A heart-rending image
The Tampa Bay Times published this photo of a refugee from the Russian invasion of Ukraine reaching the Romanian border. Heaven knows what distress she endured along the way. She has brought just her personal documents but she did not abandon her beloved cat. One hopes that they can both enjoy safety now.
I visited Ukraine three times between 2007-2013, and I have my own blood ties to the country. My grandmother’s family was displaced by the Russian Civil War in 1920, and it is shocking to reflect that Ukraine has been ravaged by war three times within the past century. Nor should Stalin’s depredations of the 1930s be overlooked, when a naturally fertile country was deliberately starved - an act of petty but deadly revenge for Ukraine’s brief independence between 1918 and 1922.
One lasting impression from my visits was the bonds of affection between Ukrainian people and their cats. That is something that is in my DNA, surely inherited from my late Odessa-born grandmother. I salute the brave woman in this photograph for caring about her cat’s well-being in the most harrowing of circumstances.
A heart-rending image
The Tampa Bay Times published this photo of a refugee from the Russian invasion of Ukraine reaching the Romanian border. Heaven knows what distress she endured along the way. She has brought just her personal documents but she did not abandon her beloved cat. One hopes that they can both enjoy safety now.
I visited Ukraine three times between 2007-2013, and I have my own blood ties to the country. My grandmother’s family was displaced by the Russian Civil War in 1920, and it is shocking to reflect that Ukraine has been ravaged by war three times within the past century. Nor should Stalin’s depredations of the 1930s be overlooked, when a naturally fertile country was deliberately starved - an act of petty but deadly revenge for Ukraine’s brief independence between 1918 and 1922.
One lasting impression from my visits was the bonds of affection between Ukrainian people and their cats. That is something that is in my DNA, surely inherited from my late Odessa-born grandmother. I salute the brave woman in this photograph for caring about her cat’s well-being in the most harrowing of circumstances.