From Dmytro in Kyiv 3rd February 2023
A defiant image from a proud nation fighting for their survival. I have been moved by how Ukraine has refused to accept the world’s expectations that the Russian invasion would overwhelm them. Sometimes the concept of a nation “mobilising” and news of the statistics of senseless destruction is too hard to take in. The numbers killed or wounded, the thousands of homes destroyed, the millions displaced. In some measure a situation can only be comprehended through an individual’s story.
I just hear explosions now. It’s already two hours. In contact with friends to know that everyone is alive. Your letter is near me. I didn’t have time to send it. But I’m planning tomorrow.
New Years Eve, 2022
Then a message at the beginning of February:
Yesterday I had my birthday. I didn’t celebrate. But two friends came to visit me. It was nice. …
Recently, I collected money to provide necessary things for my friend at the front. I was able to raise $3,000 in three days and buy something important. In Ukraine at the moment, this is a lot of money.
4th February 2023
I am not sure whether I, when in my twenties, would have had the resilience, the gumption, to put aside my ambitions and lifestyle and just get on with whatever needed to be done? I guess when it’s fight or flight, and your friends, family and culture face an existential threat, the choice is stark.
Tractor and snake
The picture on the postcard – the plucky tractor hauling away a broken and defeated Russian tank – is typical of images that have been made. It became well-known through the second competition to design a new Ukrainian stamp.
The first competition had resulted in an internationally celebrated stamp design which memorialised the Snake Island incident, when a small garrison of defenders defied the order to surrender by a Russian warship and gave their response “Russian warship, go f**k yourself!” It is unclear whether any of them survived.
Under the Cover
The stamps on the envelope are the “U” denomination of 28 June 2022, celebrating Children’s Art, and a vertical pair of “F” denomination of stamps with the St George & Dragon arms of the Kyiv Oblast, one of the 27 main administrative regions of Ukraine. The stamps are “pen cancelled” with blue biro instead of bearing a postmark. These small gestures probably tell a story of disruption and destruction of the nation’s infrastructure. But the mail gets through – people are doing their job, determined to live on. The envelope is a first day cover (“Premier Jour”) for the issue of a stamp showing the arms of the Kharkiv Oblast in the North-East, bordering Russia. In 2022 much of the Kharkiv Oblast was invaded and occupied by the Russian army, but most was retaken by the military counter-offensive.
Dmytro was a TV presenter and music producer before the war. Now, like so many young men, he is having to support the defence efforts. But some of his creative colleagues and friends have continued to make art, record music and videos to keep their cultural life alive and to raise moral at home and awareness abroad. He has introduced me to some powerful music videos by contemporary Ukrainian artists. (See links below). His pride in his city and country are evident:
I want to say THANK YOU to all the countries that are helping us. Your kindness will surely return to you!
…
Mood drone video about Kyiv – https://youtu.be/vMnkBovyTPc (some places are destroyed by russian bombs already). But we will fix it!
from Dmytro’s PostCrossing profile
Links
- CEPASA – Київ (Official Video) – YouTube (see how beautiful Kyiv is in this breath-taking drone footage)
- KAZKA – I AM NOT OK [Official Video] – YouTube (making music in a war zone)
- DOROFEEVA – у твоїй душі (Official Music Video) – YouTube (singer DOROFEEVA with “In Your Soul”, highlighting over 90,000 children losing their homes)
- Postcards connecting the world – Postcrossing
One response to “Postcard from Ukraine”
As the Battle of Waterloo drew to a close, General Pierre Cambronne, commanding the remnants of Napoleon’s Old Guard, was called upon to surrender by British officers. ‘The Guard dies but does not surrender’, he replied.
Stirring words, but other sources reported that Cambronne shouted a one-word answer, ‘MERDE!’, rather like the Ukrainians on Snake Island. Many Frenchmen preferred the second response, which to this day is known as ‘le mot de Cambronne’.
Cambronne denied both versions, adding that he would have been killed if he had said either. Instead he was wounded and taken prisoner. Clearly a bit of a dude, he married Mary Osborn, the Scottish nurse who cared for him.