Dear friends,
You've known me for many years. I've always been the one to support and inspire you in different ways - to be creative, to live in harmony, to wear what you like, to be accepting. Today, I ask for your help - for the first time in all these years. Please be aware what a horrible regime Putin set in Russia, my beloved home country. People do not have any freedom to express their opinions any longer. A lot of us are against this criminal regime and war in Ukraine! Millions are suffering right now. Please help Ukrainian refugees and please help to stop the war in Ukraine. Join me on Facebook (link above)! I regularly post about the ways to help financially, by signing petitions and other ways too.
Love and Peace,
Natalia
Peace! I hope his own citizens can put pressure to get this war stopped.
ReplyDeleteI am Russian, Sam. We can hope all we want, but the truth is there is NO freedom of choice, speech, opposition or free media in Russia any more! In my next post, I will do my best to explain it. For those who want to understand. Natalia
Deletedear natasha!
ReplyDeletehere - only a few miles away - we are already up (since weeks). refugees have being and still are welcomed and helped with housing and daily needs - many have found friendly families where they could stay for the beginning...... and of cause there is a big wave of sending help or transport over the borders from privat people too.
and full aware of the actual danger our politicians try all ways to end that war.
xxx
Thank you, Beate! I know that Europe is united in helping refugees! People and governments in Poland, Germany and other countries do a lot these days. Many Americans are trying to help financially as well. Every bit helps!
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ReplyDeleteThank you, Tina!
DeleteThank you Natalia. This is so painful. It brings very bad memories for me, who as a teenager with my younger brother, I also had to leave behind all I new as home, to arrive here as refugees. That was 60 years ago. So many in our wonderful adapted country don’t understand how it is to be unable to speak freely because you will be jailed, tortured or killed. Putin will not stop at Ukraine—why should he—he is being told repeatedly, no matter what you do, we will not interfere.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your heartfelt response! I am sorry that it brings back bad memories to you! Sending you warm hugs! I hope that all our good will combined together with actions to stop the war and help the refugees will change this tragic situation. And I want to see my country free of this tyrant soon!
DeleteGod bless you, Natalia. I'm so sorry this has happened to your homeland. You are right that unless we all join in the fight for peace, this will not stop with Ukraine. I will see you on Facebook. And I will pray every day for your parents and family. May they be safe.
ReplyDeletexo karen
Thank you so much, Karen! It all helps - prayer and meditation for peace and freedom, our financial and physical help, as well as just the words of support to both Ukrainians and Russians who never supported Putin and war! I will try to get my thoughts together to write more very soon.
DeleteAs an Ashkenazi Jew who has done my genealogy, I now know that my grandmother's family all came from Ukraine, and I have family in both Russia and Ukraine. In the current horror stories, I hear distressing echoes of my own family's horror stories from the first half of the 20th Century. I am in contact with Ukrainian family who left Ukraine years ago, who are angry, extremely worried, and in terrible pain over the fate of their friends still in Ukraine. I am also in contact with Russian family still in Russia who are appalled by what Putin is doing, and extremely fearful for their own fates in an increasingly repressive regime. I have been gutted by what's happening. I've been having nightmares. I do what I can to help my family, and to educate others. My own, immediate family left Eastern Europe over 100 years ago for safety and freedom in North America, but I have never felt more like an immigrant from "the old countries." I have never felt more connected to Ukraine and Russia than I do now.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your detailed response, Charlotte! This war, even if it seems so far away to many Americans (and I can understand it), touches so many lives. My neighbors just the other day mentioned that their grandfather came from Ukraine. We all are mixed, our ancestors lived close together for thousands of years. And you know and now feel it in your soul, and I am so grateful for what you wrote here. I don't know whether I will be able to find the right words for my post, but you summed up the situation so well in your comment!
DeleteI have been thinking of you Natalia, and I cannot even begin to imagine how this must be for you! Donations have already been made from our side, and I know that the Belgian authorities as well as quite a few individuals have been making the necessary efforts to welcome Ukrainian refugees. Sending heartfelt well wishes for you and your family xxx
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Ann! It always helps to know that a friend thinks of us. :)
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