This Is What The Russians Call Liberation - August 13th 2026

August 13th 2026

Yuriy describes the fact that Russians are erasing entire Ukrainian cities—first with mass artillery and then with heavy KAB bombs—reducing them to ash and rubble while calling it “liberation.” He describes Kharkiv being bombed daily, with deaths, ruined infrastructure, and familiar streets and parks scarred but still standing, unlike towns that now exist only as piles of debris visible on Google Maps. He calls the attackers a death cult and thanks people abroad whose support has helped Ukraine hold them back.

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TRANSCRIPT

It is August 13. In my circle, there are more and more people who literally no longer have a hometown. It simply does not exist anymore. This is a Russian tactic to destroy entire cities and then plant their flags on the ruins. At first, they did it with artillery. Hundreds of guns, like in the First World War, pounded built-up areas, turning them to dust, along with their residents, their pets, their belongings, their dreams, and their hopes. Then, when artillery shells started running out, the Russians began dropping bombs on cities. Do you know what these bombs are called? The KAB 500, the KAB 1000, the KAB 3000. The number in the name is the weight of the bomb: 500 kilograms, one ton, three tons. Look on YouTube at what three tons of explosives looks like when it goes off, and imagine what happens to a city that is hit by bombs like that day after day. It is ruins upon ruins mixed with the bones of people and animals. It is ash that has burned for so long that it has become almost colorless. A lunar landscape looks more alive and more vivid than the landscapes of the cities the Russians have reached. And they call this "liberation." They are completely serious about it. Destroying an entire city, killing civilians, leaving not a single building intact, forcing thousands of people to flee and abandon everything they have, this is what the Russians call "liberation." I sincerely wish this kind of liberation on every one of their cities, every single one. My hometown, Kharkiv, is bombed every day. People die there every day. Buildings are destroyed. Infrastructure is being wrecked, and yet the city still exists. The streets where my grandfather and I used to walk when I was a child is full of bomb craters, but it is still there. The park where my daughter used to run around as a little girl took several bombs that burned its trees and killed squirrels and birds, but it is still exist. I can walk down that street. I can go to that park. And thousands of people can see their hometowns only on Google Maps because there is nothing left of them, only mountains of rubble and smell of explosives and death. And this has been going on for years. Just imagine, for years no one has been able to stop these maniacs, these followers of some strange death cult that does not even have a coherent ideology- just death for the sake of death. I am grateful to the people in other countries who still believe in us and continue to help us. Without you, we would not have been able to hold back this death cult. Without your support, it would have been impossible. Thank you