I was handed these Ukrainian sweets today by an elderly mother and her grown daughter. We had just brought them a suitcase they could use for the rest of their journey. They are waiting for the night train to Amsterdam. Poland is full, Germany is also getting full, they hope things might look better in the Netherlands. They had just fled a town west of Kyiv already under Russian control after heavy bombardment. Do you remember the bread factory bombing in which 13 people died? That was in Makariv, Kyiv oblast, this family’s home town.
They had one hour to flee from a basement to evacuate. One hour was all the Russian troops gave women and children to get out, after mothers emerged onto the war-torn streets to ask the Russians for baby formula. The mothers could no longer breastfeed. Their milk was gone. We have no food or milk for you, the Russians told them. You have one hour to leave. They left, praying the cars would not be shot upon by Russian troops. It happens, a lot. The elderly mother’s facial expression when talking about the Kadyrovtsi, the Chechen fighters who shot at people and buildings at random, is something I will never forget.
The whole story, and others, are in this thread from this morning here:
I also asked ÖBB about the first class lounge. I offered to pay for these two women who have to wait until the evening at the train station. I would be theoretically able to pay, but a few new problems: they are still requiring proof of vaccination plus a time limit of 90 minutes. So, the first class lounge remains off limits, and useless, even for those who could pay. I would have paid, but without vaccination (I didn’t even want to ask them women) plus a time limit, what would be the point. “Our lounge isn’t designed for long stays,” I was told. I thought, “Ukraine wasn’t designed for war” but here we are.
I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again: may the indifferent people here never have bombs flying on their heads because if that ever does happen, we will all be totally screwed while the very important people in charge point fingers about who didn’t rubber stamp what document meanwhile the Russian flag will be flying above the Hofburg and no one will even notice. I exaggerate, but not really.
It’s been so many days of non-stop writing, today I’d like to share with you some recommended reading instead. I also just read that an American photojournalist, Brent Renaud, was killed in Irpin today, and his colleague was wounded. Juan tells the story from his hospital surgery we hear over and over “they just started shooting at the car”. The Russians just started shooting at the car: of children, of elderly, of journalists. Think of that anytime anyone tries to tell you there are two sides to this war, two sides to the truth, two sides to the who is to blame and what is to be done.
This is an excellent report by FT about how Poland is coping with more than a million refugees from Ukraine arriving:
This is a very moving report from Ukraine by Joshua Yaffa, a longtime Moscow-based reporter:
These photographs from Der Spiegel!
A harrowing report (all warnings please here the photographs are very disturbing) from Russia’s bravest reporter, Elena Kostyuchenko of Novaya Gazeta, currently in Mykolaiv. Do watch the video too, in which she has to call it all a “special operation”.
I leave you with a video from Governor Kim which I haven’t even shared yet on Twitter. He says the Russians are behaving terribly: stealing food, kicking people out. They are fighting back, he says. He talks directly to those who might sympathise with the occupying Russians. He says the Russians have already destroyed entire towns and villages near Kyiv and Kharkiv. Kim says Mykolaiv is holding on, and will free each and every village.
Also, this. I keep thinking about this:
Thank you for reading. I am going to take a few days off from the train station tomorrow and Tuesday, will head back on Wednesday. Those of you who contacted me and said you would like to help fund hot coffees and meals at the train station: thank you, I will be in touch. I don’t want to raise more funds than I can immediately spend on Ukrainians passing through Vienna on their way to other European destinations. This grassroots effort is totally new for me, and I just try and solve immediate problems as I encounter them. Sometimes it is a package of diapers, other times I hand over a small amount of cash when I feel it won’t be received as an insulting gesture and is genuinely needed. We are all learning by doing. I try to update in more or less real time on my Twitter, and once a day here.
Thanks for your patience with my erratic schedule at the moment. I hope the next few days will give me a bit of emotional distance and I can provide more cerebral analysis.
This really made me laugh yesterday. Maybe you need a good laugh too?