Round numbers, missile rounds, round and round it goes.
1000 days today, and this is year 10 of the war. That’s a big chunk of her life, says Ekaterina in her latest Five Minute With Ekaterina YouTube video.
“I don’t have many hopes for the future now….it is not finishing soon”
You can watch the video yourself, but to give the main points: she reports on last night’s bombing, which was unusually heavy. Russians tend to mark round number days, anniversaries, and holidays in this way. Her family in Dnipro had an air alarm from 1:00 am until 8:00 or 9:00 am.
The city of Odesa was hit hard. That city currently has no electricity or water. Russians are targeting energy infrastructure, power stations, water pumping facilities. The Russians, says Ekaterina, are using new fire-starting bombs, adding to the terror.
Readers, consider: ten years of invasion, occupation and “frozen” conflict, and 1000 days of full-scale assault. A decade of murder, torture, rape, kidnapping, destruction, mine-laying, and many more foul injustices and atrocities - blatant violations of international law and war conventions. How has the world allowed it to go on for so long?
Donald Trump says he will end it in 24 hours, but its a phrase coined to win American voters, not the war. We have to give him the benefit of the doubt. There is hope that he can make a miracle, but as the saying goes, hope is not a strategy.
A few months ago Ekaterina presented an exhibit in York, UK. She’s been teaching there at at the York St John University, traveling back and forth between there and her home in Dnipro, Ukraine.
I’m honored that the exhibit, Ukraine 21st Century: Peace, War, Refugees, featured many of my drawings. In this video, Ekaterina gives a tour of the exhibit:
I took online Ukrainian lessons from Ekaterina when she was living and teaching in China and when I was living in the US, about to move to Dnipro. We met in person in Dnipro when she returned for the 2019 Christmas/New Year holiday, fortuitously leaving China just before the COVID lockdown. Unable to return to her work there, she stayed in Dnipro turning to online classroom-teaching from home months before the rest of the world had to make that shift.
When the full-out Russian invasion happened, she, like many other civilians, volunteered to help refugees, neighbors and the military. She turned her language-video channel, Five Minutes with Ekaterina, over to fund- and consciousness-raising efforts. In October 2022, I visited the “help-point” in Dnipro. We’ve been interviewed by Eric Bond on the Talk of Takoma radio show on Takoma Radio WOWD.
She continues her work as teacher, volunteer and advocate. She seems tireless and is one of the most hard-working and brave people I know.
Readers, please leave comments and questions. As people leave formerly-Twitter in disgust, Substack chat section is becoming more popular.
Ekaterina’s links:
I often wonder where people like her get their courage, focus, and wisdom from. She is an inspiration