Wartime Diary, Kyiv, 23.03.22

28th day of the war.

Exactly a month ago my husband and I were celebrating our wedding reception anniversary. I remember it was a hard day, as if at some subconscious level I was expecting something very bad to happen. The air was electrified everywhere. I spent the day at work, had many stressful meetings, some of them quite career-changing for me. The company, as many others, had been preparing for the state of emergency, and so certain challenges were set upon me, too. I didn't quite like them all at the time, tried to negotiate. I remember the general atmosphere of anxiety, foreboding, tension. I remember I cried in the car when my husband picked me up after work. I felt very stressed.

We went to the theatre that night, and it was a fantastic performance. "Like it's for the last time" I said back then. The line to the theatre's buffet was too long, but I needed a glass of champagne so badly that night that we decided to go to a cafe across the street. We had this beautiful conversation with the waitress, all the troubles seemed to have gone away, I felt so peaceful and so sensitive at the same time. We went outside with that champagne and I asked my husband to take a picture of me as for some reason, I wanted to remember that night. It's now pointless to share this pic, but when I remembered of it like a week ago and had a look, it made me cry again.

Kyiv used to be the city of happiness and thriving. Now every morning, I wake up to such news and pictures. Every time new ones. PHOTO CREDIT

Another long curfew has ended. The military administration of Kyiv reported that 149 saboteurs and 10 explosives were neutralized. It is these actions that are the purpose of a long curfew. It is much more convenient to work on the streets and provide security when there are no civilians. We understand this and strictly adhere to these rules. At the same time, the mayor of Boryspil (a satellite city of Kyiv, in which the country's largest airport is located) urged residents of the city to go to safer places so that defense operations in the event of an offensive by enemy troops were carried out more efficiently. After that, rumors began to spread in the city that large-scale battles would soon begin in the city, but Oleksandr Pavliuk, head of the Kyiv Region Military Administration, noted that they were talking about the possible activities of saboteurs, and there was no reason to panic.

Volodymyr Borysenko called on the civilians to leave the town - PHOTO CREDIT

The news that surprised me, made me angry and amused at the same time: in russia, in the process of covert mobilization, men who have debts for alimony and loans are being called. Such data was reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. These people are promised the cancellation of all debts in exchange for participation in the criminal war. Information about the total mobilization of men in the so-called LNR and DNR also continues to spread. The russian bandits are so lacking in the combat army reserve that the mobilization age in these regions has been raised to 65 years, and in russia they even want to involve the so called youth army (17-years-old teenagers). How pathetic can these people be?

russia is considering involving debtors and children in this criminal war - PHOTO CREDIT

Another unpleasant phenomenon that takes place in this war is kidnappings. This is especially true for Territorial Defense Forces, activists, journalists and volunteers. They are taken from their homes, taken to an unknown destination, tortured, forced to record videos pleasing to the russian propaganda machine. Famous journalist Max Levin disappeared on the front line near Kyiv. The last time he got in touch was on March 13 in Vyshhorod district. Hromadske journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was held captive, but she has already been released. There she was forced to record a video with theses beneficial to the occupiers. Now she is in Zaporizhzhia with her family. I think she will soon tell all the truth about the circumstances of her abduction and captivity.

The fate of Max Levin, a well-known photo journalist, is still unknown - PHOTO CREDIT

Meanwhile, the cyber war continues. Anonymous hackers have hacked and leaked the database of Nestle, which stubbornly refuses to stop indirect funding of this war. They have stated before that their main value is caring for ALL people, regardless of external factors. But this war has shown that it is impossible to be apolitical. This leads to reputational as well as security implications. Now the email data, passwords, data from the company's business customers, and much more are all leaked to the network. The hackers promise to do the same with all companies that believe that it is normal to finance the murder of Ukrainian children, women, and the elderly, destroy whole cities and so all these unjustified atrocities they're doing.

Earlier Nestle refused to leave the russian market where they pay huge taxes - PHOTO CREDIT