In Lens

Вербное воскресенье. Владимирский собор.

This is oldest surviving printed Valentine's card in the world.
The card was published on January 12, 1797, by John Fairburn of 146, Minories, London, and is currently housed at York Museums Gallery.

By the 1600’s Shakespeare wrote of Valentine’s Day in his play Hamlet. Ophelia says, “To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day, all in the morning betime, and I a maid at your window, to be your Valentine.” But it wasn’t until the early 1700’s that traditional Valentine cards were sent.
Lovers handmade the cards, decorating paper with flowers, love knots and poetry. The cards were slipped under their door or left on the door-knocker.

The card is decorated with Cupid and flowers and the verse around the borders read:
"Since on this ever Happy day,
All Nature's full of Love and Play
Yet harmless still if my design,
'Tis but to be your Valentine."

A farmer plants sunflowers in the area between a damaged Russian tank and its turret in the village of Velyka Dymerka, Kyiv region.

💔🌻Селянин садить соняшник на своєму городі між пошкодженим російським танком та його баштою у селі Велика Димерка Київської області

📸: Efrem Lukatsky

Kiyv, Ukraine - October 17, 2022. The four-story residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district is seen damaged after it was hit by a kamikaze drone, as the war in Ukraine continues.

On the night of May 16, 2023, Russia launched an intense air strike on the Ukrainian capital. Debris fell across several areas of the city. As a result, four buses and a garage burned down in the Solomianskyi district.

Setanta Books Showcasing rare and new photography books we sell. Online bookseller, visitors by appointment.

On May 4, 2023, the wreckage of а drone fell on a four-story shopping center in the Solomensky district, which caused a fire on the first floor of the building.

The last of the Mohicans

Children from a nearby school take shelter at Arsenalna metro station in Kyiv as air raid sirens wailed early in the morning.
In spite of everything, classes continue.