At a crucial juncture, as aid for Ukraine encountered obstacles in the U.S. Congress, we have compiled a selection of materials published on Texty.org.ua and translated into English. This compilation is designed to assist activists who are writing letters to American congressmen, providing them with compelling arguments for continued support of Ukraine.These articles, released during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military, explain the essence of this war. They describe the challenges faced by the Ukrainian nation, which has become a target for its neighboring country, a nation ten times its size, governed by a dictatorship and propaganda. This collection serves as an essential resource for understanding the complexities and realities of the conflict, aiding those who advocate for Ukraine's cause on the international stage.Read this article in Ukrainian

In September this year, in the uncontrolled part of Donetsk region, the last parishes of the OCU (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine). were disbanded, and priests were transported to a Russian prison. Their whereabouts are unknown.Read this article in Ukrainian

On December 31st, 2022, 140 Ukrainian soldiers, including 30-year-old Oleksii Anulia, a kickboxer from Chernihiv, returned from Russian captivity. Oleksii spoke about the torture, beatings, torture with a stun gun, and starvation. Here is his story.Read this article in Ukrainian

Oksana is scared to look so she says she would rather stay in the garden. She gets herself a chair from the house and waits until the job is done.She just sits there silently taking drags from her Iqos electronic cigarette as her gaze wanders over the cellar and above the trees. The cherries are in bloom, and the earth is covered with an emerald carpet.The garden is teeming with life — such an odd and absurdly inappropriate place for death. But death is right there, just under Oksana’s vegetable patches. Her brother, who was shot by the Russians, is being exhumed. The bullet crushed his skull leaving a bloody mess of what used to be his head. Every day, more and more mass graves are being found in the town of Borodyanka about forty miles west of Kyiv. The communal enterprises are short-handed, the morgues are overstretched, and there is not enough equipment to support the operations. This story by TEXTY offers an insight into the exhumation and re-burying of the victims of war.Text: Yaroslava Tymoshchuk. Photos: Marcin SuderЧитати українською

Natalya Skakun, a resident of Oleshky in her recent life, now lives with her daughter in Mykolaiv with her husband. We start a conversation, and we can see almost immediately that Natalya is still in a state of shock. As she recounts her experience, her voice begins to tremble at some point. Translated by Dmitry Lytov and Mike Lytov.Читати українською

The blowing-up of the Kakhovska HPP by Russian forces left the Russian media scrambling for versions which could exonerate Russia with the main narrarative “It was Ukraine, not us!!”. Russian propaganda came up with a flurry of explanations why Ukraine had blown up the HPP denying Russia’s involvement. Russian disinformation media are finally able to report on Ukraine’s actual counteroffensive. Now that the operation is underway, the propagandists have been reporting on Ukraine's colossal losses and the power of Russian weapons.

47-year-old Oleksandr Antonenko from Chernihiv took part in the battles for the hill near the village of Novoselivka near Chernihiv (an interactive reconstruction of these events is here).Before the war, he worked as a welder, joined the Armed Forces as a volunteer, and was enlisted in the 1st tank brigade.He says: "[When we were enlisted in the army], we were told that we were taken to do maintenance, and I was surprised that they would also pay us a salary on top of that. On the same day, we received weapons. But we got no uniform. Whatever kind of clothes people came in, they wore them in combat."Less than two weeks after voluntary mobilization, Oleksandr was captured during battle.We spoke with him in January 2023, after he returned home. Next are Oleksandr's direct words.Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovЧитати українською

President Zelensky did not believe a full-scale invasion would happen and talked about barbecues in the spring – and the civilian authorities weren’t prepared for such a turn of events either. When Russia invaded, the government repeated optimistic reports that Ukrainian forces were successfully repelling the attacks. It cost the lives of those who took that message at face value and did not leave the soon-to-be-occupied territories in time. Others even moved to the occupied territories in a naïve hope to sit out the period of hostilities in a quiet area away from Kyiv.Читати українськоюTranslated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike Lytov

On July 29, a message in Russian was sent to the group chat of the teachers from Kherson secondary school No. 46: “On July 30, 2022, at 10:00 a.m., an inventory of the school will be conducted. You are requested to prepare the documentation and property items specified in the inventory list. The attendance of the entire teaching team is mandatory.”Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovЧитати українською

“First, they pulled the nail off my little finger. Then my middle finger. The second time was not as painful as the first time. The pain was so immense I didn’t know what hurt more: when they were making a meat chop out of me with the rifle butt or when I stopped feeling my hands. They tortured me with an electric current. They called this ‘electrophoresis’ or ‘a phone call to Zelenskyi’,” says Oksana Minenko from Kherson. Her story is an account of the horrific crimes committed by the Russian occupiers in Ukraine. Oksana is 43 years old. For the past four years, she was happily married to 37-year-old Oleksiy Khvostyk, a lieutenant of the National Guard of Ukraine.Translated by Tetiana SykesRead this article in Ukrainian