“You promised to stay alive”: a letter to a peer in occupation

Date: 17 January 2025 Author: Karina Hryzlyuk
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Between June 11th and September 1st, 2024, the Almendra Civic Education Center, backed by the Ministry of Education and Science, hosted the nationwide “I hear You: a letter to a peer in occupation” contest, attracting 241 young participants from across Ukraine.

ZMINA has published a letter by a 9th-grade, Karina Hryzlyuk, a student from the Municipal Institution “Lyceum of Natural Sciences” of the Kropyvnytskyi City Council, which won second place in the competition.

My dear Aryna!

It has been almost two months since I heard from you. I know that it is difficult in Rubizhne, but you promised me… to stay alive. You remember, don’t you? You wrote to me that you will come, that you will get out of that place, and we will go for a walk in the city. And I would finally see the adorable cat that likes to bite you so much while you write me letters back… My mother calls you a “crane with broken wings” and always asks how you are and if you managed to leave?

How should I explain to her that the missiles fell next to your house, and in the photos in the news I noticed that the windows on your floor are no longer there? I want to believe that you are going to be fine, however with every new post about the new air strikes in the Luhansk region, I start to fear more and more. My body fills with excruciating pain, my heart begins to pound wildly in my chest, and my thoughts get overflown with expectation of the worst. 

I watch the news and remember how you and I used to laugh two years ago. We were such children! And then I remember that I have not heard your voice for several months, have not seen your messages for several weeks, and it has been a few days since I forgot your smile. It is impossible to write you a letter while the tears are flowing from my eyes, and I have to endure and swallow them hoping that you will receive this letter. I see the news, I hear it, but I do not want to accept them – how will I live without my friend?

How did this world allow that 13-year-old children like you tremble under the rubble, count seconds after they hear the sounds of the airplanes, and hope that it is not a missile? How can we close our eyes to this chaos, to thousands of dead bodies, to the lack of people’s basic freedom?

My dear Aryna, do not forget that despite hundreds of kilometers, explosions, destroyed houses – I am near. I am next to you in letters, in short messages that you write when you have connection. I will always be your friend, your support, regardless of the distance that separates us. I am waiting for your answer. I am waiting for you alive. I am waiting for victory and liberation of the entire Luhansk region. I pray for you and for Ukraine, my dear!

With much love – your best friend.

P.S. As you have probably understood, reader, this letter is addressed to my friend from the occupied city of Rubizhne, Luhansk region. Since May 12, 2022, the city shared the fate of Mariupol. Rubizhne was completely destroyed, almost no houses survived. Occupation. Such an incomprehensible, strange word for Aryna, who was 13 back then, and for me. I was able to exchange messages with my friend only after they crossed the border of the Luhansk region and left the occupied territory at the end of September. Her bravery and unshakeable faith in Ukraine inspired me to write many essays and photos of her destroyed house, which inspired me to draw pictures. She awakened my readiness to show this world’s beauty without war. This little crane with broken wings has overcome hell for her freedom.

Thank you, Ukraine, for the opportunity to see the smile on my friend’s face after all the pain she experienced! Thanks to all the defenders who fight for our freedom! Thank you for life!

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