Foreword by the Saker: today it is my great pleasure to introduce you all to Faina Savenkova, a young lady from Novorussia whose writings are steadily gaining recognition. I asked Faina to put in her own words how it feels to live under constant Ukronazi artillery strikes and sniper fire. The result is for you to discover below, along with a mini bio of Faina herself. But we had another idea we would like to submit to you: if, after reading Faina’s essay below, you want to ask her a question, please send it to me to my public address vineyardsaker@gmail.com. Please send your question(s) in English and please make sure to write “questions for Faina” as the subject of your email. I will then collect the questions, translate them into Russia and send them to Fania who will then send me her replies. I think that it is very important to be exposed to the hopes and fears of the regular people of Novorussia, and especially the young ones. I hope that many of you will use this opportunity to not only ask a question, but also maybe convey something to Faina and her family and friends. Finally, I gratefully welcome Fania to our international community – Faina, we are glad and honored to have you with us!
The Saker
——-
To Believe and to Hope
by Faina Savenkova for the Saker blog
Translated by Scott Humor
Whenever someone asks me to describe life under Ukrainian shelling, I feel lost. Not only because I am still a child, and not simply because I have nothing to say. I just don’t know what they want me to say. Dry and indifferent reports of casualties and destruction? Certainly not. There is news for that. Personal feelings and experiences? That’s more difficult. What is a life during the war? Ordinary, if you don’t remember your peaceful life.
Many people may be horrified to realize that in the twenty-first century in the geographical center of Europe, there are children who don’t remember passenger jets flying high in the sky, walking across an evening city with their parents, or some other cute nonsense that other children don’t even notice.
The no-fly zone and the curfews adjust our lives. That’s why when we read about the riots in some European cities after an introduction of coronavirus curfew, it is puzzling: what is wrong? It’s just a curfew, nothing terrible, why does it bother them that much? The reason for our calmness is actually very simple: everything is known in comparison, and we have nothing to compare.
We are a generation that doesn’t remember a peaceful life. We are a generation that lives by strict rules, the failure of which might result in death. We learned how to determine the direction of the projectiles by ear, so that we know when to worry and when to continue going about our business. We have learned not to ignore the lectures of the Ministry of Emergency Situations on the rules of conduct during attacks, in case of detection of suspicious objects or other recommendations in various situations. And still, no one can guarantee that you won’t accidentally get hit by a shard because you’re just unlucky. Strange? Scared? Everyday life, with a small degree of difference depending on the intensity of the shelling of the territory.
What is life under Ukrainian shelling? It is the evening of June 1st, Children’s Day, when hundreds of paper lanterns soared into the sky at the memorials to commemorate the fallen children of Donbass and light the way for the angels. After all, it is difficult to explain to kids why these angels were robbed of their short lives, deprived of the opportunity to grow up and see the world in our homeland. Now they can only watch from the sky and cry while the adults comfort them.
Almost all of my life and memories are connected to the war, which is why I have no regrets and sadness about the past. I live in the present and occasionally think about the future, in which there is a place for a naive and stupid dream that causes a smile. Quite real, warming and almost tangible, it allows you not to despair even in the most difficult times. I want passenger planes to fly in the skies of Donbass, not paper lanterns. Any dream can turn into a reality. It must be so, and I believe it will be so.
***
Born in 2008, Faina finished Lev Lopovka Secondary school No. 1 in Lugansk. She is a member of the LPR Writers Union and a junior member of the International Writers Union. Faina is not only an accomplished writer, she is also an athlete and two-time champion of the LPR in taekwondo in her age and weight category.From 2019 to 2020, Faina was a participant of the Republican Festival of the DPR “Stars over Donbass”, where she received a commendation for a significant contribution to the development of cultural relations between the DPR and the Russian Federation in the field of literature from Denis Pushilin.
Her play “Hedgehog of Hope” received a special prize at the All-Russian Children’s Drama Competition in 2019, was shortlisted in the International Competition of Modern Russian Drama “Authors-on the Stage” in 2019, shortlisted in the International Drama Competition “Eurasia-2020” of the Kolyada Theater, published in the literary magazine “Moscow”, and translated into Italian. It was also published in March 2020 in the collection “Shoots”.
Faina has received other distinguished writing awards: a commendation for a significant contribution to the development of literature in the LPR from the Lugansk Republic Joint Venture, a prize of the Moscow Art Theater veterans “Reading Stories”, and the Vice-Grand Prix Moscow literary award 2019-2020 in the category of “Drama” – September 2020.
