strikes apartment building in Kryvyi Rih: children among injured

There are so many unspeakably terrible tragedies around us. How do we support these people and ourselves, especially when everyone is hanging in anxious anticipation that our country will be forced to stretch in another uncomfortable twine over the abyss? 

In this whirlwind of pain, it's almost impossible to think objectively or rise above the situation. Personally, my planning horizon, like my view of the world, is quite short-sighted. But I continue to somehow believe in the power of small, stubborn steps. "Just hold on to the thread. And hold onto others. We will eventually make it, we will. And the Minotaur will die."

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About the author. Iryna Tsilyk, film director, writer, poetry and prose author, member of PEN Ukraine.

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