Don't even read any further. Go straight to Mkip. I came across this initiative from the Ukrainian government a few days ago, and… wow.
Some smarty-pants guy in the Ukraine government thought it wise for ordinary Ukrainian citizens to tell their stories, about how they are experiencing the war. The world deserves to know.
And ordinary citizens grabbed the chance.
Those stories are captivating.
If you've ever 'quickly' visited Wikipedia to read up on something, just to fell down the rabbit hole and only get away from there hours later, Mkip will tear you through the hours and shell out your soul.
Although the site defaults to Ukrainian language, it offers an automatic translation option to Russian and English. But that function does not always work very well. Worked fine for me on day one, on day two I had to use my browser's translation add-on.
The site is effectively a blogging platform, and the stories are written in first person, from first-hand experience, by people trapped in a war that may turn out to be the beginning of World War 3. And it's heartbreaking from beginning to end.
Some post pictures that tells a story of brutal war. Young women from Bucha when they still didn't know what was happening outside their cellar doors. Several people from right inside Mariupol, sending their stories at night to catch a weak internet signal from rooftops that gets blown away just hours later. Even teenagers longing back to school typing their stories. Boys. Girls. Men. Women. Their emotions are a shower of hurt trying to wash impending death away.
What caught me really hard off-guard, was when I checked the timelines when those people wrote. So many of them. How regularly many of them wrote, like every day.
Just to then suddenly go quiet. Forever.
