May That Putin Be Cursed

About 25 works by Maria Primachenko Ukrainian folk artist who worked in a striking “naive” style were reportedly destroyed in a Russian attack. There are claims, however, that some paintings were saved from the fire. This is an homage to her piece “May That Nuclear War Be Cursed.”

---

“Oh, my god, they already ruined and destroyed my town, and come to the peaceful civilians, and they killed people and make fire.”

“People really died, ...  by tanks, grads*..... So they [are]  just shelling ... everyone, ... houses, whatever. And, [I] hope they will not go to me.

[*A grad is a Russian truck-mounted multiple-rocket launcher. The rockets, 40 of them at a time, can be launched singly, in groups, on in rapid succession.]

“People! They kill just people,.. not army - civilians. I just let you know because I don’t [know] if I will be alive tomorrow.”

These were audio messages mid week from my former student. She lives in a village near a Ukrainian city under Russian  attack. She’s the one with the wild rabbit which, as reported in my last article, ran into her house and hid under her mama’s bed to escape the war sounds.

She, her mom and the rabbit survived the attack, but after a night that threatened death every moment, her village is now occupied. The region’s phone and internet services were cut the following day. I have heard from her since.

My friends, one on a bus, two on a train, crossed into Poland. The bus finally crossed the border on the third day of waiting. My young friend reported she was sick from the stress. “I am very nervous. Very, very!” she texted.

Her boyfriend, who stayed in Kyiv, insists he is “Fine, thank you!” He has a lot of time to think, and he’s thinking about the war. What’s behind it? Either the west is afraid of Russia, or it is all just a game. I think he means a game among the superpowers.

I tell him the west IS scared - of Putin’s nuclear weapons. They are afraid he is crazy enough to use them.

“Then Ukraine must overcome the monster, which is feared even by world leaders ... This is an incredibly difficult mission.”

I don’t know what to say. I’m too ashamed.

I pass him a list of Kyiv doctors still active and able to see patients. He thanks me and passes it on.

The list comes from another friend who fled with her daughter and friends in a minivan. They started with six people and two cats, now there are eleven people and two cats. They live in a kindergarten school. School is out, but the kitchen is working, sending food to the defenders. My friend’s group are now part of this system of food-making and delivery. Yesterday, they made camouflage netting. I see other Ukrainian friends, including my friend with a water slide business, on social media doing the same thing. Every Ukrainian is doing something useful.

My American friend’s wife got out. She crossed in Hungary, he drove to the border to pick her up. She brought only two shopping bags of belongings. He was stunned to think “98% of our stuff is left behind.” He’s been in Kyiv 20 years.

A banner of support for Ukraine in Krakow, Poland. That is where I am today. I go tomorrow to Germany to meet the friends who got out.

RX

How do you distribute drugs and medications to pharmacies in a war zone? This is the problem my student and his colleagues must solve. Their international pharmaceutical company is used to meeting and working online after two pandemic years. So, it’s not so different that his team continues to work this way, though dispersed to safer locations in Ukraine or neighboring countries. All of the team is accounted for.

My student, his wife and preschool-age daughter are in western Ukraine. It’s rough on him, I can see it in his face. He has a team meeting right after our English lesson. The lesson is the first since the Russian attack. I don’t have a lesson plan, except to let him talk. He says his team has to rebuild a distribution system that doesn’t include warehouses. There are no warehouse workers. The system will likely violate the company’s scrupulous rules. There is no other way. 

He’s studying for an MBA, and is determined to be a corporate executive officer within five years. The Russians have blown big holes in the economy, he says. One of the biggest pharmacy chains was located in Kharkiv. The headquarters is in rubble. Other businesses and buildings are gone. Income streams have dried up. If my student’s team can’t come up with a workable distribution system, their department’s income stream will dry up.

My last bit of news is that another student contacted me. He sent his family to Poland, then helped friends create a humanitarian organization. They funded it with a 100,000 euro grant from Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. It will build small shelters for people in badly damaged cities.

“And we will win! Ukrainians is strong nation!”

I see I need to remind him of some grammar rules.