🇺🇦 Who I am I’m Devana — a writer and musician from Lviv. I write about Ukraine from Ukraine and share my own thoughts as a citizen who has lived here this whole time. I don’t belong to any political force. I’m not a journalist. I don’t work in the media. This is an independent voice. 🌐 Site My songs, Ukrainian radio, games, quizzes and an app for learning Ukrainian are here: devana.com.ua If you want the writing itself, you can support it here: ✍️ Exclusive articles, reflections and songs about Ukraine: patreon.com/DevanaUkraine 🌙 Original erotic stories: patreon.com/devanasecrets ☕ If you just want this voice to stay free: buymeacoffee.com/devana 🎭 Name and face Devana is a pen name after the Slavic goddess of the hunt. The symbolism matters to me: she walked with wolves and wore a bear’s skin. Nietzsche wrote that every profound spirit needs a mask; even more, around every profound spirit a mask is constantly growing. I made myself such a mask — the AI identity you see in this profile. Behind it is a living person. I need it because of my views, and because I write from inside the war. Glory to God. Glory to the heroes. Slava Ukraini.

Rus’ richest bride hid in a Lviv monastery Halshka Ostrozka, sole heiress of Illia Ostrozky, was one of sixteenth-century Europe’s richest brides. The king married her off against her will. She fled with her mother to Lviv and sat in the Dominican monastery. She was taken from there by force. Later she was also held in the High Castle. At the end of her life she funded the Ostroh Academy, the first institution of higher learning in Ukrainian lands. Lviv is not scenery here: it is the city a Rus’ princess ran to for shelter.

"Save Oleshky!" at the Ukrainian national team's match in Hungary. A reminder that Russia has orchestrated a new Holodomor there.

Kyiv. An office building. It strongly reminds one of 9/11. Perhaps there are fewer casualties in this single building, but the total number of victims from similar strikes on buildings is far higher.

Japan Day is taking place today in Lviv, Ukraine.

🧠 Any criminal must necessarily have a mental illness. In my view that is a fact, and it does not surprise me when such an illness is found in some maniac. It is simply impossible that a mentally healthy person would commit a crime. The same applies to leaders of states. Putin said many years ago that if he were in power for seven years he would go mad. He has been there longer, and we can all observe his behaviour, his deeds. A question to the people who follow him. Are they insane — the majority of the country’s population — or what governs them; what is their justification?

🗣️ One of the goals of Russia’s war against Ukraine is to make Ukraine Russian-speaking — Lavrov openly declares at a session of the UN. So who are all these people who help Russia achieve its goals?

🌻 The unbreakability of Ukrainians. Life continues, despite the wounds inflicted on us by Russia in alliance with the indifference of the civilised world.

🌍 “Ukraine makes me proud that I am a human being,” says a foreign diplomat, recalling how, against the background of Russia bombing maternity hospitals and abducting Ukrainian children, Ukraine does everything to prevent oil spills and even so that animals do not suffer from the combat.

🌍 Despite the fact that so much is already known about Ukraine, foreigners still astonish with their ignorance, considering Ukraine a country beyond civilisation. Separate attention is deserved by people who deliberately talk to Ukrainians about their love of Russia, thinking that causing pain is funny. Ukrainian children abroad complain of this most often.

A German man in Ukraine shows what Kyiv has turned into, demonstrating that Russia is striking civilian buildings while cynically calling it "peace negotiations."

🇬🇧 2022, compared with what is happening now, was a light stroll — says a British woman who lives in Ukraine, and I agree with her. The war is intensifying; strikes on residential buildings and hospitals have become so frequent that they are not even spoken of anymore. Even new genocides will not make the front pages. Has the world grown tired, or is it leaving Ukrainians alone?

🇪🇺 The occupation of Europe has already begun. Russia does not need to send in troops in order to seize a state. Putin himself called that an outdated strategy, saying it is enough that a country be governed by his puppet leaders. That is exactly what he wanted to do with Ukraine, and when he lost the puppet — out of powerlessness he began a military invasion as the last thing he could do, understanding that he was losing Ukraine for good. A military invasion triggers sanctions, hits the economy, and occupied territories cannot be recognised as Russian under international law. Look at Abkhazia and Ossetia occupied by Russia in Georgia; look at Transnistria occupied from Moldova — they play the role of pseudo-republics and, surrounded by sanctions, they degrade. Even having occupied Chechnya, Putin was forced to install their own puppet government there and in his whole life visited only once — last year, and even then under compulsion, to settle a conflict between Kadyrov’s servants and Russian servicemen. Look at Belarus — the country is as if independent, yet fully under Russia’s power. And no sanctions for Russia for the occupation, no international scandals. Therefore it is more profitable for Russia to launch its own puppet governments in various states, such as: 🇫🇷 France — Rassemblement National 🇩🇪 Germany — Alternative für Deutschland 🇵🇱 Poland — Konfederacja 🇦🇹 Austria — Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs 🇮🇹 Italy — Lega 🇸🇰 Slovakia — SMER and Slovenská národná strana 🇭🇺 Hungary — Fidesz 🇨🇿 Czechia — Svoboda a přímá demokracie 🇧🇬 Bulgaria — Vazrazhdane 🇧🇪 Belgium — Vlaams Belang One should also pay attention to those who are allies of these political forces, who support and finance them, in order to broaden one’s understanding of who else works for Russia. Of course not all anti-Ukrainian rhetoric means that a person is definitely an agent of the Kremlin and receives money for their work — though there are proven facts among the forces named above — but there are also simply idiots, or populists who try to take the votes of idiots and therefore play along with them. And why should they seize a state, if theoretically, if AfD obtains power in Germany, then Germany passes under Russian control? Suppose Russia obtains control over the strongest states of the EU or NATO — and that is it: they govern NATO, they govern the EU. They can say with the hands of their marionettes that those must not take Ukraine into NATO — and that is it: Ukraine will not be accepted into NATO. The same with the EU. They can attack a country where they did not obtain control, or which they need strategically in order to encircle the countries they plan to seize. Control of strong countries allows them to block aid to that state even if it is a member of NATO, and that country will be left alone before the enemy. Perhaps somewhere this control over the countries of Europe will be temporary — but we all see how reluctantly Russian marionettes give up power and can even create a dictatorship, falsify elections or refuse them altogether, as we see in Georgia, persecuting political opponents. Therefore the one who votes for a pro-Russian politician may be doing the cruellest thing in their life, switching on the lever that starts terrible wars and genocides which their descendants will be forced to endure in the future.

I just received 5 coffees from Hector on @buymeacoffee! buymeacoffee.com/devana/c/20…

The tallest belfry in the old town was paid for by an Orthodox merchant Kornyakt Tower went up in 1572–1578 as the Dormition Church belfry. At 65 metres it was one of the tallest structures in Lviv. The money came from Konstanty Korniakt, a Greek and a member of the Dormition Brotherhood. An earlier tower, paid for by burgher Davyд Rusyn, had collapsed in 1570. The new one received the bell Kyrylo — two metres across, then the largest in Galicia. It was a belfry, a fire lookout and a defensive point on the eastern wall, where the Ruthenian community lived.

Lviv's cats 🐱🐈

When the Lviv Brewery is older than the USA 😀

A 7-year-old girl from Lviv performed 101 pull-over-to-front-support exercises on the horizontal bar, setting her sixth Ukrainian record. Last year, Regina performed 430 pull-overs on the horizontal bar, setting an absolute world record.

I just received 5 coffees from someone on @buymeacoffee! buymeacoffee.com/devana/c/20…