SOME REFLECTIONS ON russia’s WAR AGAINST UKRAINE
The 2026 winter in Kyiv and in general in Ukraine is very difficult. It is very cold because of the weather with temperatures up to -20 C, and because of the blackouts caused by massive russian missile and drone attacks on power and heat generating infrastructure. In my appartment complex there was no heating for 5 days, and temperature in rooms fell down to 1C, -1C on the window sill. We did not have electricity for almost 60 hours. With electric cooker it is hard - no tea, no warm water, no shower, not saying no hot water. We have survived with 3 thermostats and thanks to friends who have gas cooker at home to fill in the thermostats with hot water. The heating of the flats now is at the minimum level giving 8 C in flats. And this is great, since the heating system has not frozen, unlike in some other houses. Just for the information - we have a central heating system. At home we are dressed almost like for outside, like onions - with many layers of cloth. In fact when we get too cold, we go outside and walk fast. And if you carry a shopping bag and walk even only to the 5th floor, it works even better!!! -- We don't use lifts anymore since one can get trapped in the lift when electricity suddenly is cut-off. Now we have electricity in the best case for 10-12 hours per 24 hours. Two days ago I id not have it for 28 hours. Unfortunately, russians will continue to destroy the infrastructure here further, they have plenty of missiles, drones and other weapon, in which they use numerous elements from Western companies imported in spite of the sanctions. And they continue to produce weapon - their economy is based on this, and they have almost unlimited resources. Unfortunately new wave of cold weather is coming and weather forecast is cold and frosts for all February and first half of March.
I say and write "it is difficult", but I don't complain! These conditions can;t even be compared with the conditions our soldiers have on the front line. For years!!! I have no right to fall in pessimism. Otherwise thousands of best lives would be lost for what?!
My Institute as all other Institutes of the Academy of Sciences, works. Luckily, we have a generator which works during blackouts and supports our infrastructure, computers and servers. In January we have celebrated 60 years of the foundation of the Institute (Bogolyubov Insttitute for Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). Some representatives from Lviv and Kharkiv Institutes came to Kyiv to participate in the general memorial meeting. Professor Erik Aurell from KTH and Professor Carlo Baccigalupi from Italy visited this event too. In September we plan to run Bogolyubov conference. Life goes on.
Here in Kyiv metro works, instead of trolleys buses run, some shops are closed, but many other work. People continue to work and perform their duties. Theaters run their perfomances!!! Together with Erik Aurell we have been at the Taras Shevchenko National Opera and Ballet Theatre. It was Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Before opera beginning there was an air raid warning and visitors were directed to the basement which is used as a shelter, and after warning over the opera started.
My hopes are for our Armed Forces, for our people, for volunteers, for the International support. We have survived thanks to this, and we will continue our fight and we will win. From our European friends we get not only military support, but also humanitarian support - electric power itself, electric generators, heating systems, busses, you only name them! Together we are strong! There should be no place in Europe in the XXI century for dictators, war and nuclear terrorists!!! Life on Earth, earth nature are unique and it is our duty to preserve them for us, for our children, for the next generations.
We are going to continue with the zoom meetings with Swedish physicist After the planned February event, next we plan the Swedish-Ukrainian seminar in the second half of April. This contact is very, very important, both scientifically, socially, culturally, emotionally. Science does not know borders, it develops successfully when there is free exchange by the ideas, by the obtained results, by the raised problems and discussions. It was so in Greeks times, it is so now. We not only hope, but we work for the victory and a day will come when people can travel safely to Ukraine.
I express my thanks to International scientific organisations, funds, publishers who condemn russia's aggression against Ukraine and support scientists here, in Ukraine. In particular, my thanks to Simons Foundation
https://www.simonsfoundation.org and to Elsevier Publishers https://www.elsevier.com/connect/elsevier-condemns-russian-invasion-of-ukraine (see also https://mailchi.mp/4851e2a74119/joint-publisher-statement)
Welcome to Ukraine, LEOPARDS! We are looking forward to N x F16
Thank you so much, our friends abroad, for your support!!!!
