Essay from Mykyta Ryzhykh

After 24 februar

It turns out that during the cannonade and explosions you can: try to work, dine, hang yourself, fuck, jerk off, use drugs, yell at a cat, beat your young son, take away your mother's pension, pack a suitcase for departure, do crafts for elementary school, defend a diploma in zoom, wipe snot, wash away blood, stand in line for bread, throw away bread, steal potatoes in a store, feed a homeless dog, feed a homeless person, look for a mobile connection, call, be silent, eventually die...

As a child, it seemed that war was something grandiose and unbearable. Today you begin to understand that war is the same as a vacation, going to the movies or the evening news.

What does my cat think about what is happening? nothing, the cat is sleeping. And the neighbor's dog clings to the owners during the explosion and whines. And the neighbor's dog of the neighbors opposite, during the explosions, runs to the front door and growls loudly at what is happening outside the apartment.

Now it seems that money is not important, nothing serious can be bought for money. But living without a mountain of money in your pocket is now even more difficult than before. When we were kids, we wanted to conquer the Alps. Now we want to conquer mountains of money. We want to take all the money that exists in the world for ourselves in order to buy out all the military factories in the world and destroy them to hell.

The old woman from apartment number twenty says that out of habit every evening at 20.00 she turns on the TV and waits for the series. Instead, 24/7 TV shows news and air raid charts.

I have no acquaintances who would teach me to laugh. I don't have siblings to teach me how to fuck at 12. Maybe at the age of 12 I would have fucked the war to death - it would be easier for everyone.
At the age of 12, it seems to you that war and the battle for peace are the lot of the elite. At 22, it begins to seem that there can be no peace after the war. At 22, you begin to forget your age because you understand: war is the lot of children who do not want to grow up. At the age of 6, I was given a set of toy soldiers. All soldiers had 2 arms and 2 legs. Childhood is a place of lies. At the age of 21, you understand that in reality, nothing remains of the soldiers after the battles, except for a photo on a cemetery grave.

I will soon be 22 years old. I do not understand anything...