Ukrainian girl painting a pysanka for Easter in Minneapolis, USA, 1941

I’m glad Canada is continuing to contribute to Ukraine, and there’s supposed to be aid for the next 5 years at least, but I worry it won’t be enough. I wish the budget for Ukraine was bigger; though I’m far from an expert in economics, I think GDP wise we could afford it (granted, in terms of actual military equipment we weren’t on the best footing, and I guess we weren’t meeting our NATO commitments in funding)

But also, even if we donated more, there’s no way we can meet the aid that is stalled in the US. Even if we combined our aid with other countries that’d be a huge commitment. That aid could save so many lives, it COULD HAVE saved so many lives. So many soldiers, so many civilians, and it’s all being stalled because a bunch of Americans need to have an ego stroke about it

Of course, that’s not just an American issue, plenty of countries have had asshats, including here, trying to stall aid, shit talking Ukrainians, celebrating russian crimes. It’s just the amount on hold, the steaks at play, and Ukrainians being told by the US specifically not to bomb the russian refineries is making it especially frustrating right now, and I know that it’s a lot worse for those in Ukraine, or family in Ukraine. It doesn’t take a lot of time in online Ukrainian spaces to know how dire things are, and how scared everyone is.

I don’t know how much we can make up for it, but if you’re a ukrainian diaspora member or ukrainian supporter, maybe try to mind local information on organizations and events in your countries that can lobby for more aid and support. And besides that, ukrainian organizations to donate to. United24 is always a good default. But if there’s any others please share them.

The Other Front: Ukraine’s Cultural Revolution

As the country fights for its right to exist, Ukrainians at home and abroad are embracing their language, literature, and heroic figures

Taras Shevchenko is immortalized in more than a thousand monuments across Ukraine. In central Lviv, children climb up one such monument and slide down its glossy sides. In the heart of Kyiv, Shevchenko’s statue, normally displayed proudly across from the university that bears his name, has been covered with sandbags and boarded up in an attempt to shield it in case of an attack. Shevchenko’s writings speak to Ukrainians across generations, and many of the things he wrote about, such as the wider pain of being separated from one’s family in war, echo especially loudly now.

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

Artwork by Meredith Holigroski (mrdth.ca)

Shameful.

Thursday evening - The Ukrainian diaspora: Concepts and Canada - Vic Satzewich

Date: Thursday, Juli 14

Time: 19:30-20:30 (20:30-21:30 UAT)

YouTube Live: watch the conversation here

Info: [email protected]

Two weeks ago we started our series on the Ukrainian Diaspora with Mychailo Wynnyckyi and Christiana Santore. The Ukrainian Diaspora as a Third Front is still our main topic of interest. Tonight we want to clarify the concept of diaspora itself. Iconic is the Jewish Diaspora or exile as the dispersion of Israelites of their ancient ancestral homeland - the Land of Israel - and their subsequent settlement in other parts of the globe. A very different diaspora is 'the brutal and chaotic history of Russias exiles, émigrés, and agents abroad' told by Adrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan in The Compatriots. With Professor Victor Satzewich we discuss diaspora as a concept and reasons and motives for people to leave their country, like victim diaspora, imperial diaspora, labor diaspora, trade diaspora and cultural diaspora. Of course we focus on the Ukrainian diaspora, more in particular in Canada. Especially we like to discuss how the diaspora in Canada developed as a political force. Our interest, however is not primary conceptual and historical. We like to find out how the Ukrainian diaspora acts today as civic force in the war against Russia. Is there a strategy of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada? What are challenges and successes? What can other Ukrainian diaspora's - e.g. in Europe - learn from the Canadians?

We are very happy to have as our guest Professor Victor Satzewich. Victor Stanzewick is Professor at the Department of Sociology at McMaster University in Ontario. He wrote an excellent book on our topic The Ukrainian Diaspora. He also published on racism and transnational practices in Canada.

Even once female Ukrainian refugees reach safety, they face new burdens as single heads of household

A Ukrainian family crosses into Slovakia on Feb. 25, 2022. PETER LAZAR/AFP via Getty Images Dilek Cindoglu, Georgetown University Russia’s war on Ukraine is, in many ways, a war on women. The fact that most women do not fight on the battlefield does not mean that their war experiences are less traumatic than male soldiers’ realities. Most of the 5 million Ukrainian refugees are women, children…

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pretty please, my fellow progressives

Could we please all keep in mind that the concept of "The Jews In General, or A Specific Type Of Jew, Controls Education, Government, Media, and/or Banking", is a longstanding antisemitic trope?

And most of all, that it is false??

No, a marginalized group does not also control education, the government, the media, and/or banking?

No, Jews do not secretly control these things and just pretend to be marginalized? No, Jews have not secretly been accumulating power since the Holocaust, granted by too-generous gentiles, out of pity?

