Slava Ukraini (Слава Украине!) has become the new greeting, the new toast, the thing you say when you have no words to answer, “How are you?”. "Glory to Ukraine!" is known as a symbol of Ukrainian sovereignty and resistance, often accompanied by the response "Glory to the heroes!”, Heroyam slava! The Georgian people’s strong support for their Black Sea neighbors is manifested with these words everywhere, printed on supermarket bags, scribbled on walls, flashing in store windows.
Never have I seen so much blue and yellow, a colour combination that as a Swede, has always instilled in me a sense of pride. Swedish blå-gul colours symbolizes summer vibes and neutrality, the Ukrainian blue-yellow now symbolizes the fight for freedom. Such contrasts. Georgia is decorated with Ukrainian flags everywhere, eliciting in me constant strong emotions.
Waking up to the news today about the sunken Russian warship Moskva made me weep. The Russian naval pride, the ship that the Ukrainian lone soldiers on Snake Island refused to surrender to has now become a Ukrainian postage stamp depicting the ship, a soldier, with the text “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!” I recently returned from a training course in Greece where I learned that Snake Island used to host a Greek temple to Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of the Greek warriors. While Russia is blaming “stormy seas” for the ships sinking, the Ukrainians are claiming their missiles did it. Or maybe it was Achilles?! I wouldn’t be surprised if he summoned Neptunus and Poseidon to a revenge-mission.
A few nights ago, I was having dinner with a colleague when we strike up a conversation with the couple at the table next to us. She is Ukrainian who flew into Tbilisi a day before the invasion to attend a workshop, now 50 days later surviving on the little work trip bag she packed. Her boyfriend who works in the Middle East has flown in for “refugee support”. The couple at another table overhear our conversation and join in, the woman says, “I’m also from Ukraine, also a refugee, and this is Giorgi my Tinder date”. After making sure that everyone’s families back in the Ukraine are fine, we speak with an uncommon intensity. We make several toasts, Slava Ukraini.
Heroyam slava! Any day now we will welcome to the world our youngest family hero, my first grandson. Oh the suspense. The excitement! But the biggest hero of his arrival will be his mother, my lovely daughter in law, who will give birth in the peaceful yellow-blue country, while women in the war torn yellow-blue country do the same. The mothers who bring new life to earth. The real heroes. I can’t wait to see what name my grandson will be given. My vote has been on Leif (the Viking explorer), but now I think Achilles would be perfect!
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