584 day of war

Hello, friends!

The past week has been relatively calm, with most of the activity involving drone attacks by the adversaries, primarily targeting grain storage facilities and port infrastructure. Compared to what has been happening recently, this week seems relatively peaceful.

At times, it feels like our lives have turned into political games, such as the situation with the grain crisis. Russia attacked us, blocked ports, and caused a global food crisis. Then they start negotiating the lifting of sanctions in exchange for allowing ships into our ports. They create crises themselves and pretend to be great peacemakers who will resolve everything. When they realize they can't gain anything more from this situation, they simply begin dropping guided bombs and drones on grain storage facilities.

In a month, we'll likely experience power outages, and the attacks will probably become larger, more frequent, and mainly target energy-related assets. But we'll survive even this. It seems like the situation can't get any worse, as we've already endured everything possible over the past 1.5 years, and sometimes there's just no strength left to be anxious. War is complex, and there are so many factors directly affecting our lives that it's impossible to predict how things will unfold. One thing is clear: it will be tough, and that's what the authorities are telling us. We used to want the truth from the government, and it seems like now they are giving us that truth, albeit a rather sad one, and we must endure it and become stronger.

Overall, life is in a state of waiting. We try to work more, search for opportunities to survive, and find some positive moments in life. Currently, we can say that the last warm weeks of autumn are remaining, so I'm trying to spend more time outdoors, walking and cycling. The surrounding nature is quite beautiful, and there are many small chapels with delicious spring water between villages. I've attached a photo of one of them. In general, it's a rather sad time because we have to daily look for ways to earn a living and survive, which is exhausting.

Right now, our main job is also not in demand, so we are trying to earn more through creativity. I dyeing t-shirts, and Nastya has started embroidering custom brooches with people's beloved pets, mainly cats, and now she's working on two brooches with dogs. There's plenty of work like this, which is good because sitting still and doing nothing is tough. We need to make an effort to utilize every minute of the day to do something useful and distract ourselves from the war and its consequences.

I also wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone for their support on Buy Me a Coffee. I am truly thankful to all of you for your support