Thank you for every dollar, for every piece of food and clothes, for every shelter, for every Ukrainian stick on your PC, for every Ukrainian flag and badge!
Thank you for every military car, gun, cask, weapon, every bit of information!
Thank you for your sincere and generous offers "My home is your home!". Indeed, the Earth is OUR HOME, and we are responsible for it! It is our home, not the battle field for money, power and resources!
And thanks to every soldier, every volunteer, every MD, named and unnamed, who fight for Ukraine, for peace, for democracy!
While the leaders of the western countries, including those, who have guaranteed the safety of Ukraine and our borders signing the Budapest memorandum in reply to our refuse of nuclear weapon, worry about 'non-escalation' (!!!) of the ruscist war against Ukraine, here thousands of civilians and hundreds of children are killed, universities, schools, theaters, hospitals and other civilian buildings are bombed. The whole cities with inhabitants are erased by ruscists... People are starving and have no water for weeks (!!!) in Mariupol, Chernihiv, Bucha, Irpin and other cities. The agreed with the international Red Cross green corridors are bombed by ruscists... Millions of people are left without their houses and flats. Are there any real sanctions against russia? They are numerous, but not at all serious, nothing to compare with sanctions against Iran! Western companies continue to make blood money in russia. Many of russians who live abroad, pretend now to be 'from Ukraine'! Why not?! It is the way for them to get free transportation, free access to many cultural cites, to get any other assistance! International academic circles continue discussing if the journals continue publishing papers by russian authors having in mind the argument 'not every scientist supports putin's regime'. You are serious?! To which regime they pay taxes? When ruscists bomb civilian cities, little villages, kill civilians, women, children with raised hands, do they ask if their victims are Ukrainian patriots or they support 'ruscist peace'?!
IAEA lost access to the monitoring systems of Chernobyl nuclear power station almost 4 weeks ago because ruscists occupied that area, and there was no reaction from IAEA! The organisation even have not excluded russia! Only today president orr whoever he is arrived to Kyiv! To say "All is ok, don't worry!"?! Money does not smell?!
More than a month my daughter and I and our cat sleep on the floor in the corridor 1m wide and 3 m long. Air raid sirens might not work if missiles go low and air defense system does not detect. Some days there are up to 10-12 air raid sirens, sometimes lasting for 3 hours, sometimes with 5 min break between them. And still we are lucky - so far our building has not been destroyed, we have water and food and electricity. How long it can last?! Nobody knows. How much chemical weapon russia has to use before western countries will help us with weapon we ask? Phosporus bombs, casset bombs are not enough! Genocide of Ukrainians in the XXI century is not enough, until politicians live in safe houses, go to restaurants, walk in parks, watch tv shows... Until it is too late...
Russia continues the genocide and war in Ukraine. It is the biggest terrorist country in the world! They send their missiles on the living houses, they use vacuum bombs, they bomb maternity hospitals, churches, schools, they even bombed Babiy Yar cemetary, where dozens of thousands of jews, ukrainians, poles and other nations people were killed by soviets and this massacre was continued by nazis. It is a bloody war of attrition against Ukraine, against all people who live here, including Russians and Russian-speaking people. Unpunished for occupation of Crimea and East of Ukraine, Russia dominates now in the Black sea. Russia threatens to the whole world with its nuclear weapon, Estonian ship bombed by Russians, sank today near Odessa. Their missiles fly over Chernobyl and other nuclear power stations.
If Russia had been stopped long time before, this tragedy in Ukraine would not have happened. Yes, now Ukraine gets support from many countries, and we are very much thankful for it. But the main thing we ask, to close the sky over Ukraine, is still our cry. Some of you continue to use Russian clishe 'conflict'. On the website of my Institute there is a letter From the Spokesperson and Chairperson of ALICE Collaboration with the subject 'Тема: Conflict in Ukraine'. Can you imagine?! To call this criminal war a conflict! Please, come here and look at the ruined houses, buildings, bodies of killed civilians on the streets. Simply 'in the conflict', ah, no, "unavoidable victims of the putin's 'operation'". IKEA, LEGO, other companies and organizations write "war", but not ALICE Collaboration. Some of you write to me "This has to be stopped, so many killed on BOTH sides" . You are teasing? You are pulling my leg? Pull the other one! Show me a single child killed by Ukrainian soldier in Russia!
