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The woman who sees “Russian world” every night

Larysa, a 30-year old citizen of Mykolayivka, a town near Sloviansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, sits in the hospital after her home was destroyed by mortar shelling, July 5, 2014. Ukrainian army recaptured Sloviansk and nearby towns from pro-Russian rebels on July 5, 2014, after more then two months of artillery fire from both sides. (Image: "Shelling survivor" by Alexey Furman, 2015 Picture of the Year First Place Winner in Portrait Category, POYI.org)
Larysa, a 30-year old citizen of Mykolayivka, a town near Sloviansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, sits in the hospital after her home was destroyed by mortar shelling, July 5, 2014. Ukrainian army recaptured Sloviansk and nearby towns from pro-Russian rebels on July 5, 2014, after more then two months of artillery fire from both sides. (Image: “Shelling survivor” by Alexey Furman, 2015 Picture of the Year First Place Winner in Portrait Category, POYI.org)

Watching Putin on TV talk about “Russian world,” the Russian-speaking people from the corners of the former Soviet Union exposed to Russian media imagine this promised world to be a bright and wealthy place full of brotherly love. They imagine how good it would for Russia to come and solve all their problems with high salaries and pensions, boosted by oil and gas sucked out of Siberia. This is the idyllic picture presented by Russian media. And that’s exactly what many of them want… but it’s not what they would get if Putin’s “Russian world” did come to them.

Proof is in the photo of the woman above. She has seen the real “Russian world.” And she continues to see it every night… It’s in her memories… Memories that haunt her.

Almost three months her town was under the attacks of war and occupation. Almost three months her city was ruled by foreign militants and local gangsters recruited by them. For those three months, people of the city were “arrested” to never be seen again or to come back maimed by torture. Almost three months of hunger, armed robberies, looting, kidnappings, rapes, killings, gun fire and shelling are reflected in this photograph. Those are the realities of Putin’s “Russian world.”

She looks much older than her 30 years. Life in a state of unrelenting blood-curling terror ages you quickly. Her eyes are focused inwardly, into her memories. What are the personal losses and destroyed lives she sees? Will her former happiness and peace ever light up her face again?

She is just one person of the hundreds of thousands in the Russia-occupied Donbas and Crimea whose lives will never be the same. Putin’s “Russian world” — the nightmare these Ukrainians have lived through or are currently living — will stay with them forever, even after it is over. It’s burned into their mind, burned into their reality. It will affect how they raise the next generation of their families.

Please help people of Ukraine to stop “Russian world.”

 


More about the Russian occupation of Donbas:

Why Putin replaced his Donbas negotiator

Russian who went to fight in Donbas says he was ‘not in an army but a criminal gang’

10 reasons why Ukraine’s Donbas is not and will not become a Northern Ireland

Putin deciding on next stage of Donbas war — Portnikov

March 15, 2015: Approximately 8.6 thousand soldiers of the Russian troops are currently located in Donbas

Russian forces destroy one of Donbas’ largest Orthodox churches

The Warmonger: a video by Nemtsov proving Putin’s involvement in the war in Donbas

Moscow analyst: War in Donbas marks ‘the irreversible and absolute end of the era of Russian empires’

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense releases new photos of Russian military equipment destroyed in Donbas

Intercepted call reveals Russia’s concealment of Donbas casualties

Regular Russian forces attach Ukrainian army in Donbas amid so-called “ceasefire”

Povertly and slavery as the basis of separatism in Donbas

Demobilized Russian conscripts: ‘We conquered Crimea, fought in Donbas for Russia’ (VIDEO)

Putin’s strongman in Chechnya to fight Ukrainians in Donbas

The Donbas war: a chronicle

Snitches in Donbas

Violence against women in Ukraine and war in Donbas

Kremlin is responsible for the Donbas humanitarian crisis — Yatseniuk

Putin’s locusts at work: stripping Donbas of industrial assets

Donbas caught up in protests because of poverty and hunger

Putin’s top aide managed Donbas militants — Strelkov

New civilizational divide in Donbas

International observer of “elections” in Donbas admits they were paid by Russia

The future of Donbas: Ukraine or nothing

The ‘Tribunal’ in Donbas votes for the death penalty

Russian neo-Nazis fighting for separatist “republics” in Donbas (English Video)

Crimes of pro-Russian militants against civilians in Donbas: kidnapping, looting and executions

Terrorists in Donbas using SS methods — SBU

He was not volunteer, tells wife of Russian officer killed in Donbas

Minister of Ecology: Russian troops are ruining Donbas’ environment

Head of the National Fiscal Service: Nearly 600 enterprises destroyed in Donbas

NSDC: Russia’s military casualties in Donbas up to 2,000 corpses hidden in coal mines

Russian military authorities admit troops dying in Donbas

Mercenaries in Donbas persecute “non-Orthodox” Christians

Survey reveals dismal support for separatism in Donbas

Donbas townspeople get rid of terrorists

How political technologists are fooling people in Donbas

Donbas civilians forced to join terrorist militias

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