"please, have a sweet from Ukraine" (edited)

Many years ago, Mr B was ASM for a contemporary dance company and was lucky enough to visit Kiev and Moscow as part of a 5 week tour. This was when Russia was still known as CCCP, it was that long ago (1990); the very first McDonalds had only just opened in Moscow.

 

looking up to the hotel from the square





They went to Kiev first and stayed in the Hotel Ukrania. It has been very upsetting to see the horror unfold in this city, that had welcomed them with open arms.
  

view from the hotel to the square...so much change, it is almost unrecognisable



The post title I have taken from this article -

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/20/ukraine-snipers-kiev-hotel-makeshift-morgue

 

{The mayhem assumed a semblance of order with the arrival of professional doctors, ambulances and medical supplies – a properly functioning field clinic. Hotel staff dispensed cheap chocolate, saying "please, have a sweet from Ukraine".}

 

another view looking to the right from the hotel, with the People's Friendship Arch to the top right

In amongst this hell on earth, they are still, in the smallest way possible, a sweet, trying to make people welcome.

 

Sadly, not dancers and technicians but life-saving medical staff.

 

 The visitors and home crew letting their hair down. A lot of the men had been in the Army and had been drafted back because of radiation sickness. God knows what happened to them during the years after this photo was taken...

 

  *****

I tend not to be political on my blog. It 's more pretty and jolly and for the most, 'fluffy'. But I want to record my life and what is happening that affects it, for whatever reason. I don't pretend to know the ins and outs nor the answers, but I want to be able to look back in years to come and remember things that have happened during my blog writing.

 

In the same vein, I intend to upload videos of our train journeys to Plymouth, the bits going through Dawlish. Just because...

Z xx