🇺🇦💔 I want foreigners to understand what it actually means to live in Ukraine during this war. Tonight, I was reading messages in a Kyiv residents’ chat and writing about a Russian Shahed drone that had been shot down in a neighbouring district. I had heard it very clearly, even from a distance. And suddenly, completely out of nowhere, I experienced something terrifying. I felt like I was dying. My heart was racing. I thought it was going to stop. I felt like I was about to lose consciousness. And there was one thought in my head: What if another missile is coming? I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I couldn’t understand why my body was reacting like this. I told my father, and he immediately sent me instructions for a breathing technique to help me through a panic attack. But what frightens me even more is what happened earlier today. Twice, I caught myself thinking: What if ballistic missiles come without any warning? What if there is no alert, no information, nothing? And then it happened. Six explosions in a row near my home. No advance warning that I had received. No time to prepare myself. And now, hours later, even the distant sound of a Shahed being intercepted can make my body react as though I’m about to die. Do you understand what this means? The attack doesn’t necessarily end when the explosions stop. It continues in your nervous system. In your heartbeat. In the way you listen to every sound outside. In the way your mind constantly calculates whether you have enough time to survive the next missile. And this is not just about me. Millions of Ukrainians live with the consequences of Russia’s war. Children, parents, elderly people, soldiers’ families, people who simply want to sleep, work, study, have dinner and wake up the next morning. Sometimes I feel so incredibly sorry for all of us. For what we have been forced to endure. For the lives we could have had. For the fact that even an ordinary evening at home can turn into a moment when you genuinely believe you’re about to die. And then I read politicians talking about peace and ceasefires as though saying the words is enough to make them real. I see a reported exchange in which Donald Trump is asked why Russia and Ukraine supposedly agreed to a ceasefire despite both sides denying it. And his reported answer? “Because I said, ‘You agree.’ That’s why.” I don’t know whether that quotation is accurate without seeing the original recording. But the attitude it describes is exactly what frustrates me about political discussions of this war. Peace is not a declaration. A ceasefire is not a press release. And ending a war is not something you accomplish simply by announcing that you’ve done it. While politicians argue over their achievements, Ukrainians are still hearing explosions, losing their homes, burying their loved ones and struggling to feel safe in their own bedrooms. Please, when you talk about Ukraine, remember that behind every headline there are real people. People whose hearts race at the sound of a drone. People who wonder whether the next missile will come without warning. People who are exhausted from surviving. We don’t need another performance about peace. We need the attacks to stop. We need real security. We need to live. I’m writing this from Kyiv. And I wish the world understood what that really means. 🇺🇦💔 #Ukraine #Kyiv #RussiaUkraineWar #ProtectUkrainianCivilians #StandWithUkraine