Invasion Day +18: Putin's barbarism continues, Russian atrocities mount, the incredible Ukrainian resistance has now seen three Russian generals 'removed' with a fourth as yet still alive, but under house arrest for lying to Putin. The generals know what they have to do to stop Putin. Russian losses are reported as 'staggering', their soldier's bodies buried in mass unmarked graves or burned in the field to hide the extent of the loss. Analysts describe the Russian war effort as a 'debacle' forcing Putin to yet another medieval tactic; hiring mercenaries. The war is reported as costing Putin $14 billion a day and rising. It's costing peaceful Russians their future.
(If you haven't read about Hoggy as yet please go to 'About Hoggy' where you will find everything you need to know about yimps and yimping. Thanks a lot for reading this blog of letters and poems and joining us in support of Ukrainians and democracy, we will keep it going as long as needed. Hoggy.)
Dear Anna,
It was so lovely to meet you on Friday despite the pain of this terrible moment in our history.
Your story of being on a holiday trip to Portugal and suddenly seeing your home in Kharkiv being totally destroyed by a warmongering megalomaniac moved me greatly. But you shared the story of the journey you have made to the UK on a tourist visa and now the hardly believable struggle for an extension here has begun. Maybe this letter will help to keep your spirits up in this further unwanted fight of a refugee . As if you haven't enough to contend with. I hope the UK government responds to your application soon.
Your story of immediately setting up an online classroom to teach English to young people hiding in the shelters in Ukraine is just so inspiring. Your friends from Kharkiv; Ina and Rea's stories, are even more moving. Fleeing from the ruins of their home in Kharkiv, Ina making it to Poland and being welcomed by a family who do not seem to have very much themselves is heart warming. My friends and I have collected £150 so far to help and I have sent it to Ina to buy pillows blankets and a mattress – sleeping on the floor is not good for her in the long term so hopefully we can help her come the UK if she so wishes?
I am speaking to all my friends to see what we can do to continue helping and will let you know how this goes. I will write to Ina and Rea and hopefully they will want to tell the stories themselves. If any of your family and friends from Ukraine, wherever they are, want to tell their story too I started this blog for them so please ask them to write to me, Hoggy, at: hoggytheyimp@gmail.com or send a letter through the blog or on WhatsApp through yourself.
I will be posting some poems too, some of my friends and I are poets and I am asking them to write encouraging and uplifting words about hope, the future, peace, and the rebirth of a great Ukrainian nation.
Until then Anna, I send you all my support and respect for the journey ahead. It may be long and perilous, but in the end you will all live peacefully once again with the admiration of the free world embracing you.
You will win.
Hoggy
Dear Hoggy,
Thank you for your kind letter. Your support means a lot. I've been in touch with Ina and asked her to message me confirming she gets the donation.
Ina and I will be glad to help you with the blog. Rea is 16, her English is very good and she was actually staying in Kharkiv when it was shelled and bombed in the first week of the war. She wants to tell her story and I will ask the other students in the shelters, both teenagers and adults, to share their stories too: stories of being petrified by Russian bombs, hiding in basements, fleeing. We all would like the world to know what is happening and I hope sharing these experiences through your blog will help.
What you are all doing for us is absolutely fantastic ; it is such a precious thing for the world in general not to let such tragedies as this happen in the future.
With kind regards to you all,
Anna
Note to readers: if you feel you can help either financially or in any other way please let Hoggy know by email at: hoggytheyimp@gmail.com. He promises to reply as soon as he can.
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