Her most significant publication, Teachers and Students, was published in the short-story collection Live Donbass (Russian-Donetsk project) in September 2020; the essays Wisteria and a Cat, Hedgehog and the Sky were published in the essay collection The Shore in Kaliningrad;her theater play Die, monster! was published in the collection Wings.
Her short story Wisteria and a Cat became a winner of the Czech contest “The World Through the Eyes of a Child” (2019), published in the magazine Milk (Russia, regional), as well as in the Czech newspaper Halo noviny in April 2020.
Her essay The Laughter of Children of Victory was published in the literary journal The Youth, in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and was translated into English, Serbian, Italian, Bulgarian, Czech, Arabic, Italian, French, and German.
Her essay Big Silence (Alive) was translated into English, Serbian, Italian, Bulgarian, Czech, and Finnish, and was published in the famous French English blog Stalker, in Serbian newspapers, in the French Donbass Insider, on kantasuomalainen.net (Finland), AgoraVox (France), and the youth edition of Rubicon (Germany).
With the Russian writer Alexander Kontorovich, Faina co-authored a novel about Donbass children titled Standing Behind Your Shoulder.
This is not even a full list of Faina’s accomplishments. She dedicates herself and her work to telling people in Europe and Russia about the ongoing war in Donbass and the situation of children in the region. She is a regular guest on television channels of the LPR, DPR, and Russia.
All of us have seen the photos, the videos and read the descriptions of the carnage brought upon the children, mothers and babushkas of Donbass. This young thirteen year-old has lived amidst the ethnic cleansing. Yet, her humanity has remained intake and her precious mind is productive, her talent obvious from just a short read of her words.
Porky, while President of Ukraine, promised the children of Donbass would live in the cellars of Donbass. And he and Zelensky have kept the children there. The world looks away while mortars pound the school yards, kindergartens and parks of Donbass.
A special cemetery exists for the children lost in these seven years of war.
There is no justice that could balance the losses of these innocents.
And now a voice of a child, Faina, speaks for them. Quite obviously a talent as great as Anne Frank.
We can only pray she survives the nazis unlike Miss Frank.
“Miss Frank” Anne Frank
1. Was arrested by Dutch police.
2. Sent to a camp of concentration by Dutch authorities.
3. No one, no Germans, killed Anne Frank.
Was she one of many victims of WW II? Likely.
A. “Night of the Long Knives”- Hitler & his crew did a job for the Rothschild & other Bankers.
B. Was Churchill’s British Empire morally superior to the German Reich?
C. And the French? Koestler, in his “Scum of the Earth” exposes pre war France for operating more
Concentration Camps than any other nation.
D. And the Belgians, “Heart of Darkness” – Conrad
Our local Library (not far from residence of the Saker), held a 3 month Memorial for Frank, music, Cantors singing, speeches by Politicians. My suggestion to hold a similar affair – concerning Palestinians, was greeted with sincere regret by the Librarians. The Controllers of the Public Library would -and did not- permit such an event.
The rest of your comment is excellent.
Durruti
Search on “Anne Frank Diary Fraud” on Duckduckgo. Some interesting reading there.
back tpo the subject at hand.
Excellent writing by a very talented girl. Even at this tender age her works ensure she will live forever in peoples hearts
Well put. Truthful words can be powerful even if there are few of them.
I’d like to copy this and give it a title like “What it’s like to live under Ukrainian shelling” on my F/b page, but I would rather do so with permission first.
Brave girl she is part of the resistance
Thank you Saker for bringing to us the amazing spirit and words, of Faina, still a child but wise beyond her years.
The lost children of Donbass speak through her.
Our thoughts and prayers are with her.
Thank you Saker.
Novorussia has a voice now, and a great one. Good, excellent. We look forward to more from this talent.
(There are more things we look forward to also from this place…but this must wait)
Dear Fiana,
There is no naive and stupid dreams. Keep dreaming, you are amazing young lady and from your words I can see that you have steel spirit. Stay safe, keep training and keep writing.
Faisa,
After reading “Exploring the Kiev Caves Grand Monastery” by Maftey.Shaheen on RI on.May 26th, I realize the level of suffrance those leaders endured but they kept their faith notwithstanding. More than heroic.
