Greece but our mum says she won’t leave. She is
very scared for us, but she won’t go until we go.
I don’t have a boyfriend. I don’t want one
until after the war because I have too many
worries. Solomia’s boyfriend is a paramedic in
our battalion so they are together.
I have no idea what will happen after the
war because the director at the company where
I was working has also gone to war and right
now we don’t know who is alive or dead.
Recently we made a trip to Dnipro because
one of ours friend died. We went to say
goodbye. He was a fighter; he always said he
would die in this war. We laid his body to rest.
Russia is a country that will never know
what freedom is. They don’t know what they
are fighting for, and they will lose. Because we
know what freedom is.Anna, 26, horse groomer, from Luhansk
I was in Belgium working with horses when
war broke out, but before that I was in the
Ukrainian army, working as a military lawyer,
so I got on a plane home the next day. My
parents live in Luhansk in the Donbas region.
I was aiming to go and see them, but by the
time I got to Ukraine it was already impossible
to go there so I stayed in Kyiv and joined the
territorial defence force.
I saw on Facebook that some of my friends
had joined, so I headed to the HQ and told
them about my skills, and asked, “What can
I do? How can I help?” It was an open call and
easy to join. My role deals with documentation,
so that all the people who work in the
territorial force will be legitimately registered
in Ukraine’s defence. It’s important for us to
document each person so that we can protect
them. Around 100,000 people in the Kyiv
region alone have joined in the past six weeks.
I had three feelings at the moment the
war started. I was afraid for my relatives and
my friends, because a lot of my friends with
whom I served in the army are fighting. The
second feeling was a strong desire to come
back to my motherland and the third feeling
was a hatred of the enemy. I don’t want to say
bad things about the Russians, but I have
stopped thinking of them as humans.
My mother has managed to leave Luhansk;
she is now in the western part of Ukraine. My
dad has stayed in a small city in the region,
which is under Ukrainian control now, but
there is fighting going on. I worry about
him a lot because he is not in a bomb shelter;
he is volunteering there with a humanitarian
mission, bringing products and food to
basements and shelters and people in need.
The first thing I want to do after the
war is get back to Belgium to collect my dog,
because I didn’t have time to bring him with
me. And then I will return to Ukraine and
join the army again. This war has brought
me back home. nThe Times Magazine 33system. I’m on duty, inspecting the building.
I have cameras, so I sit and watch to check
that everything is all right, and then I have
four hours’ rest.
The first thing I will do when the war
ends is visit my mum. Then we will have two
reasons to celebrate: one is the end of war and
the other is my wedding. I just want to have a
normal life with children, a house, a family.
Solomia, 19, third-year student at the
Institute of International Relations at the
University of Kyiv
My “job” was working at a warehouse, giving
out equipment to the soldiers. There was a
really difficult moment when I had to take
the clothes off a dead soldier. I have seen the
reality of death now, but I can’t think about
fear – we can only think about victory. Nerves
are the most dangerous thing in this situation.
I am a volunteer but my boyfriend and
male friends are actually part of the defence
- they had to go to hotspots like Irpin to fight.
They have told me so many dreadful stories.
They don’t have any training or strategic
knowledge about war. They are not soldiers;
they are just students like me. I’m so scared for
my boyfriend. I haven’t seen him for 25 days.
When I first heard about the invasion I was
at home in Kyiv with my mum. I woke up at
7am and I was getting ready to go to a lecture
at university when I saw the news. I said to
my mum, “Mum, we have a war!” So we just
went to the shops to buy medicine, food and
essentials. It was so strange.
We live together, just the two of us,
because my dad works in Azerbaijan. And
now both my mother and I are volunteering,
so we have been together from the moment
we heard that war had broken out.
My grandmother and grandfather live near
Kyiv, in the suburbs, and they have been in
danger. People thought the war was mostly in
Mariupol, but the Russians have bombed the
buildings where my grandparents live.
We thought about trying to get them out
but it was too dangerous and we don’t know
where is safe. We would never think about
leaving Ukraine. We are Ukrainian and we
should be here, particularly now; everybody
should be in their country, being as helpful as
possible. My grandparents are on good form
emotionally, and are being very positive.
I hate Russia. I know some people from
Russia – they think their situation is the most
tragic, that it’s difficult that they can’t listen
to some music or buy sugar. That’s not a
problem. We have experienced the most
horror in the world. They are killing us. Since
the 16th century they have wanted our people,
they have wanted our territory, and I hate
them with all my heart.
My degree has moved online and I should
be going to classes, but I don’t understand how
I can do that. All I can think about is helping,
the war, my family, friends and my boyfriend.
After the war and after I graduate, I want
to visit every city in my country. I want to do
a big journey across Ukraine. This is my dream.Sofia and Solomia, 30, web designers and
animators, from Lviv
Sofia: We are twins and in our normal lives we
are designers, but for now we are both military
volunteers, working as paramedics. We’re
living in old student halls, our new home. We
have beds and showers. It’s not the first time
we’ve done this: we have been doing shifts as
paramedics in the Donbas war for a few years.
We had a week’s training from the
medical brigadiers and did some other courses
including tactical medicine, and then we were
working on the front line, under fire, right
where the soldiers are fighting. So we have
seen a lot of trauma and we’re used to it.
We are operating in northwest Kyiv, where
there has been fighting. We cannot be soldiers,
but we can help them to stay alive. And this
time we were ready for the war. We knew it
was going to happen and we were waiting for
the invasion, so when it started we had all our
stuff in our backpacks. When they started to
bomb the city, we just woke up and took our
bags and went to our battalion, to our base in
Kyiv, and started to work.
Our mum is still in Lviv. She’s volunteering
there and sending us supplies: medicines, food,
whatever we need. Our grandfather lives in‘WE ARE UNDER FIRE ON
THE FRONT LINE. WE CAN’T
BE SOLDIERS. BUT WE CAN
HELP THEM STAY ALIVE’
AnastasiiaPUTIN’S WAR