Ukrainian President Zelensky speaks in Borodyanka May 8, with two destroyed and burnt-out houses in the background. Ukraine has not celebrated Victory Day since 2014, but the Day of Reconciliation and Remembrance. According to Russian leader Vladimir, victory in World War II is reserved for Russia alone anyway. My paternal grandfather never spoke of a victory either, he only had a serious leg wound as a reminder of his participation in the war. My grandfather on my mother’s side couldn’t really tell anything because he died somewhere near Königsberg / Kaliningrad in 1944. The others were the winners. A country of permanent wars – since Ivan the Terrible, who had himself crowned tsar of Russia, a country of permanent victories, because such was the outcome of every “military special operation” presented.
A victory is also needed this year. Actually, a victory parade was planned on Khreshchatyk, Kiev’s main street, and the Russian army even carried its parade uniform with it during the invasion in February. But instead of proudly marching through the streets of Kiev and being greeted with carnations and tulips by the jubilant Ukrainian people who were freed from the yoke of the “Kiev regime”, the “liberators” now have to stage a parade in the devastated Mariupol. A small circumstance plan correction. The other Ukrainian areas are being bombed and shelled more intensely.
On the night of May 7, the museum of the philosopher Hryhori Skovoroda (1722-1794) in the Kharkov region was completely destroyed. Absolutely understandable, because the free-thinking, non-conformist Skoworoda does not fit at all into the worldview of Russian neo-imperialism, in which subservience and submission to authorities are the top priorities and independent thinking is generally considered a harmful occupation. On May 7, in the village of Bilohorivka, Luhansk region, a bomb was dropped on the school where most of the villagers were hiding in the shelter. 62 deaths are currently reported. What danger emanated from them and from the school building, could not be determined by independent sources. But it can be assumed that the threat to Russia from Ukraine has been significantly reduced thanks to these (mis)acts.
War hardly changes the nature of human beings, rather it acts as a litmus test
Writing these sarcastic lines distracts me a bit, but when I’m away from my desk I have to think about the usual things of everyday wartime life in the hinterland. We have several requests for medicines and food from our friends from other regions, also from Borodjanka, where hopefully the transport can go in the next few days, we are only waiting for a larger shipment of medicines from the University Hospital in Halle.
An acquaintance of S. and I is now a staff officer in the local defense and has to go east with his unit soon, they need a trailer for transport. We promise him partial financing and the repair of the suitable used trailer. We have very good experiences and memories that have nothing to do with the war in common with the current staff officer W. He owned a bus, which he used to take our student groups to Germany several times for various projects. So also several times to Osterholz-Scharmbeck to the Bredbeck educational center, a wonderful place for international encounters and projects, in which students from Czernowitz, but also many from other Ukrainian regions, took part. Bus rides were just a friendship for us, because otherwise W. was involved as a member of the village council, built a village museum and dreamed of a waste processing plant in his community.
Now his plans have to wait and we can only hope that nothing bad happens to him and that he can realize them after the war. Knowing W., we know that for him it was the only right decision – to oppose the war and not try to dodge it. Because there are enough counter-examples – a few days ago a chief physician of a hospital was arrested in Chernivtsi, who registered five ambulances handed over as humanitarian aid for use in the war zones and on site in the city for an NGO he manages and already a regular one money for a transport to Sakarpattja – with his brother as a driver. A similar incident is reported from Lviv – a businessman and a journalist are said to have stolen humanitarian aid supplies on a large scale. Unfortunately nothing extraordinary. The war hardly changes the nature of the people, it is more like a litmus test, it is often said in Ukraine. Every one of us must be prepared today that he or she will have to pass this test one day.