"They (Russia) Told Us to Leave Kyiv. And go where?" by Viktor Kravchuk, a wonderful Ukrainain writer.

https://viktorkravchuk.substack.com/p/they-told-us-to-leave-kyiv

They Told Us to Leave Kyiv
And go where?
Viktor Kravchuk
May 29, 2026

Russia spent the week telling diplomats to leave Kyiv.

Telling foreign residents to leave Kyiv.

It warned embassies to empty their offices, treating a capital city like a room with a light switch.

As if life could be folded and zipped into a bag, so carried somewhere safe before the next missile arrives.

“Leave Kyiv.”

Where exactly are we supposed to go?

There is something almost obscene in the way some people say evacuation. The word sounds clean from a distance.

The vocabulary of people who have never had to do it.

They speak as though everyone already has a map open, a road chosen, and a bed prepared somewhere else.

snip

A person cannot simply become portable because Russia has decided to threaten the city they happen to live in.

Much more at link