The latest addition to my website is Olena Stiazhkina‘s Смерть Лева Сесіла (Cecil the Lion Had to Die). In 1986 a group of Ukrainians of German origin in Donetsk decide to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ernst Thälmann by naming a new-born child after him. Two babies are selected, to be called Ernest and Thelma. We follow the stories of the whole group, their parents and own children, from the end of the Soviet Union to the creation of the Russian-supported Donetsk People’s Republic when many but not all leave. We get many colourful stories criss-crossing one another from love and romance to gambling and all the events of 2015, including the killing of Cecil the lion. It is a highly imagiative work showing life in Donetsk with all its complications.