A glimpse of sickly, pale, almost white light seeps through the little crack in the trees. The moon, however grim, is, at the same time, beautiful as ever. The deep, dimly lit by the reflection of the moon’s light on the snow forest is as quiet as ever. No sound is uttered, no movement is seen in it. The only living thing in it is stillness. The only breathing thing in it is wind that carries frost and bitter death with it throughout.
In the distance, despite the trees and all of the snow, a small but lively light could be seen. A man with a sick determination to disturb the peace of the forest’s sleep, moving towards his goal, unnerved. Pushing through the snow in his heavy and warm-looking leather attire, the man is holding a small torch. Besides him, a dog. A big, robust and full of life dog, that looked more like a wolf than a dog, trying to keep his owner company. The forest has been watching the man for quite a while now but his goal nor his reason for disturbing it was unknown to it. The sheer fact of his presence made the forest seemingly move as thought it was alive. A distant sound that made the man stop dead in his tracks could be heard. It was faint, almost unrecognisable because of the wind that was really trying to blow the man away from the forest. The sound that the man heard was unnatural. No animal could’ve been a bearer of it, nor not any human. It seemed alien. It seemed like vinyl that was suddenly ripped off out of a gramophone. The man stopped and listened some more. He called for his dog, which by that point was already by his left side and trying to meet its owner’s gaze. The man put his hand on the dog’s collar and started slowly backing away. Here it is again. A faint but audible sound that rippled through the wind and snow. The man put out his torch and started to listen more closely looking over his shoulder from time to time. A faint, but visible glow could be seen in the distance. It represented more of a warmer tone, which stood out in the snow.
The man locked his gaze on it and drew his axe. He let go of the dog and it started growling and snarling in the direction of the light, which by that point already disappeared. An ear-reaping scream could be heard going throughout the trees, making the man take his axe with both of his rugged hands. He raised his axe; there it was: a black mass that stared at him. The man’s eyes were filling up with tears as he looked at it. That thing was moving in his direction. In the faint glow of the moon, it could be seen stumbling in its tracks but still managing to get up and continue on its path. As it drew closer, the dog started barking and showing its teeth. The man’s eyes became bloodshot with rage. He threw his rucksack off his shoulders and took a stance. As he was getting ready to swing, the thing disintegrated before his eyes. It disappeared. The stillness of the forest was regained. The man remained still as a rock, holding his axe close to him and was ready to swing at any moment. A sound or rippling snow could be heard on the left side of him, after which a harrowing scream was heard. The black mass was now running at him at full speed and there was nothing he or his companion could do. As the man blindly swung his axe, a loud cry could be heard in his left ear. His axe pierced right through the shoulder, or what appeared to be a shoulder of the creature. It placed its gigantic hand on his face and started to try to shove him away. The man kicked its leg, bringing it to the knees. Meanwhile the dog, which was snarling and chewing its own teeth for a while now, grabbed the arm of the creature and started biting down on it. It could be heard whimpering and crying, as it seemed for help. The axe was swiftly and promptly removed from the beast’s shoulder. The mass stumbled down onto its back and tried to get the dog off of itself. A quick whistle could be heard and a sharp, almost comforting sound of an axe could be heard that was followed by complete and utter silence.
The man, who by that time was hovering above the creature was breathing heavily and trying to not fall over. The axe was stuck in its head, splitting it right in the middle. The man stumbled backwards falling onto his back. He removed his mask and started to cough. The dog came to him and started to lick his face, which made the man sit up and pet it. The tassel was over. The creature was dead. He picked himself up and went to get his rucksack back, leaving the creature laying in the pale snow. You could make it out very clearly in it, as it was black as the dark itself. After some time the man came back with a newly lit torch and bent over the thing. Now the creature could be seen in its whole glory. Its face looked almost human. It was black as night and bald. A clear expression of fear stuck to its eyes which were wide open and staring into the trees above. They were big and had a tint of emerald green in them. The man rumbled in his pockets for a bit and got out a small but sturdy blade. With it he bent down over the creature’s face and removed its first eye, and wanted to do the same with the other but a piece of the blade broke off, almost hitting him in the face. He decided that it was enough for the night and that it would be best to return to his shelter. With that, he removed the axe from the mass’s head, stomping onto his shoulders with his full weight and went back the way he came from.
when u exit hyperfocus mode and ur immediately hit with every status effect ever
RESOURCES TO LEARN MORE ABOUT UKRAINE IN ENGLISH:
1. News and articles
Hromadske
Kyiv Independent
Ukraïner
2. Twitter
Writings from the war
United24
Ukraine Explainers
Ukrainian Art History
Ukrainian LGBTQ+ Military
ukrartarchive
Alice Zhuravel
Тетяна Denford
Oriannalyla
ліна
Mariya Dekhtyaruk
3. Instagram
Libkos (war photography)
rafaelyaghobzadeh (war photography)
mariankushnir (war photography)
marikinoo (illustrator)
olga.shtonda (illustrator)
polusunya (illustrator)
4. Videos (subtitles)
One day of evacuation with combat medics
Testimonies of tortures and sexual assault done by russians
How village in Kherson region lived under occupation
"Winter on Fire" documentary
Mariupol before and after
Tragedy of Nova Kakhovka dam
City of Izium after deoccupation
Entire village that was held in a basement for a month by russians
Vovchansk after heavy russian shelling
"20 Days in Mariupol" documentary
5. TikTok
qirimlia
yewleea
thatolgagirl
showmedasha
ukraineisus
new4andy (all of the above accounts are educational, this one funny)
6. Other
National Museum of Holodomor Genocide (Holodomor and Digital History sections on a website have a lot of sources to learn about Holodomor)
Izolyatsia Must Speak (information about torture chamber in the russian-occupied Donetsk)
War Stories from Ukraine
Virtual museum of destruction in Kyiv region
Chytomo (about books and publishing)
Free translated books
Old khata project (photography project about rural architecture)
This is Roman Horilyk after two years in russian captivity.
Roman was the senior checkpoint supervisor for the protection of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The russians took him and the other 168 national guardsmen guarding the Chornobyl NPP hostage and took him out of Ukraine through Belarus in March 2022. Now he was returned home, exchanged for the russian invaders.
Look at these photos. This is not an isolated case, but a pattern. Russia calls us Nazis...
Hey everyone check THIS out *floats lifelessly down a river*
A police officer and an ambulance paramedic came under repeated fire while assisting at the site of the hit.
Of course... Russians cannot exist without using their old tactic of "double-tap strikes" against civilians, medics, and rescuers.
You can help by supporting a fundraiser for electronic warfare equipment for the electronic warfare unit that protects Kharkiv and the region. Support the right cause!
we're gonna freeze in darkness this winter and no one fucking cares
it's only June but our energy infrastructure is already severely fucked by russian attacks and it will only get worse
worse than before
the whole country descending into the stone age worse
and it still won't be an escalation as long as it's Ukrainian lives that are at stake