I bet you woke up this morning, read the world news, and couldn’t believe it — how is this really happening? Has the world truly plunged into total chaos and madness? You just want to wake up from this nightmare, but instead, it keeps insisting on becoming the new normal — your everyday reality. This is exactly how Ukrainians felt three years ago — only multiplied by the horrors of war — when Russia launched its criminal full-scale invasion and began bombing our peaceful cities. It made us want

I know the exact moment when Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to launch his full-scale invasion of Ukraine: Oct. 1, 2021. It was the day the opera "Vyshyvanyi: The King of Ukraine" premiered in Kharkiv. I was at the event and vividly recall all the details. The premiere proved to be a cultural shock for Kharkiv and resonated across Ukraine. The air filled with premonition, a sense that something monumental was about to unfold, though no one could articulate it precisely. Words swirled o

Where were you that morning when the great war began? Here's my story: The war spoke to me with the distant rumble of explosions outside the window, but I didn't believe it, thinking I was living a dream. Then, on the second floor of my friends' house near Kyiv, the door slammed shut, and slippers clattered down the stairs. "The war has started, the airspace has been closed," said Katia, the owner of the house. She mentioned the airspace because I was supposed to fly to Vilnius two hours late