Posts By: Svitlana Matviyenko

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 8

By Svitlana Matviyenko, April 12, 2022

March 29 – April 12, 2022 Today is the 48th day of war. For last two weeks our region has been hit several times: Khmelnytsky, Slavuta, Shepetivka, and Starokostantyniv. In all these cases, as far as we know, the Russians attacked oil refineries and gas stations to interrupt seasonal agricultural works and destroyed a small [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 7

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 29, 2022

March 21-29, 2022 On the 33rd day of the Russia-Ukraine war, I continued receiving media and speaking requests to address a so-called “crisis in Ukraine.” It is almost surprising, or maybe not at all, that Russian propaganda is so pervasive that it imposes a false caution on someone who’d think that despite the ongoing full-scale [...]

Response to Western Leftists from the Ukrainian Battlefield

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 23, 2022

I am an Assistant Professor of critical media analysis at Simon Fraser University in Canada where I teach political economy of information. I am a co-author of Cyberwar and Revolution: Digital Subterfuge of Global Capitalism, which is a Marxist theory of cyber warfare and militarism. I am in Ukraine currently, in the midst of the [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 6

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 21, 2022

March 12 –20, 2022 The air raid siren is a complex event. At night, when the streets under the curfew regime are empty of cars and random night wanderers, all subtle sounds compose a balanced but vibrant sonic texture like a rustle or whisper. Suddenly – and it is always suddenly, no matter whether you [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 5

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 12, 2022

March 11, 2022 At 11pm, I go to bed with the intent to spend a couple of hours on writing. I am staring at the blank page for quite some time; the siren goes off and then, as if by following its call to tune in, I start writing. A reporter from the Canadian Press [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 4

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 10, 2022

March 6-10, 2022 After a quiet day on Saturday, March 5th, there were six air raid sirens on March 6th, and I noticed that, unless the rockets hit the city, too many sirens per day can make you ignore them. If it’s two or three, your body is turned on and your mind responds by [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 3

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 5, 2022

February 27, 2o22 – March 5, 2022 I thought it’s just me, but Asia says she is losing sense of what day it is. I feel the same, not all the time, but some moments, definitely. Writing stops, only fragmented notes are made, but I will now bring them together by reminding myself what I [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 2

By Svitlana Matviyenko, February 27, 2022

February 25-26, 2022 The first day of war leaves 137 dead, 316 injured; by the end of the third, the numbers are up to 198, including 3 children, and 1,115 injured, 33 of which are children. Among the killed, as we learn on the morning of the 25th, are thirteen border guards of Snake Island [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 1

By Svitlana Matviyenko, February 25, 2022

I began this diary two months ago when our everyday life started showing the signs of persistent militarization in response to the Russian troops building up near the Ukrainian border. Registering the nuances of this transformation seemed important. Like many, I thought the tension would dissolve, but this is a war diary now. February 12-13, [...]