No, it isn't better if you just mean a specific subgroup or kind of Jews. It's still specifically Jews.

It's like when people who hate trans/queer people are fine with rich white cis gay men. So they think it's not bigoted to blame "people with blue hair and pronouns" for the downfall of society.

We all know this means, "I only see some of you as human like me. You have to speak and act a certain way to count. Everyone in your group has to pass a test to get into the Good group."

Doesn't work.

Sure, it gives them plausible deniability to the people who matter to them. But everyone else can see exactly how they feel.

We've all known for years that it's bad to think of a marginalized group as having some "good ones." Rein it the heck in, please.

Because YES, all of those examples are ones I've seen implied, or stated outright, over and over, within the progressive community. This month alone.

русское сопротивление Irina Tsybaneva - Sentenced to two years in prison for 'desecrating burial places motivated by political hatred', leaving a note on the grave of Putin's mother stating: 'Parents of a maniac, take him to your place. He causes so much pain and trouble. The whole world prays for his death. Death to Putin. You raised a freak and a killer.' Sasha Skochilenko - Facing up to 10 years for 'anti-war statements'; the artist and activist's health has decreased dramatically since her detainment in 2023, and is now being starved as she continues to await trail. She replaced five price tags in a supermarket with information regarding the genocide in Ukraine, such as death tolls, along with: 'My great-grandfather fought in the Great Patriotic War [against Nazi Germany] for four years not to see Russia become a fascist state and attack Ukraine.'

Ilya Yashin - Jailed for 8 1/2 years for 'anti-war statements' and 'spreading fake news'. Upon presenting evidence of Russia's crimes against Ukraine, court officials declared the imagery of dead civilians to be false and 'staged'. Steadfast, Ilya called for his followers to not be sad, stating: 'We told the truth about war crimes and called for an end to the bloodshed.' Yelena Osipova - 77-year old artist and activist, survivor of post-Leningrad, facing up to 15 years in prison for repeated demonstrations against Russia's fascist state. She has been seen proudly with signs stating things such as 'Putin is a war', 'Russia has a serious illness', and 'No nuclear weapons, save the children of the world'. Alexei Gorinov - Politician who criticised invasion of Ukraine in a council meeting. Seen in court here, holding a sign stating: 'Do you still need this war?' Olga Smirnova - Peaceful Resistance member arrested for 'anti-war statements'. The door of her home defaced in her detainment, painted with the word 'предатель' (traitor). No peace until Ukraine receives Justice. Slava Ukraini, heroyam slava!!

Merry Christmas, especially to Ukrainians. And to the Diaspora, many of whom have had a second Christmas for generations. May we all have health hope and safety this year.

Prof. Granovsky inspecting his personal Pysanka collection on display at the library in Minneapolis, USA, 1940

Being someone of Ukrainian descent/part of the diaspora in the west and trying to get people to understand the war and Ukrainian history is frustrating, cause a lot of the time you become Schrödinger’s Ukrainian: if you try to come from a Ukrainian perspective and use your voice that way you either a) get the same bs people from Eastern Europe always get, or b) you’re not really Ukrainian and therefore your perspective means nothing (therefore we will continue to not listen to any Ukrainians and talk over them).

If you try to use your western voice, then you’re either: a) a westerner who actually knows nothing and is just jumping on a bandwagon (no it doesn’t matter if you speak one of the relevant languages or have spent years researching and studying even before the war) or b) a descendant of a “bandurite” or are one (if you were to for whatever reason listen to tankies, you would find that every Ukrainian Canadian is actually a nazi trying to turn Canada into fascist paradise, and we’re all descended from Stepan Bandura himself)

Sometimes you are somehow all of these at once!

Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of benefits of being born or raised in the west, it’s still a better position I think than the treatment those from Eastern Europe are given, and I have been able to leverage both backgrounds to help educate other Canadians, and this os something in general the Ukrainian Diaspora here has long used to get Canadian support for Ukraine, but it is an at times very annoying thing to deal with.

Bout to do my yearly Mass attendance tomorrow can't wait to get sprayed with holy water in a basement

on the bright side get so sit with this hella architecture again for a bit

So for any Ride the Cyclone fans who know about Ocean’s Ukrainian cousin Astrid, here’s a little more info about her that I got from someone who has connections to RTC; she kept trying to bite Ocean “because she deserved it.”

saw a TikTok earlier blaming diasporic Russians for the war against Ukraine, and it's just... jingoism rots the psyche

I photocopied a plastic bag I got in Ukraine and printed it to some 228 labels. For sale, follow the link. All proceeds going to anti-fascist Ukrainians on the frontlines and queer-lead emergency initiatives in Ukraine.