Russian warship, poshol nahui!
Слава Україні!
Героям слава!
Dear colleagues, Dear friends all over the world,
Please, support Ukraine!
Today there is no single person in the world who does not know that Russia has openly invaded Ukraine on the full scale, at 4 a.m. in the morning, like Hitler started bombing Ukraine in 1941! ‘Green men’ who brought ‘Russian world’ to Crimea and the south of Ukraine in 2014, now decided to bring it to the whole Ukraine, and if not stopped, to the whole of Europe.
I am deeply thankful to you for the assistance we got from you, for your support. But this is not enough. You can do much more!
Don't believe Russia's fakes, do spread the word of truth everywhere you can, do support Ukraine publicly, do press your governments:
to exclude Russia as a terrorist country from the UN Security Council
to disconnect Russia from SWIFT
to help Ukraine with the armament
to open the possibility for Ukraine to join EU and NATO
to close our sky
to empose sanctions not only against Putin and a few other companies or banks, but against all Russia - Russian people have elected their government, they have elected Putin, their army obeys the orders given by Putin, whose crimes against mankind in the XXI century exceed the crimes of Hitler.
You can also help directly the Ukrainian army by money transfer to the official multy-currency account UA843000010000000047330992708:
For USD remittances:
BENEFICIARY: National Bank of Ukraine
BENEFICIARY BIC: NBUA UA UX
BENEFICIARY ADDRESS: 9 Instytutska St, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 400807238
BENEFICIARY BANK NAME: JP MORGAN CHASE BANK, New York
BENEFICIARY BANK BIC: CHASUS33
ABA 0210 0002 1
BENEFICIARY BANK ADDRESS: 383 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
PURPOSE OF PAYMENT: for crediting account 47330992708
For EUR remittances:
BENEFICIARY: National Bank of Ukraine
BENEFICIARY BIC: NBUAUAUX
IBAN DE05504000005040040066
PURPOSE OF PAYMENT: for crediting account 47330992708
For GBP remittances:
BENEFICIARY/RECIPIENT NAME: National Bank of Ukraine
SORT CODE: 60-92-42
ACCOUNT NUMBER: GB52CHAS60924280033041
REFERENCE FOR CREDITING ACCOUNT: 47330992708
BENEFICIARY BIC: NBUA UA UX
BENEFICIARY ADDRESS: 9 Instytutska St, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine
BENEFICIARY BANK NAME: JP MORGAN CHASE BANK NA, London
BENEFICIARY BANK BIC: CHASGB2L
BENEFICIARY BANK ADDRESS: 125 London Wall, London EC2Y 5AJ, UK
Remember, Ukrainian army and volunteers fight not just for Ukraine, we fight for democracy! We fight against the biggest and the most barbarian army in the world, that breaks all war laws, that bombs hospitals, maternity hospitals, schools, kindergartens, civil buildings, ambulances – this is 'Russian peace'. Please, be aware that it is not only Russia, it is also Belarus, who are aggressors and who are next to your door.
More than 1,000 wounded and 300 killed during the first two days of the war in Ukraine, among them children… Nuclear radiation from Chernobyl, which is already under control of Russia's army, has increased again, hopefully, from the soil because of the movement of their tanks and heavy armaments.
Russia's rouble, oil and gas which flow in your countries, is a noose on your neck. The terrorist who has not been punished for invasion in Chechnia, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, the enemy who has tasted the blood, will not stop by himself, he must be stopped.
Here in Ukraine, a shower, a cup of coffee, available electricity, and especially the absence of cannonade and explosions all around are such a luxury for us now! Don’t be aside! Decide on whose side you are, and act now!
Слава Україні!
Героям слава!
Yours,
Larissa