You are at that level Faisa and what is inspiring is that your are active in trying to change things, at your age. Asking the Holy Spirit to continue inspiring you and helping you accomplish what you can do with your talents and energy is the wright way to go. Our world needs people like you and keep in touch with us through the Saker.
Satan is a huge force and you are at the centre of his destruction but your testimonials can only contribute to his defeat. God is on your side and we must all pray for you, for the others who suffer also from this evil, and that He continue mounting the forces to defeat this evil.
Can we still continue your contacts with us through the Saker?
Wow. This was incredible. Thank you, Faina.
It really puts things into perspective for those of us who live in a country which is not an active warzone.
All our problems are nothing compared to them. All our first world problems are petty nonsense compared to them.
I just hope we will be able to do what is necessary to ensure that no other country or people has to go through what Faina and the residents of Donbass have gone through.
The elite have to pay for their crimes against humanity.
What is the first world for you?
USA? True, there is no war and shelling.
However, courtesy of the deep state, Jewish money, the Demorats, etc. we have Burn, Loot, Murder and other niceties like drive by shootings.
First world?
That’s Russia and China in my book.
“ Jewish money “ ? Try Capitalist money, Nazi.
The money is printed by the jewish federal reserve. If we speak of the the italian mafia do we say the capitalist mafia? And by the way the jews were involved in that too. Bugsy seigel, meyer lansky. As the good jew ben freedman said facts are facts.
If you study the history of the so-called ‘Italian’ mafia in the US you soon come to the conclusion that it was, and is, mostly a Jewish mafia. It takes some digging but there are many documents on this matter. Names as Louis Buchalter, Meyer Lansky, Mickey Cohen, Harold Rothman, Dutch Schultz, and Bugsy Siegel come to mind, definitely no Italians… :-)
Thanks to Saker for promoting this important voice from Donbass. Hopefully she can stand the fame and pressure without being another child exploited in the adults war propaganda.
It must be shocking trying to exist under those hideous circumstances, a pawn in a vicious political game. Before I cancelled all social media I posted a terrible picture of a young mother and baby killed, the reaction was minimal being indicative of what uncaring zombies too many people have become.
Gravel, that’s why I quit posting on facebook. No one cared. 100 likes for some idiot meme but no recognition of america’s rampage through the Middle East and the rest of the world. America’s a death cult, killing everything that gets in its way.
Our hearts weep for the children of LNR and DNR and our hearts have wept for all of them and all the victims of this stupid war since the first senseless killings began in April of 2014, a day when this child Faina had but six years.
We can never give her back her childhood, lost to the ambitions of feckless and heartless politicians from all over the world, but the day will come when we give her peace, when we give her the ability to enjoy the gentle spring days of this moment, when we give her the ability to rejoice in seeing her lanterns floating gently upwards to the heavens replaced by passenger airplanes crossing the skies in peace above her.
Auslander
Thank you The Saker and Scott for bringing Faina to us. A remarkable and talented girl whose voice needs to be heard by the rest of us who are fortunate to have — though not always grateful for — memories of a peaceful childhood.
What is a life during the war? Ordinary, if you don’t remember your peaceful life.
For me the most poignant passage in Faina’s essay.
May God Almighty protect Faina and ‘war’ children everywhere and fulfil their dreams.
This is the second time I have seen Faina Savenkova’s writing posted by the Saker. The words of this girl come straight from the soul. It is an appeal for adults to stop acting like Automatons , who are acting out of Conditioning / Brainwashing instead of sane logic. Russophobiia is racism and Racism is a Crime against Humanity. Faina Savenkova”s cry, is also a cry by children in Palestine , Yemen, Syria and all over the world .Why does man in the 21st century still engage in warfare ? Don’t our IPhones make us less brute than primitive man ? Modern man claims to be civilized ,yet some of our acts (racism & warfare) are bellow Animal. The simple truth is that , Faina Savenkova (a child) is asking adults to stop robbing children of their childhood .In my opinion , “feminine energy” should take leadership in stopping this senseless killings. Mother’s are very protective of their children. If all woman of the world were to allow their feminine instincts towards children to manifest on a global scale, they can stop war .One effective way is to form a woman solidarity against war movement(WSAW). Such a movement can embark on global anti-war campaigns by leveraging on woman power. One effective WSAM campaign would be to call on all woman in the world to abstain from Sex for a month in solidarity with children being killed in a specific war. Woman are masters of soft power & they are our only hope. Maybe Katerina could start the Russian WSAW branch …..
