Notices by Tim Mak (timkmak@journa.host), page 16

There was nothing I could do about this single man’s death, but there remains a lot that the #US can do to reduce Ukrainian deaths.

#Zelenskyy visited #Washington this week to push for aid, but received a lukewarm response.

Zelenskyy’s visit to the US was met by a #Congress stuck on US #immigration issues, preventing them from being able to send aid to Ukraine, despite general bipartisan support.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/12/zelensky-biden-meeting-washington-dc/

A silent, distraught friend kneeled nearby, holding the man’s head and neck in place.

Life can end in an instant. With no tools, no medical equipment, and no ambulance nearby, there was nothing I could do. The man died shortly after.

Today's issue is about the casual nature of death, how we let tragedy make us more jaded, and an antidote to apathy.

I tell the rest of the story at The Counteroffensive, which you can read by clicking the link:

https://www.counteroffensive.news

Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy.

But for mothers like Iryna, the empty table setting where her son usually sits overshadows all.

Her son, Yaroslav, is just one of 10k Ukrainians in Russian captivity.

He was captured at Azovstal and he has spent two birthdays so far as a prisoner of war.

She speaks longingly about him through tears: "My bunny, my heart, my boy.”

https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/christmas-without-yaroslav

#Ukraine
#Russia

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

Many here feel betrayed by the Budapest Memorandum: they gave up nukes in exchange for security assurances.

This feeling will shade any coming talks with the West; Myroslava reflects from a decommissioned missile silo.

Good morning to readers; #Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

Today we're taking you on a trip to Alessandra's favorite #fleamarket in Kyiv, where the artifacts on sale tell us something profound about Ukraine's rejection of its #Sovietera past

Hi there, it’s Alessandra here!

If I were to show off Kyiv to you, our first stop would be the Petrivka flea market, where a wealth of Soviet-era relics tells an interesting story about #Ukrainian history.

First we would take the blue line to Pochaina station.

One of the stops on the blue line is the ‘Ukrainian Heroes’ Square,’ which was formerly ‘Leo Tolstoy Square’ but was renamed when the full-scale invasion began. (Although, confusingly, only half of the signs have been replaced…)

The collapse of the #SovietUnion brought new ways of living that replaced what had existed for decades.

After #Ukraine became independent Soviet technology in large part failed to compete with Western alternatives and fell into disuse; hanging up posters of Lenin no longer meant the same thing; and Marx and Engels were replaced by American novelist Jack London, who became inexplicably popular…

Photo: Book by Engels at flea market.

After going through the book market, which is a complex of 20 to 30 meter deep stalls fitted out with garage doors…

You we reached the flea market, where I would encourage you to marvel at the weird and wonderful assortment of randomness laid out by stall owners, but I would also use it as a chance to teach you about #Ukrainian #history

One stall holder making a living from the dustbin of history is Oleksandr, who shows me around his store.

Among his other wares, Oleksandr sells old Soviet documents – they no longer have any use, but can teach you some fascinating personal histories. 

The first few documents that he pulls out are ‘Work Booklets’.

Oleksandr explains that a Soviet citizen would have kept this their entire life and recorded all the jobs they ever had, in order to eventually be able to receive their pension.

And so the evidence of nearly a century of Soviet-era human activity ended up in the trash. 

…Or in these flea markets, where people sell what once had deep meaning. 

As decades have passed, some of these items with strange, unknowable journeys, end up in displays like this. To some, garbage; to others, valuable artifacts!

In many ways, the phrase ‘the dustbin of history’ has never been so fitting.

The abundance of Soviet memorabilia that is sold at these fairs might shock those who assume that  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means all Soviet memories might be destroyed.

However, it would be wrong to interpret this as an expression of political support. It is simply a reflection of the history that Ukrainians have lived through and, perhaps less profoundly, what has accumulated in their basements over the last 30 or so years. 

The next document Oleksandr pulls out is someone’s school grades. 

“Mmm…you see she didn’t do very well in anything…” he says, analyzing the document.

“Ah! Apart from music…she must have been an artist. That explains why she was bad at math.”

Oleksandr explains that this woman, like him, was from Chernihiv and studied at the same school as he did, yet he never knew her. 

They attended 1 of only 2 Ukrainian language schools in Chernihiv at the time. The second one closed after he graduated.

Despite what might be for sale at Petrivka market, the discourse around Ukraine’s traumatic Soviet past is a constant one.

On Saturday, Ukrainians gathered to put candles in front of the Holodomor monument and share a minute of silence on Holodomor Memorial Day. The Holodomor or The Great Ukrainian Famine is believed to have been caused intentionally by Stalin to break Ukrainians and their resistance to his regime.

There’s a common Arabic phrase, inshallah, which means ‘if God wills it.’

All of this is to say that I was supposed to travel into Syria but ultimately could not. 
Inshallah, we will try again.

However, I am coming back from Turkey with a lot of wonder for Syrians. 

The war in Ukraine has now lasted more than 600 days. The dominant feeling is one of exhaustion. But after my trip – it feels self-pitying to talk about the war. in this way.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

Today we have a travelogue from my trip to the Syrian-Turkish border, followed by what we are reading today and a bonus Dog of War!

To read the full issue, go to our substack:

https://counteroffensive.substack.com

Their war has been going on since 2011. 

“We used to be the war most people paid attention to. Now, that’s over,” one advocate said to me.

And despite how long it's been many Syrians are still extremely motivated. 

They’re still fighting for a democratic society.

Yaserji arrived in Turkey as a refugee himself twelve years ago, after his home in Aleppo was destroyed. Yet, twelve years into the war, he opened up the orphanage just in the last year – almost as an act of defiance.

“It is the Russians, and Putin, that are in complete control,” he said. “They can stop at any point bombing schools and hospitals and kids. They can stop at any point creating more orphans and they decide not to.” 

Mohammed Noor Yaserji is the director of an orphanage in the Turkish border town of Kilis, just a stone’s throw away from Syria.

“A lot of the kids… that we have here have no birth certificate… They were born into the war. They lost their parents. They were never registered. So a lot of the kids that we have here, too, are just essentially stateless,” said Yaserji.

“And so we try to provide them with whatever we can... based on donations we receive.”

She is now undergoing physical therapy in Turkey and she is studying to be a therapist. She wants to help children who, just like her, had been wracked by the events of war. 

After the injury her parents gave her a golden necklace with her name on it, so that if something happens to her in the future at least people would know her name.

Here’s what we are reading today:

Ukrainian forces launched a counterattack near Avdiivka, a city in the heart of the Donetsk region, and advanced, ISW reports.

Ukrainian and Russian troops continue to fight in eastern and southern Ukraine, however, fighting is likely to be slowed down by rain until winter weather sets in.

https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1726392403563573742