(blog article)

“Does February War like March? No, April and May May Lead to the Ukrainian V-Day.”

On May 8, 2022, my big family, or at least a part of it, consisting of 4 generations, got together in Hostomel, a picturesque town northwest of Kyiv. What for? To throw a housewarming party after the liberation of the Kyiv Oblast which led to the renovation spruce up of the townhouse country building suffered from war wounds.

While going along the highway and country roads leading to Hostomel, we saw the remnants of the damaged Russian tanks and armored personnel vehicles, however, the longer part of our way looked fine and even spic-and-span. The majority of the surrounding buildings looked splendid, some of them where under reconstruction, hiding quickly the damage caused by rocket and artillery shelling. Now popular green park, called ‘Shchaslyvy’ (Happy park) that was invaded by Russian paratroopers at night on February 25 and that frightened my daughter a lot at the moment of her escape at a getaway car the same night, looks like a fairy tale wood inhabited by some friendly and fancy beings. It is lively, well-trimmed, and lovely, having just only several spots of logged pine-trees, as a reminder of recent heavy battles…

On our arrival to the cozy country house, we immediately moved to the third floor wooden terrace to look around, to take drowsing hammocks, to entertain…and to cook barbeque…The wonderful view on the fresh pine forest from the folk-style brownish terrace was weirdly underlined by a 80mm mortar shell hole in the opposite town-house building roof covered with organically looking soft tiles painted in a palette of dark brown colors. Happily, it did not explode at the moment of shelling and has been deactivated recently, though the ambulance doctor living in the nearby house prayed daily asking the Heavens not to permit it to blast. The second 122mm mortar shell which fell behind the town-house buildings at the distance of several meters did not detonate too. Who knows maybe the prayers of locals influenced its non-explosion too…

The ambulance doctor just fixed a new metallic entrance door at his building. The old one had been severely shot leaving a lot of bullet dents…The occupants tried to break in his house but failed…

However, May welcomes us with its white and pink flowers, forcing us to forget all war troubles chasing us far and wide in Ukraine. Our housewarming party grew gradually into a hilarious keg party filling us with hardly explained humorous and snappy spring mood. While listening to the golden jazz collection of Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, Marlin Monroe and Steve Wonder, recorded on old long-play vinyl discs, placed on a chic looking gramophone, we raised toasts to the Mother`s Day and to the glorious future of Ukraine! After the liberation of Kyiv Region, there will go the liberation of the whole Ukraine. Ukrainians fixed Hostomel fast, the same will be with the whole country! Truth is tougher than lie; life is stronger than death…May keeps on advancing…