This is just another appeal from the feminist, woke, LGBTQ+ crew.
Please , feminist fantasies and the lgbtwtfbbq movements is bullcrap and should not be intermarried with facts. Who invented, paid for and nurtured the feminism movement From its inception? Ill give you a hint.. Its the same old babylonian banking priesthood behind all of these controlled oppositions and it works and have worked very well for the stringpullers of the marionetts of this world. Masculinity is deemed toxic by those who seek to oppress others because they want everyone to bend over and accept anything they push on us.. just take a look at history and see how tyrants and corrupt governments get replaced.. can you point out a single revolution thats been succesfull because the women refused to have sex or because the mother instinct prevailed over politics?
Faina is one of the many victims in Novorussia, in Palestina, in ex Yugoslavia, in Irak, in Libya, in Syria and many other corners of the world of criminal and imperialist politics of Washington and their criminal lacays.
My solidarity and thoughts are with them.
Here another article on this subject:
https://www.stalkerzone.org/children-under-ukrainian-shelling-in-the-petrovsky-district-of-donetsk/
Read this:
https://www.stalkerzone.org/letter-of-the-mother-of-4-year-old-vladik-dmitryev-killed-by-the-ukrainian-army/
I remembered the tragedy of Beslan, as a reflection of the visceral hatred of the western oligarchies towards Russia and everything Slavic (they cannot bear that they do not allow themselves to be dominated and enslaved like other peoples of the earth), and above all towards their children: they they adore Molech and are not afraid to sacrifice innocents.
It also occurred to me that she recounts the life of Russians and Slavs in the last thousand years, always alert to attacks from “the West”, under any pretext.
As long as the Anglos have the power to do so, they will never give up enslaving others, it is their paradigm (unlike the Spanish empire, which finally understood that it would not defeat the Mapuche people and parliament to coexist peacefully)
Alonso, Russians are Slavs and “in the last thousand years” have not only repelled the West’s attacks, but demolished their armies, in some cases, all the way to Paris and Berlin! They could have easily occupied these and, like the Americans, not even considered leaving. But they left – because they are not occupiers, that are defenders. Defending their Mother Russia. And they will continue to do that, no matter what. The “Anglos”, as you refer to them, have no power against that whatsoever. What one sees and hears now from that lot in the West is an absolute and totally obvious helplessness and frustration. Desperation, in other words. They have realised that they have lost this game..The death throes, i.e. an unprecedented agressive rhetoric and some criminal actions we are witnessing now are all telling. So, comfort yourself with this thought – their days are numbered. The more people realise that, the easier it would be for the rest of this our beautiful World to shrug these vile parasites off our backs.
I think a link to the blog or website of Faina would be much appreciated. We can you use online translators.
BTW, I am in touch with a lady anaesthetist working at a Lugansk hospital. She earns around $500 per month. She also looks after her paralysed mother. Her father deserted them when she was a child.
Extraordinarily touching. A precious young life amidst the blood and war-torn rubble, still standing defiantly as a shining witness to the invulnerability and lasting power of true innocence and goodness.
May God protect her and her brothers and sisters.
If President Putin wished to convey an ‘almighty message’ to the West, and to the world, he might consider taking this young lady to Geneva with him. Her message will resonate ……
thank you the Saker and Scott
VVP is not willing. The russian ppl is not willing… as far as I understands…
Faina, if you have 3 minutes w VVP, what would you like him to hear from you?
pls share… & stay safe, dear
be well be safe
I do hope you are wrong ‘?’.
It’s certainly the right thing to do. I humbly suggest it’s the smart thing to do.
Make people care! If the world is to move forward, we must make people care. Ultimately it is the only way.
When they return from school I will introduce Fiana to my grandchildren. They are now the age Fiana was when this sh1tshow got under way.
God Bless her.
In my haste last post I forgot to enter my nom de plume.
A few years ago, I wrote to Pres. Putin begging him to accept Novorrosiya into the Russian Federation and to recognize their referendum. Voentorg is not enough to stop aggression, Russians are dying, being maimed, etc. while Putin waits.
Boris,
If there was a showing like in Crimea, Novorossiya would have been attached to Russia. There were slight uprisings in a few cities, not a majority by any sense, though the Ukies and US crushed Mariupol twice, incinerated 50+ in Odessa and basically shut down any particle of resistance in the other cities.
