Ukrainian Warfare Diary (174): An excessive amount of struggling, too many fronts

10/8/23

Final Friday I acquired an unusually giant variety of messages, most of which had the identical content material. Each my pals and family members requested whether or not it would make sense to postpone or maybe even cancel my journey to Ukraine that was deliberate for subsequent week.

Assaults within the middle of Kharkiv

A day earlier, the Russians bombed the village of Hroza within the Kharkiv area, killing over fifty of the roughly 300 residents. The next night time, the middle of Kharkiv was shelled. (This wasn’t completely shocking, however issues have been comparatively quiet there over the previous few months). A nine-year-old boy and his grandmother had been discovered lifeless in one of many buildings hit.

I thanked everybody and tried to elucidate that I might nonetheless persist with my deliberate journey. In spite of everything, my musician colleagues are ready for me in my hometown, the rehearsal room is already booked, and our concert events in Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv subsequent week have already been introduced.

Hold singing to reside

I used to be conscious that my phrases may sound a bit pathetic, which is definitely not my fashion, however I nonetheless wrote: “It should go on! If we cancel every little thing now, our enemies will certainly be joyful about it. It’s about life and that’s what we should always reside!” “Sure, precisely,” – answered my sister. “It’s about life, so please assume once more.”

It has to go on! If we cancel every little thing now, our enemies will certainly be joyful about it. It’s about life and that’s what we should always reside!”

Yuriy Gurzhymusician and columnist.

Once I learn the primary studies from Israel on Saturday morning, I initially had the absurd hope that it may probably be a mistake. I considered scenes from modern movies during which somebody makes use of a easy algorithm to create and unfold pretend information on-line as a way to deceive others.

Merciless information

Like most Jews born in Ukraine, I all the time felt like I used to be linked to half of Israel in a familial or pleasant means. I instantly wrote to my cousin, who grew up in Israel, and requested how her household was doing there. “All the pieces as traditional, I believe,” – she wrote again and I used to be in a position to calm down for a really temporary look. However then new information stored coming, yet another brutal than the following, and it rapidly turned clear that the merciless information was completely actual.

Though I nonetheless had lots to do on my final day in Berlin, I remained on the ground for the following few hours, my laptop computer in entrance of me, switching between information websites in my browser.

The final time I used to be on this mode was on the finish of February 2022, within the first days of Russia’s main invasion. I want I by no means needed to undergo this once more. My cousin contacted me once more. It seems she hadn’t heard the information after we spoke.

I couldn’t maintain again my tears on the information of the rave within the Negev desert on the border with Gaza, the place guests had been shot at and brought hostage. A protracted-time pal who moved from Kharkiv to Israel within the early Nineties advised me that her son, who works as a bartender in Tel Aviv, was provided a job at this rave just a few days in the past. Though he declined the provide, a few of his colleagues determined to go. They haven’t but reported again to their households.

Photos and realities blur

Late Saturday afternoon it simply didn’t work anymore. Numerous, endless obituaries, names and footage of the victims – together with Sergey Gredeskul, an 81-year-old physicist from Kharkiv, and his spouse, who had been murdered by HAMAS terrorists of their dwelling within the southern Israeli city of Ofakim. And sooner or later it turns into inconceivable to tell apart between posts from Ukraine and people from Israel in my Fb feed.