In the Aftermath of the Massive Air Raid on Kyiv

The city collects itself and moves ever-forward

The sirens blare again, phones vibrate across bedside tables with the government warnings: missiles, drones, possible strike on the capital. Mothers shake young children swake, all exhausted from previous air raid warnings and because war is exhausting, especially for young children, who know nothing except people want to kill them.

The children are up quick, already in their clothes. They know one thing: to not burden their mother more by showing too much fear. The youngest ones used to ask questions like: “will I die now?” but even those questions have stopped.

Mothers get phone calls from husbands on the front, calling to make sure. But they cannot reply just yet, as they descend to the basement. Is the basement really safe? I’ll let you work that one out. Sometimes it is dark, with no WiFi, and for hours they sit there, not knowing if missiles are heading their way, and if they are, will their building crumble on top of them?

So they lock their doors, and join some neighbours stepping into stairwells carrying backpacks full with water bottles, passports, medicine, chargers, sandwiches, coffee flasks, books of poetry, blankets wrapped around children still half asleep. The elevators remain empty. The explosions start as people descend.

Dogs bark and whine. Another blast follows, and a car alarm begins screeching. Not everyone heads towards Metro stations and shelters by any means, and many stare from open windows in their flats.

Above the city drones are buzzing. Defence systems are firing. There is an almighty bang with the arrival of a missile, illuminating the horizon in a sudden orange flash on the cloud above.

The explosions arrive irregularly, impacts crashing through distant districts and some suddenly very near. Air defence continues shooting red tracers up into the sky

Firefighters move toward smoke, emergency workers search through debris under portable lights while drones still circle. Near dawn the sirens finally stop.

Smoke hangs above several districts. Fire trucks move through traffic. Broken glass crunches beneath shoes outside apartment entrances. The air smells of chemical cocktails. Buses begin operating. Another attack ends. Another morning begins.

700 drones, 50 missiles. Ukrainians with podcasts or YouTube start preparing their episodes…reaching out to the world. I read the comments they get: “stay safe,” “you are beautiful,” “we have problems too, with Trump,” “you should leave,” “why are you children there?”

Where should their children go? Where can they go? Why should they line up in a foreign country, becoming refugees, getting jobs as cleaners?

And yes, they worry enormously about their children. They have long given up trying to explain themselves to someone in the comments on YouTube.

The UN

UN representatives condemned attacks on civilians and called for verification of the legality of the attacks and alleged retaliation claims. Previous UN reporting also noted April 2026 was among the deadliest recent periods for Ukrainian civilians.

Someone might explain to me what on earth they could possibly mean by checking the legality and retaliation claims. What a bunch of champagne-sozzled time wasters on free junkets. Of all agencies they are the worst for abusing the fact no police force can give them a ticket for any traffic offences.

The murders they, the UN, committed in Haiti, attempted cover ups and refusal to compensate the victims are crimes in themselves: the cholera outbreak in Haiti became one of the biggest controversies in the history of the United Nations because evidence showed that UN peacekeepers introduced the disease into Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

Detailed scientific studies traced the outbreak to a camp used by peacekeepers serving in the UN stabilisation mission known as MINUSTAH, with waste from the camp reportedly contaminated a major river system used by local communities.

The epidemic became catastrophic, and hundreds of thousands were infected. Officially more than 9,000 people died, though estimates are much higher.

For years, and unbelievably, the UN denied legal responsibility or avoided directly acknowledging any fault. In 2013, it rejected compensation claims from thousands of Haitian victims, citing legal immunity under international conventions of diplomatic immunity.

When then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon finally publicly apologised to the Haitian people three years later, saying “we simply did not do enough,” promises of “material assistance” to affected communities were made, the UN still stopped short of fully accepting legal liability. Individual compensation was never paid, and funding commitments were underdelivered.

What was delivered was rice, bought from U.S. farmers. This destroyed the incomes of local rice farmers, many who committed suicide.

When one adds the fact that UN peacekeepers were the ones who control the prostitution in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war — I saw this myself, and that as well as sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Bosnia, it was also widespread in Congo, the Central African Republic and Kosovo, as well as Haiti, including rape, child sexual abuse, gathering and abandoning children.

An AP investigation reported nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse between 2004 and 2016. In Haiti alone, over 100 Sri Lankan peacekeepers were implicated in a child sex ring scandal.

