"Bring back our girl!" (continued). This is the fourth installment of our publication of the prison writings of Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot abducted by pro-Russian separatists on June 18, 2014, and held ever since in Putin's prisons. With this installment Huffington Post/WorldPost pursues the awareness-raising campaign that it has launched in partnership with La Règle du Jeu, Kyiv Post, Ukraina Pravda, and other publications.--Bernard-Henri Lévy
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Fire, Water, and Brass Pipes, Part 4
By Nadiya Savchenko
Tomorrow morning (January 19, 2015) they're going to give out holy water in the cells. I have a bottle that will hold 1.5 liters. And I'll go to church and light a candle when there's no priest present and mass isn't being held. And then visits from the medical committee and my posse of lawyers (M. Feygin, I. Novikov, M. Polozov). It will be a busy day. If there is more news, I'll add to the letter. By the way, my beasts are quiescent. Men in general are slow-witted. You can't get anywhere with them.
On the war, we're in the shit again -- that much is clear. I have a question. In Russia they lie by saying that the armies of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics have killed mostly Ukrainian soldiers, whereas the Ukrainian army only kills civilians and never hits the separatists, who, in exchanges of prisoners, allegedly deliver more soldiers than the Ukrainians. Because supposedly there are no POWs in Ukraine; the Ukrainian army supposedly picks up civilians in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. By contrast, the so-called separatist volunteer heroes are supposed to have captured a lot of soldiers! You're in touch with the deer [a pun on SBU, the acronym of the Ukrainian foreign intelligence service]. Tell me what's really going on.
What is war?
What is hunger? What is captivity? What is prison? What is hunger in prison? How should one behave in captivity? In a court investigation? In prison? Because these are very different things.
I'll probably try to recount all this before somebody else tells it wrong.
Translated from Ukrainian by Vladislav Davidzon with Vitaly Chernetsky