Yes, they would all come to Russia if there was no fight to be had.
Strategically, Strelkov armed a resistance that had no chance in Novorossiya. His retreat is proof they couldn’t hold all the oblasts of Donbass. They only have a part of the two oblasts.
Could they have fought for more after Debaltsevo?
The Russian Generals indicated that there was no way without exposing the military of Russia to a war for many months, and maybe and insurgency for many years.
Putin froze the combat. The reason the shelling and sniping continues is the US wants it and the Eu wants it and Merkel is weak, as are the midget Presidents of France.
The Donbass will have to suffer this reality.
Novorossiya suffers its reality.
Freedom takes courage. Nazis and Banderistas don’t hand out Liberty. They are there to kill, rape and torture and steal your valuables. Europe embraces them.
This is a European crusade against Russia and Orthodoxy. Novorossiya and Donbass are the battlefield.
Putin’s goal is the destruction of NATO and collapse of the US hegemonic control of Europe.
He uses stresses to break them. The next time you will see the result of this strategy.
The Ukraine is a vast prison. The walls of the prison will eventually crumble and fall.
Russia, Poland and Hungary wait for the end of Ukraine. Fighting a war to make it happen is not the correct means.
So what is your understanding of the Donbas boundaries that will be the basis of discussion in the unlikely event (in the short term) that Ukraine agrees to negotiate the Minsk Agreements in good faith? Will they be the current boundaries of the two people’s republics or will they be the boundaries of the Donbas oblasts as they were prior to the conflict? I can’t find an answer to this question.
Well, I suspect, based on many other postings, that the real wishes for Donbass boundaries are that most of Ukraine be settled by people from Russia, some of it be settled by people from Poland, some smaller parts by people from Hungary and Romania,—and the current occupants of that land should no longer be in this world
at all.—But had there been none of the bloodthirsty control freaks in Moscow in the early 1930s these current “UkroNazis” would not even exist, and things in Ukraine would be quite decent and peaceful, and nobody would be praying for the demise of Ukraine, and its people of course, anymore than anyone is seeking the demise of Germany which has existed as a country only as of 1871, or the demise of the German people despite their destructiveness, nor of the Russian people despite their own prodigious destructiveness during the regime
of Stalin, himself non-Russian.
The real shame of this conflict is the Ukrainian Diaspora in western nations. I can speak to the savagery of the Canadian Ukrainian community organizations. These people are war mongers and Russia haters at a level that is truly sick .I guess it is easy to stoke the flames of war when you do not live in the war zone. They peddle hate speech with the Canadian government in full support. These orgs are actively meddling in the affairs of Ukraine and promoting neo nazi organizations regardless of their human rights violations. They send material aid to war criminals and actively lobby the government to send military aid. They are not part of the solution but a huge part of the problem. I challenge anyone to read some of the material of these groups they are easy to find.
As a canadian I am not surprised by your statement.I have been watching all the warmongering and fake news against Russia and China and I am appalled at how ignorant (as in stupidly uninterested) we are in the West.My country is a full participant in all the military provocations against these noble nations ( have visited both China and Russia) so I have a fair idea of how generous the populations are ( I mostly saw Russia from a trans sibérien trip all the way across to Vladivostok from Moscou) and have relatives in Shenzhen. But absolutely no one in my entourage is open to any friendly and honest discussion…so discouraging.
“Many people may be horrified to realize that in the twenty-first century in the geographical center of Europe, there are children who don’t remember passenger jets flying high in the sky, walking across an evening city with their parents, or some other cute nonsense that other children don’t even notice.”
As a child I did not know where Ukraine was located, or Donbass. But we protested against nucleair not even a teenager and dead serious as can be. We protested against wars based on lies. We did that not hard enough to stop it but we surely did so because our fresh imagination projected the horror in the making and the outsourced dying. We felt angry and disgusted. Guilty and disempowered.
Same for current curfews. They are a prelude to worse to come if you let it because it is not as bad as shelling or nighly banging on the door. Passenger jets full of ignorant people that don’t even consider if their holiday flight takes them over war zones and who is dying suffering deep down there in a country unknown, why and for whom.
Passenger jets filled with people that would rather lay down in the grass listening to birds bristling leaves and insects on a summer day carressed by a gently wind an touched by sunlight but have never experienced that.. Maybe at least one day Faina, when the shelling stops, you will have all that?
