My Dnipro is standing

The place I was born and raised is standing like the rest of Ukraine

MY CITY OF DNIPRO has been mercilessly attacked by Russians in the last weeks. In the morning of May 26th, a polyclinic hospital full of civilians, including children, was targeted and completely destroyed, leaving dozens of injured people and a still to be confirmed number of lethal victims.

Dnipro is my hometown. This is the place I was born, raised and spent most of my life, so every attack on it is an aggression that goes deeper in my soul, as it wouldn't be possible to have a deeper sadness at every missile that destroys life in this Ukrainian soil. I know Dnipro streets and districts by name and by heart, in detail, so that most of the times there are photos or videos of devastated places, I can point out the exact place of the site only by my memories of my living experience there.

Some might wonder how I could identify places in a city where most of the districts are still composed of the same archetypical and similar buildings of the Soviet Union, well, it's something that almost three decades of life can provide and no one can ever explain, neither myself.

This is a city very proud of its importance and its strength. Being one of our key centers of industrial activity since the Soviet times, today is a metropolis of more than one million people, the fourth most populous of Ukraine (after Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa), and one of the leading political, financial, scientific, and cultural centers of the country.

This is also a city that is undeniably united by the love for Ukraine and the pride of being Ukrainian. There are our blue and yellow colors everywhere and one can hardly turn a corner without seeing a ribbon on our national colors. The tallest building in Dnipro, for example, is an abandoned construction that became a symbol of Ukrainian patriotism: since 2014, its facade carries the record of the largest emblem of Ukraine depicted on its walls.

Another evidence of the patriotism of the people in Dnipro is this sign that says, in Russian language, as if it's communicating directly to Russians, “We are proud to live in Dnipropetrovsk! We are Ukrainians!” (Dnipro is the capital of the Dnipropetrovsk Region)


It hurts immensely to see places with so many good memories, where still lives so many good people I met along my life, being subjected to a cruelty of such dimension. 

Dnipro is standing. Ukraine is standing. We are standing.