No one doubts in the victory of Ukraine. But everyone worries how long and with what victims? The enemy has no force to advance on Kiev and Kharkov, there it passes to the defense and throws all forces to the east in the hope of encircling the Donbas group of troops. So it’s gonna be hot here in the next few weeks. The occupiers are advancing from three sides - from the north-west to Severodonetsk, from the north to Izyum and from the south to Ugledar. If we hold out, this will be the last attack, if we retreat, the war will drag on for months.
Yesterday morning the windows rattled - missiles were shelled at a TV tower on Karachun. TV tower kept its balance. I decided to go to the church «Good News», which is also the most important volunteer center in Donbas. There were few people on the street, and no one paid attention to warning horns. It’s quite understandable - if the city is fired on by missiles, the sirens will not have time to warn, and if they fire artillery, the sounds of the sirens will be redundant. In the meantime, the battles are going on in Izyum and under the Lisichansk-Rubejnoe-Severodonetsk agglomeration. They don’t reach us, though far, surd explosions are constantly being heard.
There were more than a hundred people at the service, four times less than usual. The preacher compared the struggling Ukraine to the exodus of Jews, who were persecuted by the Pharaoh. Faith in God greatly strengthens faith in the victory of Ukraine. Then the refugees from Severodonetsk were brought - many students, children, elderly. The oldest woman was 82 years old. Fed, arranged and the next morning taken to evacuation trains. Everyday a hundred people. This is just a drop in the volunteer movement of Ukraine.
Today the holidays ended and I was giving a lecture «Philosophy of human communication». At the beginning, we exchanged information, who is where and in what conditions. A student from Lisichansk listened to a lecture from a bomb shelter, so communication with her was interrupted. I devoted the lecture to the topic of lies, including the one that led to the war. While I was working with my students, I’ve got an information that one of the buses of the church I was in yesterday was shot at on its way from Izyum. The driver is wounded. It is no longer possible to evacuate from there.
If Izum falls, the next will be Slavyansk. However, Ukrainian troops firmly established in the southern part of Izyum and even conducted a successful counterattack today. Nevertheless, the situation in Donbass is extremely difficult. The Russian command needs at least some success, so it is now throwing all its forces to Donbass. Russian troops continue to systematically demolish Mariupol. The city has been left without light, heat, water and food, humanitarian convoys are not allowed, and refugees are not released. Volnovakha was bombed to dust, now this city no longer exists.
Reports of atrocities by the occupiers are increasing. Now the Russian army is officially under self-sustainment, that is, it should provide itself with looting. Yesterday, it was reported that near Kiev, the Russian military shot up an evacuation bus with women and children, and the survivors were driven back to the village. It is now becoming clear that Ukraine is fighting not just a hostile army, but a system of total evil that has already engulfed Russia and Belarus, and will expand further until it is stopped by force. In Ukraine it is identified with the «Russian world». In fact, the Kremlin regime used the ideology of the «Russian world» as a propaganda stroke, which is proved once again by bombing of the Holy Lavra, which belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate. For a system of total evil, everyone is perceived as an enemy.
Putin doesn’t care what ideology to use, because he doesn’t come from an ideology, but from a holistic view of the world, in which good is understood as evil, and evil as good. The whole hierarchy of power, rooted in this worldview, I call the system of total evil. Not absolute (since there is no absolute evil), namely total evil in the sense that anyone who agrees with this position will consistently choose evil not only in questions of principle, but even in trifles. In relation to any social system, this position of total evil stands as an anti-system with which no compromises are possible. Rather, compromises were constantly sought with it, but this led to war in Ukraine, and any further policy of compromise will end in World War III.
PS While writing the text, there was an explosion nearby. This is nothing compared to what happens fifty kilometers away. A student who has been disconnected while I was teaching a class just sent a message. I’m quoting it below.
It is frightening enough in Lisichansk. My house is located near one of the main roads. When the military equipment, from cars to tanks, drives down the road, it is very audible. Especially since the road was destroyed by tanks. The shelling is taking place very often and very loud. There are areas that are broken into rubbish. Many people have no water, no light, and no gas for two weeks. It will take a long time to restore all this. The primary school where I studied is half broken down. Near the gymnasium, where I was in secondary school, heavy military equipment is constantly placed. Given that the house I live in now is relatively close, every shot from the gymnasium is felt extremely acutely. In the very first days, a shell fell near the Lyceum, where I was in high school. No one understood whether it was an overclocking mechanism or, indeed, an unexploded ordnance. It is extremely dangerous to go outside. Even to the store across the street. There’s a big fight going on in Rubejnoe. Many intensive attacks in its direction from our side. Cities are burning. In places where my friends lived, hardly remained any houses.
Most of the roads are mined, the railway tracks are blown up. The question remains in the bridges. As soon as the AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) are withdrawn, the bridges will be blown up. They are of strategic importance. Trying to leave now is like an agony of being cornered. A lot of false information, a lot of fakes about evacuation. You do not know where you find, and where you lose. Today our acquaintances left to Swatovo with the evacuation column at 8:30. To date, there is no connection with them. It is unknown whether they arrived or not. Whether they even alive...
I apologize for not answering during the class. It is difficult to catch more or less stable Internet in the basement».
