Marianna Maslova

Since 2014, I have come to see Ukraine as a state in a different way. About that time I read that language is what makes a nation. The further I went, the more I began to communicate in Ukrainian. As an artist, I was interested in colleagues from Russia, because it was believed that culture has no boundaries. But after February 24, 2022, I saw through - almost all cultural figures who were interesting to me in Russia either kept silent or supported Russia's war against Ukraine. That fateful Thursday, my husband and I were home and woke up to explosions and sirens. In the afternoon, we gathered our things and gathered our thoughts and decided to stay. And when my parents had to go a week later and asked us to go with them, I refused. My husband and I got acquainted with the neighbors, we help each other, we support each other. The men are defending the homes, repairing them, and rescuing people from elevators. We were shocked for about a week, the only thing we could do was call relatives and friends with the only question "how are you?". And we looked for medicine for friends, food, passed money to defenders... Then came the realization that we can all invest in victory. I created a post on my page, where I started selling my works and transferring 70% of the Armed Forces, the Defense Forces and trusted volunteers who buy bulletproof vests and everything necessary. People from all over the world responded, selling about 20 works in two weeks. And now I really want to do more, that's why I want to join this project.