Nice – Hi Faina – really appreciate your interesting little perspective on living in Donbass.
I hope you can see passenger jets flying over Donbass – soon.
From Ann
“Whenever someone asks me to describe life under Ukrainian shelling, I feel lost. Not only because I am still a child, and not simply because I have nothing to say. I just don’t know what they want me to say. Dry and indifferent reports of casualties and destruction? Certainly not. There is news for that. Personal feelings and experiences? That’s more difficult. What is a life during the war? Ordinary, if you don’t remember your peaceful life.
Many people may be horrified to realize that in the twenty-first century in the geographical center of Europe, there are children who don’t remember passenger jets flying high in the sky, walking across an evening city with their parents, or some other cute nonsense that other children don’t even notice.
The no-fly zone and the curfews adjust our lives. That’s why when we read about the riots in some European cities after an introduction of coronavirus curfew, it is puzzling: what is wrong? It’s just a curfew, nothing terrible, why does it bother them that much? The reason for our calmness is actually very simple: everything is known in comparison, and we have nothing to compare.”
Gee, I wonder why Ukraine’s constant shelling and bombing of Novorussia and the killings of its civilians are greeted with a bored yawn by the American, Western, and Free World media?
I wonder why…..
Could it be because these atrocities are committed with the sponsorship and indeed arming of Ukraine by this very same America, West, and self-styled Free World?
But the Western-led Free World could never ever be so Machiavellian. Never ever.
Western Values™ and America’s Rules-Based Imperial Order show their true demonic character…..
“The reason for our calmness is actually very simple: everything is known in comparison, and we have nothing to compare.”
How very insightful.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith?
– Matthew 6:30
The whole world is passing through a troubling time. Whatever one’s religion or nationality may be, now is not the moment to lose faith.
Faina,
I was blessed, not because I deserved to be blessed but because of Providence, not to have experienced the terror, horror and deprivation of war as a child, an adolescent and young adult as you and your peers have experienced and continue to experience, although the empire which is now visiting this madness on you and your people, was bringing war to others in Korea, in Vietnam, in Bosnia and Serbia, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya, in Syria, in Yemen and in your homeland of the Donbass. Yet, the empire did destroy much in my homeland, which was a tiny “republic” called Pollock which consisted of a little rural town and its immediate hinterland in which my childhood gradually matured to manhood. The empire destroyed the ability for many, if not most, to apprehend, comprehend and understand beauty, goodness and truth as made manifest thorough the elements of the created order and through the communion with others. In my case, the weapons of the empire were not bullets, bombs and shells along with the attendant terror, anxiety and fear with physical death and maiming being a daily occurrence; it used materialism, soul-degrading entertainment and estrangement from the created order through technology to create a mass of estranged, shriveled and alienated “selves,” would-be Promethean selves who shook their fists in the face of all gods but who have become more like the undead of vampires, zombies and pod-people. Several years ago, I noted that the good, beautiful and truthful things were still with us but that there were few who could recognize or apprehend these. To that end, based on what I had noted, I wrote the following which reflected the good things of my childhood. As you struggle to maintain your life and dignity in the devastating war which the empire has visited upon you, so not succumb to its “soft power” which in some ways is far more destructive; for it is alluring and subtle and has a particular appeal to youth. Below is the not-quite-a-poem reflecting the good things of my childhood which cannot be “heard” by most today because of the effective destruction brought on by the “soft power” of the empire.
Who Will Hear?
From distant ridge to distant ridge hunting horns serenading with stories before great fires;
Bobbing over hill and into hollow the fox hounds’ coarse voices;
The pitch of the pack rising with the tiring of the stag;
Watery break singing with a million mosquitoes;
Chip marrying the widow with whippoorwill song in April;
Shadow Tale mimicking the wind in beech trees;
An upland creek caressing an old log into bubbling song;
Duck wings breezing over a watery pin oak flat;
Old front-porch ladies quietly lilting youthful ballads;
Kettle bidding good memories with steamy report;
Vespers spreading grace at supper;
The heart sighing slumber’s release from ecstasy, weariness or woe;
Old bones creaking with joy for the life yet there;
A verse reaching to heaven on dying lips.
– Robert Peters
Thanks, Robert Peters, we should hang on to what is good all around us.
