New embroidered shirts are dedicated to the eastern regions of Ukraine

New embroidered shirts with iconic symbols of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, about which we will tell you more.

"And we always had a lot of roses there. Recently, a French journalist also wrote to me that she was driving with chaplains near the front line, and there were ruined houses, empty, and roses were blooming next to them."

In order to emphasize the intellectuality and poetics of the above-mentioned areas, we took a symbol created by the modern poet Lyuba Yakymchuk, who published a collection called "Apricots of Donbas" back in 2015.

We spoke with Lyuba to better reveal this ingenious metaphor.

Why is the collection called "Donbas Apricots" and do you see how this image began to live an independent life and even take root in such things as embroidery? What does this symbol mean? And why is it important for him to move on?

Why is the collection called "Donbas Apricots" and do you see how this image began to live an independent life and even take root in such things as embroidery? What does this symbol mean? And why is it important for him to move on. It had to be some kind of positive image and at the same time true as apricots.

There are an awful lot of apricots in the east of Ukraine: entire plantations of trees that turn green in the spring and turn yellow in the summer, stretching to the border with russia. It is where apricots do not grow that russia begins.

The fact that they are not on the other side, we knew from childhood, when in the hard 90s we sold apricots on the train heading to Moscow. At the same time, here, in our country, apricots were a big part of life: they were used not only for jam, but also for drying, lozenges, marshmallows, and also for making moonshine.

Now the apricot trees, in some places burned by the fighting, are a living border between Ukraine and Russia. Donbas remains Ukraine. And the locals confirm it. Russia has turned off the mobile Internet in Luhansk region, and every time it is turned on, it flies to military units or warehouses - people want to live in Ukraine, not in the occupied territory.

After the book was published, I received a lot of photos of apricots from eastern Ukraine. They send both local residents and the military, who protect us from the Russian invasion.

Apricots — sunny and pleasant, but at the same time with a very hard bone, like coal, that is, they are about stability. Apricot trees are a physical civilizational border between modern European Ukraine, open to the world, and between archaic Russia, whose culture boils down to the conquest of foreign territories with the use of armed and cultural violence. Apricots are physical proof that Luhansk and Donetsk are Ukraine and are Ukraine even during the occupation, which will one day end. Apricot trees stand, so we stand too.

Some facts about the "Apricots of Donbas" collection

The poetry book "Apricots of Donbass" was included in the list of the 10 best books of Ukraine about the war according to Forbes magazine and was published in Ukrainian, English, French, Swedish, Polish and Estonian languages. Poems from the collection have been translated into more than twenty languages. "Donbas Apricots" and Lyubov Yakymchuk's poetry were recommended by leading world media, including the New York Times, BBC, CBC, and CNN.

In 2022, the author recited her poem from the book "Apricots of Donbas" during the Grammy music awards as part of John Legend's performance "Free", which was dedicated to Ukraine. "Donbas Apricots" was voiced in French by Catherine Deneuve, and the audiobook presentation will take place in early 2024 in Paris.

Ukraine is a state fighting for its independence, for every piece of land. We defend our borders as our own name, because we have one, indivisible to any side.

The sun always rises in the East, and our Victory will rise there.