This topic needs an in-depth explanation for people who live far from this region. And also this is a topic which I, as an artist who was born in so-called "Russia", absolutely must not avoid, because it would be simply irresponsible, to not take responsibility for my background. 

So-called "Russia" is a colonial empire, and has been such since ancient times, like since Czar Ivan the Terrible (1547), or maybe since even earlier. It colonised many territories surrounding it. For example, Siberia (its colonisation took place during 1580-1778), with its many folks. Of course, there was resistance and a lot of massacres, many people were killed and others were forcefully russificated and christianised. Resources were extracted from these territories, indigenous people were murdered and robbed - typical colonisation story, it's just not spoken about widely, so people from "Russia" (including me) must take responsibility to speak about it. Chechnya (its decolonial name is Ichkeria) was also colonised, as well as other "national republics". Kabardino-Balkaria, where my ancestors by mother's line were from, also was colonised, just in a different way - not through war, but through a pact between the leaders (not a rare colonial scenario too). 

More on Russian colonialism you can read on Feminist translocalities - a zine made by my colleagues, who are also from this empire, some from countries that used to belong to the soviet empire, which was bigger, and who belong to oppressed minorities. It is important to speak more about Russian colonialism, as b¥ decolonial activists this topic is often just skipped, sometimes because they simply lack knowledge and sometimes because they also become victims of Russian propaganda - this empire is trying to whitewash itself and even use decolonial rhetorics to its advantage. It pretends to be a decoloniser only because it fights the West, but here is a logical flaw - yes, the West is colonial and responsible for a lot of crimes against Indigenous folks, and not only in the past but still, and yet it doesn't mean that everyone who is fighting it is a decolonialist automatically. 

Here we witness 2 big colonial empires fighting each other. Russia doesn't set Indigenous people free - only exploits them, just whitewashes it as "friendship of folks" (since soviet union times, it's the same propaganda). There is a lot of racism in Russia, and the white Russian majority is extremely privileged there. Other Slavic folks, like Ukrainians and Belaruses are mostly used as low-paid manual workers and laughed at, women are often trafficked, but the attitude towards people of non-slavic ethnicities, such as Asian (Uzbeks, Tajiks etc) and Turkic (Cabardians, Chechenians etc) is even worse - they are bullied, avoided, feared, called bad names, blamed for all the crimes and for everything bad, and made to do a lot of hard work, often illegally.

So how to help Ukraine protect its territories and resources against Russian invasion? I know a few organisations you can trust that are safe to donate to if you are in Germany (or another EU country). It's not safe to donate to them if you are in Russia! But in this case, nothing is safe. One of the non-commercial organisations I worked with is Ukraine-Hilfe Berlin e.v. It was founded by Ukrainians that lived in Germany for long already. They raise donations for medical help in regions affected by war the most, and they make art camps for children (they used to organise them in Ukraine, but now - in Germany). Another option you can check is Vitsche Berlin. It was founded by young activists from Ukraine. They post different fundraisers often. Also, they organise demonstrations to attract the attention of local politicians to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Even if you repost the information they share about history of Ukraine an about the invasion it will already be helpful, cause lack of information is a big problem.