Hi Faina
What a powerful insight into the tragedy that is the Ukraine which the vicious hegemon so outrageously tried to dress up as humanitarian emancipation.
I remember seeing a report in 2014 of a beautiful young woman in a Ukrainian village, bleeding out in the street. She was being comforted by passers-by after an attacking fighter jet had just blown both her legs off. She was begging to be taken to her two young children so she could say goodbye to them. She died in her village people’s arms before they could grant her wish.
The first-hand accounts are always the most powerful and in this case, not the least because this young woman reminded me so much of my own daughter and her two young children. I felt sick in the stomach, and still do to this day when I remember this incident.
It reminds me of how fortunate I am that we are not a military victim of the hegemon and its proxies. Of course, we are a victim to a much lesser degree and in another sense, as we are hardly a sovereign country. This reality is being clearly flagged right at this very moment by a ridiculous roll-out of an immensely dangerous U$ manufactured experimental covid ‘vaccine’.
This is a continuation of the daily business of human butchery that the Hegemon engages in globally. It promptly inflicts this on any nation on the globe that doesn’t please TPTB. The destruction always has bipartisan support in the U$ halls of power. No less than four POTUS’s or nominees who laid the groundwork and participated in this wholesale destruction.
HRC, Kerry, McCain, and Obama were all massively implicated in wrecking this enormous suffering on yet another country. Victoria Nuland, Neocon extraordinaire, was also up to her eyeballs in this needless bloodshed. Needless to say, this murderous lunatic is back haunting the halls of power in the State Department as the current Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. She will no doubt be cheered on enthusiastically by her ghoulish nutjob [BI and CFR member] partner Robert Kagan…what a disgracefully macabre couple they are in tandem!
Faina…my congratulations on your extraordinary talent and success as a writer…you have a wonderful future to look forward to. Sadly I can offer no simple solution to the ongoing tragedy in your country. IMHO it seems that even Russia endeavoring to come to the rescue is fraught with so many dangers it could well simply make matters worse if it happens prematurely.
Clearly, the Hegemon is in its death throes. Make no mistake, it will eventually completely self-destruct both financially and socially. There will come a time when it will no longer be capable of indulging in this global rampage. The questions remain, how long will this process take, and how profoundly dangerous will the dying Hegemon be in this inevitably degenerative process.
Kindest regards from the south seas
Col
If you read Faina Savenkova, you are the Resistance !
Thank you faina, soon you will enjoy freedom, and normalcy in your life, and the people around you,… the forces that created the atrocities are breaking apart, and will suffer the same if not more, of what you have endured,.. the world is with you, and people like you who take on their shoulders the responsability of the comunity, and the country at large,… you wiil soon learn that your cry will be heard throught out the universe, and it will act on your favor
Very good article. Puts a human face on the tragedy going on in the Donbass.
I would suggest sending this poignant letter from Faina, who is wise beyond her years, plus relevant questions and answers to all the western powers and especially the Canadian regime of Trudeau and the russophobic Freeland. For the latter and to resonate better, leave it in Russian as it might (highly unlikely) lead to at least one sleepless night.
There’s no point in sending it to the highly controlled western MSM but alternate media would publish it.
It is hard to understand the adults handling this child that they have not already sent her away to real safety,
like to Russia which is her home country!—Instead, it looks like she is actually being set up for sacrifice
to the idol of “Novorussia”.—Outrageous, beyond astronomical number of times!!!
It is likely the EU is behind the Ukraine actions as part of a probing assault on Russia.
Dear Fiana,
It seems like only yesterday, that I was following the horror of your country’s US-sponsored regime change, neo-Nazi-style. That was spring, 2014, and already 7 years ago! And yet, you and your country, are still suffering daily from this on-going, tragic takeover by evil forces beyond your control! and your exquisite, but tragic expose of what you, along with your family,
It is a complete surprise to me to read this wonderful words on this blog. In all geopolitical and military discussions we might forget that we are talking about people. Thanks Saker and Scott, for your efforts to give voice to Faina Savenkova. I wonder whether Faina gets feedback from the reactions here while I think she might not master the English language (yet). To her I want to say this:
Dear Faina,
for the first time I have read your words. Here in the West it is hard to imagine in what kind of life you people are living, and having curfews here is nothing compared to what you described.
