Surviving blackout. Why we need to heat with straw and protect independence

Russian propagandists flaunt the fact that they have found a weak point in Ukrainian defense.  And no, it's not even Bakhmut, looking more and more like Passchendaele pictures from World War I. Not the long-suffering nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, which the occupiers use as a shield for many months in a row. Their target is our critical infrastructure. New Coventry and Warsaw. Squeezing the civilian population out of cities that have become fortresses and provide a shoulder to the front around the clock. 

Since October 10, when Russian killers set out to destroy critical infrastructure, there have already been six massive rocket attacks. And there is no sign, according to official reports from the White House, that the Russian Federation plans to stop this terror of civilians. Moreover, even from open data, the Russian forces have enough missiles for 5-6 attacks.  “They conduct preliminary reconnaissance for more accurate strikes and carry out missile repairs, because not everything that has been lying in warehouses for a long time is in perfect condition,” Vadym Skibitskyi, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, said. And the Russians are waiting for frost.

The minimum program that would satisfy the enemies here and now is to repeat the picture of Alchevsk-2006, when the city with a population of 60,000 became unlivable. Burst pipes, accidents and bonfires to brew coffee in the courtyards of Kyiv and Lviv are what, according to Putin, should break the Ukrainian resistance.

And if the shelling is as effective as possible and plunges the country into darkness and cold for several weeks, it would be ideal for Russia to see new flows of refugees. So that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians become a burden for stagnant Europe. And it was possible to pull out the same trump card that Putin successfully used with the previous artificial migration crisis with Syrian refugees in 2015, saying that it is enough to help Ukraine, let's forget everything and freeze the conflict.

Seven years ago, Putin managed to shift the attention of Germany and France from the annexation of Crimea, Ilovaisk, Debaltseve and the search for an alternative to the Minsk Agreements to the problem of refugees. And nowadays it is so convenient to use these new Syrians to expose Ukrainians, whom you already want, if not to kill from the sky, then to freeze in their own homes.

No matter how much Russian liberals hype the fact that Putin has lost his mind or that the old man has not long to live, he is a cynical and cold-blooded animal that acts with a clear calculation. He studied Hitler's handwriting too well and now repeats everything perfectly. Kyiv is very similar to Warsaw in 1939. But our capital was a little more lucky. Because the Ukrainians smashed the Russian elite landing force near Hostomel.

How did the original Nazis destroy Warsaw? On September 25, 1939, the Polish capital was attacked by 400 aircraft at once: 562 tons of high-explosive and 72 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped on the city. Due to the disrupted water supply during fires, many streets burn completely, along their entire length. When the German troops entered the capital, the buildings were destroyed by 12%. The royal castle and important cathedrals were destroyed. Then, according to the lists, museums, libraries, and archives were blown up - all the same things that the Russians now destroy in the occupied territories. And then the main thing - to get the inhabitants of Warsaw to leave their city - the Nazis destroyed the water supply, electricity networks and parks. If we draw an analogy to our days, Russians would be 100% satisfied with Kyiv without any hint of Kyiv and its thousand-year history. If we are talking about Lviv - heaps of rubble and stones instead of the cultural center of our people - all these great-grandsons of the liberators of 1939 - would be happy.

Warsaw after the bombing, photo: gettyimages

No one taught us extreme survival, but this is the science of late enlightenment. And the realization that the national liberation war is not about the quarrels of ephemeral politicians.  This is about a common cause. The Russians will torture us with shelling, cold, and thirst until the very day of our victory. And here there is only one conclusion - accumulate things like your grandmother. Have several kilograms of cereal and several packages of fast-dissolving food. Bottles for technical water and necessarily drinking water. Extra power bank and extra battery. A flashlight at night and a small tourist cooker in an electrified apartment. In case of great trouble, the number of a good friend in the village, where a rough one will save you from the cold, and a piece of land from hunger. It's better that our great-grandchildren laugh at us for bringing home various extra gadgets, but every Ukrainian will have a chance for the appearance of these same descendants.

We now clearly understand the Londoners of 1940 who slept, washed and cooked in the Underground. We understand now where these photos of gardens on every free piece of land in the city came from, and what the large-scale cultivation of carrots was for there - it was almost the only product that grew normally and was a substitute for sugar. The same one that the British had not seen in the area for 8 years.

London, August 1940, photo: gettyimages

And the main thing that Ukrainians should understand during the blackouts is the true price of independence. So that there is no more childishness and indifference.

I want to quote an old interview of Viktor Yushchenko right after the Kharkiv agreements in 2010, when Russia first got the right to occupy the Crimean peninsula in exchange for cheap gas. It was this betrayal that allowed the Kremlin to transfer thousands of troops to Sevastopol.

“One should heat with straw, but be independent. Understand that this is holiness,” the leader of Our Ukraine party emphasized. “Therefore, when they announce with great aplomb the achievements of low gas prices in exchange for military occupation, I cannot welcome such agreements either as a citizen or as a politician,” the former president said in an interview with Channel 5.

The country in 2010 was not ready to understand what the ridiculous beekeeper president was talking about. But he was 100% right. And today, going to bed in a thermal blanket, cooking food on a gas lamp, hanging a bag of food on a cold balcony, because the refrigerator made no sense - it's worth understanding. Because straw is better than a new genocide.

Author: Maryna Danyliuk-Yarmolaeva