If you are a keen observer of Above the Law’s pages, you might have noticed that my column was absent last week. A couple weeks ago, I got in touch with my editor to let her know that I would be traveling in Ukraine with my cousin, Evan, for a while and that although I’d be doing some writing while there, we travel light (like writing in a little notebook with a penlight). She graciously told me there was no need to worry about my column while I was away.

Well, I am in Lviv at this very moment and was able to borrow a laptop. That f*cking bombardment overnight into Sunday morning was wild, and I felt the need to try to type something out about it for our readers.

Explosions rocked Lviv for hours. Burning phosphorous streaked the sky. It all started well before sunrise when the Russians sent a cloud of Shahed strike drones — 140 of them — careening into the city as Kamikazes.

Then came the cruise missiles. Russian ships in the Black Sea launched volleys of Kalibr cruise missiles, and Tu-95MS strategic bombers deployed air-launched cruise missiles of their own. When a cruise missile detonates near you, the ground beneath your feet quakes. The drones exploding sounded like popcorn once the cruise missiles started to go off.

For good measure, the Russians also sent in MiG-31 fighter jets armed with Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles. The Russian air forces once again got close enough to Poland to cause the NATO member to scramble aircraft of its own.

The air defense systems of Lviv are outstanding, and the brave soldiers manning the defensive weaponry excelled in their missions. Not a lot got through. Still, five deaths in the Lviv metropolitan area have been reported thus far. Four of those killed were a whole family whose house was struck. A 15-year-old girl minding her own business at her own home was one of the victims of this senseless violence.

I have gotten to know Lviv pretty well in a relatively short time. Although, being wartime, there are soldiers everywhere (especially at McDonald’s, they seem to love that), this is a peaceful, artistic city. The night before the bombing, Evan and I attended the ballet at the national opera house, a landmark so beloved that its facade adorns the 20 Ukrainian hryvnia banknote. There are endless beautiful parks, art museums, and historic structures.

While, like any city, there are industrial areas and an industrial park was indeed one of the sites hit in the assault on Lviv, for the most part there is very little anywhere near where Russia was targeting that could be considered a legitimate military target under any reasonable definition of that phrase. Power was cut to swathes of the city and infrastructure used to heat homes and businesses was attacked. At least 10 civilian homes were bombed beyond repair. This was terrorism, plain and simple, and anyone who says otherwise is lying. I saw it with my own eyes.

It didn’t work though. A couple hours after the last rattle of machine gun fire faded away, the cafe down below the apartment we are renting unfolded its awning and opened for business. People crowded inside, excited. Defiant. This was the largest attack on the Lviv area of the entire war so far, but a few hours after it ended Evan and I were viewing an excellent collection of modern art at one of Lviv’s many fantastic museums. People were chatting and gesturing enthusiastically around the food vendor stalls at the apparently much anticipated Lviv Book Forum. A group of nerds argued over strategy in the back of a game shop while playing an indecipherable Ukrainian board game. Kids played in the fantastical playground at the Park Imeni Ivana Franka. Life went on: not gloomily, not resignedly, but lustilly.

Russia is trying to steal another country and destroy the way of life of its people through terror and indiscriminate violence. The Ukrainians are staging a heroic resistance. If there is anything more you can do to help these people in this struggle, no matter how small it may seem — from a little donation to a Ukrainian cause to changing your vote in the next election to ensure support from our lawmakers — please, please do whatever you can.

Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at jon_wolf@hotmail.com.

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