I have a daughter about your age, she is very intelligent but she is not capable (yet) in writing what I just read. You are very talented in style, and it is a relief to experience that the Donbass people have a voice, and one of these voices are the beautiful words of you.
It is expressed above to go international with your stories, to go to Geneva with VVP to spread your words with the international press. I am not in a position to advise the honourable president Putin, but when asked about my opinion I would say ‘don’t’. You will be exploited, critisized, and some kind of circus will unfold around you like around Greta Thunberg, who imho is just a puppet in a whirlpool of global interests. You deserve better.
Thanks to the Saker you are now in a position to share your experiences and thoughts on an international blog that is read world-wide. Please keep on going with this, we’ll be more than happy to read it and spread your words. Unfortunately we are not in a position to stop the shelling, but at least we can push a little to public opinion.
Dear Faina, keep on writing, rise up to be a Donbass woman with an incredible talent, and all my best wishes to you and you people around you.
From Germany, keep safe and healthy, cheers, Rob
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” – Henri Bergson. Thank you Saker, the greater Saker community, and especially Faina Savenkova. Thank you for your gift of sight.
My prayers and intentions are that those in a position of “power” will obtain it.
Thank you for introducing us to a gifted young lady–Faina Saventova. Hope you will publish more of her short stories. I guess I’m an old lady–83–living here in the US quite comfortably and never having anyone fire at me with the intent to kill. I do hope she will stay safe and develop her writing talent so more can enjoy her experiences. Best of success to her.
It’s refreshing to read a child’s essay on living in a terror zone. As an American I cannot imagine one of the children that age in this country putting a sentence together that makes sense. Children here are forced to not think and must remain undeveloped mentally and emotionally in order to fit in and avoid unpleasant consequences. It’s common here for children here to use baby voices and for their parents to use child voices.
Reading Faina’s essay revived my old urge (at 75 years of age!) to fly over there and help defend against the Ukie terrorists.
Patrick
Thank you for introducing your readers to Faina Savenkova.
I would like to read some of her literary works.
Can one or two be made available at this site?
Or, perhaps someone can help Faina create her own website, with some translations?
Can someone in the Ukraine/Donbass open a PayPal account?
Quite possibly interested readers would be happy to contribute something.
Katherine
Ollie over at Stalkerzone has a piece of her writing:
https://www.stalkerzone.org/forgotten-fates/
This 13-year old is truly precocious writing with effortless eloquence and exhibiting wisdom beyond her years. She will go far and she has much to contribute.
I am grateful to the Saker for introducing her to me. I will follow her progress.
I would tell Faina Savenkova that life is about devotion, devotion to humanity, truth, justice, peace, dignity, freedom, prosperity.
Devotion is not something we choose; it’s something we grow into, as the numerous material distractions in life lose their grip on us. It is what is left — what remains after a long process of elimination. And it transcends space and time — connecting the Donbass, for example, to St. Petersburg in 1917 and Paris in 1871, and Syria today, and Vietnam of the 1960s, and Afghanistan of April 1978.
Along with devotion comes a need to struggle against evil — against ignorance, against fascism, against war. This struggle is not motivated by any belief or any hope. We do it because it is the human thing to do. We do it, even when we hope for nothing and believe in nothing. The struggle is motivated by the heart, but it utilizes the mind fully. We use our own minds to learn how to communicate with others, how to open other minds, how to argue against inertia and self-destructive beliefs.
The mind loves truth, and this love deepens over time. This love for truth makes us larger, larger than the current battle, larger than USkraine, larger than Europe, larger than the “U.S.” Empire, larger than all of the things that disappear with the passage of time. When we become one with truth, we live forever. Two plus two will forever be four.
And the truth about life can be a source of happiness and joy. That happiness is contagious. Those who are not open to our information and experience, will be won over by our infectious attitudes. This is a world of changes, some good, some bad. Whatever happens, our mission remains the same: to struggle.
It hurts to say this.
Faina is just one victim of one single war.
But she was lucky enough to have her voice shouted, amplified and tentatively trumpeted by this Saker community too.
I have now forgotten the name of the ukronazi secret services but whatever their name is, take care.
I have watched this debacle when it first started, while on vacation in South America with discust. Modern day Nazis, trained by the USA, just as the USA, CIA trained every terrorist organization from Syria, Afghanistan, Central America, Columbia, South America counties, too many to list. The lies are so thick they don’t even bother to hide them because it’s due or die, having kicked the corruption can so far down the road.