From the Rada to the Hospital

On 31st of August the protest, against the revision of the Ukrainian constitution, lead by the Sovboda in front of the Rada in Kiev turned to a tragedy. A protester, allegedly a member of the Sich Battalion, tossed an explosive device at the National Guard which was protecting the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv. The balst killed three servicemen and injured over 90.  

The clashes looked like an inverted scene of the Maiden. People who once stood on Maiden facing the brutality of  the Berkuts, were now standing in uniforms of the National Guard with the same will of building a better Ukraine. Holding their position in an incredible calm.  The Sovboda protesters on the other hand, managed to reach an unprecedented level of irony,  were beating up lonely volonteers and servicemen they managed to pull out of their ranks with their party leader, Oleh Tyahnybok,  at their side. 

After hearing about the explosion, I made my way to the Rada and arrived an hour and a half after the blast.

Members of the National Guard smiling as an old man yell at them in from of the Rada an hour and a half aft er the explosion that killed three and injured over 90. 

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Riot Police getting on formation as a small group of protesters from Svoboda attack them on Mykhaila Нrushevs'kogo street.

Protester next to the National Guard on Mykhaila Нrushevs'kogo street.

Shortly after being hit in the forehead by a rock, medics provided me first aid and bandaged my head. The National Guard secured my way to the ambulance, which was later stoned stoned by the protesters as we it was starting to drive away in direction of the hospital.

National Guard officers making a corridor to extract me to an ambulance after I have been provided first aid by medics.

Corridors of the Emergency  Hospital.

Doctor and the Nurse walking to the operation room.

Light from the operating table as I wait to be stitched up

Balcony on the 10th floor of the Emergency Hospital in Kyiv

Nurse attending to a patient inside a corridora of the Emergency Hospital 10th floor.

Hospital 6 beds room at 6.45am 

Breakfast offered by the head Spinal Surgery.

My injury was rather superficial, just a 4cm cut which was 3mm deep and no contusion.  On the next day my head wasn't even painful, my swollen eye was the biggest annoyance.

FAO poultry distribution in Donbass

FAO provided 20 chickens to 350 household in small villages on the edge of the contact line between Ukrainian Forces and Separatists held territories. 

Anton volonteer from the Free People Country NGO, center, helping babushkas collect their chickens in Troicke

Young boy and villagers from Troicke about to catch a chicken is trying to escape

IRC package to be reused as a transport container for chickens as people massing at the rear of the FAO truck.

Babushka waiting for her 20 chickens

FAO (left) and Free People Country volunteers (right) discussing upcoming projects of the FAO in Eastern Ukraine.

Opytne village.

Villagers from Opytne about to collect their chickens from the FAO.

Villagers taking out chicken cages from the FAO truck in Opytne.

Babushka putting a chicken inside her bag.

Young chicken in a wooden cage.

Smoke rising during shelling in Luhanske during the poultry distribution.

Luhanske's villager checking if he has collected all the chickens from the cage in front of the FAO car.

Ukrainian soldiers ridding on a millitary truck as villagers collect their chickens in Klynove

Lychakiv Cemetery

Lychakiv Cemetery created in 1787 located south-east  of the city center of Lviv now counts over 300.000 graves within its walls, including the ones of Ukrainians soldiers who have fallen in eastern Ukraine since the begging of the war in Donbass.

Graves of Ukrainians soldiers who died while fighting in Eastern Ukraine.