As usual, the UN also Ignore warnings from commanders on the ground, such as in Rwanda, Sudan and Kosovo, but most of all in Srebrenica, Bosnia, where Dutch UN peacekeepers watched more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

That is why fuck off UN is a credible statement. Do we ever want them operating in Ukraine at some stage? No way.

In the U.S.

A bipartisan group of senators is demanding to know the reasons behind the delays by the Department of Defense/War in sending the committed $400 million in Ukraine and $200 million more for defense programs in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, dispatching a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday with calls for the funding to be disbursed.

“Ukraine has persistently and bravely repelled a four-year Russian onslaught, but its military needs and deserves continued American support,” said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in the joint letter.

Crimea

Strikes on the land supply corridor to Crimea continue. After civilian transit was banned at the Dzhankoi checkpoint, filtering out legitimate military targets for Ukrainian strikes got a whole lot easier. This is a key front. Perhaps the key front. If Crimea can be nearly cut off things can really start happening regarding the peninsula.

Refineries

Reconnaissance of the strike on the Ryazan Refinery on May 15, by Dnipro Osint. Multiple hits (more than 4) were recorded on the technical installations of AVT-4. More hits were also recorded on the AVT-3 installations. 3 more tanks were destroyed between the two installations.

In the south of the refinery, the technical overpass between the tanks was severely damaged. In total, 90-100% of the refinery’s oil refining capacity was disabled.

Carry on, Ukraine, carry on: fire at will.

Cyber security

“We continue to engage in daily cybersecurity efforts with Russia. The European City Council and all its digital services are currently being reliably protected by cybersecurity and cybercrime prevention services,” said Angela Makeeva, Secretary of Ukraine’s Irpin City Council and Acting Mayor of the city, according to azertag.az, in her remarks at an event in Baku titled “Just Transitions in Practice. Co-Creating Digital Tools for Informality and Crisis” held as part of the WUF13.

With permission

She also provided information about the “Europe in Your Phone” project implemented in cooperation with international partners, saying: “The project will allow city residents to submit applications, send inquiries, participate in public consultations, and access various services without having to visit the City Council in person.”

Again Ukraine striving onwards, and leading in digital services.

Chechnya

"My name is Mansur Movlaev. I am a Chechen human rights activist, currently under arrest in Kazakhstan for extradition purposes, and I face extradition to the Russian Federation, to the Chechen Republic—the very place I fled to save my life," reads his appeal, which was published by the free_mansour_movlaev support group on Instagram.

The UN Human Rights Committee has already officially asked Kazakhstan not to extradite him while his complaint is being considered. Hmmmm…nothing else? He remains in custody and is just one step away from extradition – and the very real risk of torture and extrajudicial execution.

These dangers were also noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in russia, Mariana Katsarova, in her official reports on persecution in Chechnya, Movlaev emphasised. Oh, great.

In addition to the UN Human Rights Committee, UN Special Rapporteur on Russia Mariana Katsarova also called for Movlaev's non-extradition until his case is considered by the committee, Movlaev's lawyer said. "She prepared a report in which she noted that he should not be extradited due to the risk of torture," she noted.

"I humbly ask you, distinguished members of the European Parliament, to record a short public video message to the Kazakh authorities calling on them to comply with international law, their human rights obligations, and the interim measures adopted by the UN Human Rights Committee," the statement reads.

He claims that even a short video message could help save his life. "Please don’t remain silent," Mansur Movlayev implored.

Movlayev was born in 1995 in Shali. He told his lawyers that while studying at university, he helped the Chechen Adapt opposition movement (an organisation designated as extremist and banned in Russia, of course) with information about people abducted by Kadyrov’s men. "He was persecuted for this active position," his lawyer, Rena Kerimova, told Kursiv Media.

In 2022, Movlaev was detained by security forces in Chechnya and held in an illegal prison. After escaping, he managed to reach Kyrgyzstan in January 2023. In August 2023, security forces in Kyrgyzstan detained Movlaev, who was wanted in russia for “financing extremist activity.” A court in Bishkek sentenced Movlaev to six months in prison and subsequent deportation from the country. On November 20, 2023, Movlaev was released, but the decision to deport him remained in effect, and he voluntarily left Kyrgyzstan to avoid being sent home.

Thought

The Russian Mir is a different world we want no part of. Ukraine does not belong to it, and must not be swallowed into it.

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