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WORDS LIVE ON // Serhii Zubatenko

Posted by Tetiana Aleksina

Nov 6, 2026

Down through the ages, Russia has tried to kill the Ukrainian identity. They have done everything to present Ukraine as the rural outskirts of the ‘great, educated and advanced’ Russian empire. But the ones who proclaimed themselves enlighteners were merely butchers, murderers. They did everything they could to erase Ukrainian culture, traditions, and even the Ukrainian language itself.

And they are still doing this, even now, literally. During the last twelve years of war, Russia has killed hundreds of people of literature. Writers, poets, translators, editors, publishers and librarians. Ukrainian men and women. As you read these words, others are left to disappear in an unread draft forever.

There is a project called ‘Nedopysani‘ (‘Unfinished‘in English). It’s a memorial site for people of literature who will never be able to put that final dot in their notebook, who will never be able to take into their hands their first published book. And so, this is our hard and painful mission. This is what we must do for them. It is inevitable.

Today, we present the next instalment of our translation series, ‘Words Live On’. We have done our best, and we hope that it will speak to our Dear Readers in a way that cold, clinical war statistics cannot.

Glory to Ukraine! To our heroes — glory!

Let
Life go to hell
Drink hard
I’ll see how a ray ripens
Don’t keep
Spring screws off the tails
Of all tomcats, hard
to recall

Floats
So bright and dull
Lives
Before isn’t too late, from the boat
Escapes
In a trice to the bottom for pearls
What will others say? Doesn’t matter

Forget
Keep waves, don’t let ’em slip
No humans
Who keep the keys from every passway
Our path
Is tangled with lianas. The very same.
Since morn the beasts already
Roar

Нехай
Життя іде під три чорти
Бухай
Я подивлюсь як зріє промінь
Не май
Весна відкручує хвости
Усім котам, важким
на спомин

Пливе
Така яскрава і нудна
Живе
Поки не пізно із човна
Втече
Мигцем за перлами на дно
Що скажуть інші? Все одно

Забудь
Тримайся хвилі, не впусти
Не людь
Знає ключі від всіх ходів
Наш путь
Уплівсь ліаною. Той самою.
А звірі зранку вже
Ревуть

Original poem by SERHII ZUBATENKO
Translation by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2018

https://unbolt.me/2026/11/06/words-live-on-serhii-zubatenko/

5 comments

  2. Marijn Markus just now :

    🇺🇦 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 are now flying 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 to the front lines, bypassing Russian GPS jamming entirely.

    Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reports that the Wolves Da Vinci battalion of the 59th Assault Brigade has DOUBLED its cargo deliveries to frontline positions in just one month using group drone control.

    The drones fly autonomously, without GPS, despite enemy electronic warfare (EW). Operators only take over in the final minutes of flight, when needed.

    The actual flight paths are handled autonomously, bypassing GPS jamming entirely because the drones don’t depend on such (American!) navigation in the first place.

    Now take this footage and slap it in the face of anyone arguing that autonomous drones should be forbidden, shouldn’t be researched, or shouldn’t be developed simply because they can be used to кill.

    Because they can also be used to 𝗦𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗦.

    These frontline soldiers would be 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 without supplies, without constant logistics and supplies, and cut off from the equipment they need to survive.

    And autonomous drones are the ones getting these jobs done.

    While people safely sitting thousands of kilometers away debate whether military AI should even exist, Ukrainian soldiers are relying on it to stay alive.

    Military AI saving lives.

    Reply

  3. Illia Ponomarenko :

    You know, this really is a perfect illustration of the state of the world today.

    Russia —

    the very same Russia that unleashed the biggest bloodbath in Europe since the time of Adolf Hitler,

    that occupied the once quiet, cozy Ukrainian town of Oleshky on the banks of the Dnipro River,

    that forced 90% of its population to flee,

    that devastated the town (yes, Oleshky was catastrophically flooded following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023!),

    that brought the remaining residents TO THE BRINK OF STARVATION,

    that couldn’t have cared less about them for all these years,

    that surrounded the town and the roads in and out with minefields,

    that rejected every Ukrainian proposal for a local ceasefire to rescue the people dying there,

    that was still shooting down Ukrainian drones trying to deliver food and medicine to Oleshky just weeks ago,

    and that finally agreed to a ceasefire and evacuation only to please Donald Trump ahead of his elections…

    …that EXACT SAME Russia is now standing before the cameras at the White House WITH THE MOST POMPOUS AND SELF-RIGHTEOUS LOOK ON ITS FUCKING FACE, theatrically wringing its hands like a character in an ancient Greek tragedy, and presenting Melania Trump with “touching little gifts” from the “rescued children” of Oleshky.

    We are living through one of the most utterly disgusting, dumbest, and grotesquely immoral eras in human history.

    Reply

  4. Joni Askola :

    If sanctions truly don’t work, why is Russia constantly begging for them to be lifted at every single negotiation?

    Reply

  5. Andrew Chakhoyan :

    While russia wages its criminal war of aggression against Ukraine, it finds the resources to arm Iran with advanced weapons.

    Moscow helps Tehran threaten American interests and destabilize the Middle East.

    russia’s actions speak for themselves. Washington and Europe would do well to remember: You don’t have to be at war with russia for russia to be at war with you.

    Gift 🎁 link

    https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/cfb89644-4329-4cdf-9bd5-7e956c7c69be

    Reply

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