deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

^{“Ukraine (/juːˈkreɪn/ ⓘ yoo-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, Ukraina, pronounced [ʊkrɐˈjinɐ] ⓘ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. It also borders Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; and Romania and Moldova[c] to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast.[d] Kyiv is the nation’s capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odesa. Ukraine’s official language is Ukrainian; Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south.”}

“Ukraine’s flag is a horizontal bi-color blue and yellow. The blue represents the sky, as well as the country’s freedom, and the yellow represents Ukraine’s vast golden wheat fields. It’s a striking symbol for an extraordinary nation! 🇺🇦”. (thanks to my personal assistant pi.ai)

“During the Middle Ages, Ukraine was the site of early Slavicexpansion and the area later became a key centre of East Slavicculture under the state of Kievan Rus’, which emerged in the 9th century. The state eventually disintegrated into rival regional powers and was ultimately destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The area was then contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers for the next 600 years, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century marked on maps as “Ukraine, land of the Cossacks”, but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and ultimately absorbed by the Russian Empire. Ukrainian nationalismdeveloped, and following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the short-lived Ukrainian People’s Republic was formed. The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union when it was formed in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a human-made famine. The German occupationduring World War II in Ukraine was devastating: 7 million Ukrainian civilians were killed, including the majority of Ukrainian Jews.”

A vibrant and thriving country…but not today

Words cannot describe the horror taking place in Ukraine, only pictures can tell the story.