Ukraine Invasion.Photo: EMMANUEL DUPARCQ/AFP via Getty
Indiaries written forNew Yorkmagazineand published Sunday, 30 Ukrainians — all from the first generation born after the country became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 — detail the early days of Russia’s attack, which began on Feb. 24 and which has already killed hundreds and sent millions more fleeing.
Some, like 26-year-old poet and journalist Danyil Zadorozhnyi, described how the invasion was shocking, despite warnings from Russia and the Ukraine government.
“My partner, Yulya, and I watched President Zelenskyy make his speech to the Russians that night,” Zadorozhnyi wrote forNew York. “I liked it a lot — clear, focused. I thought Putin was bluffing because an invasion seemed stupid. Extremely stupid.”
Other Ukrainians, like 19-year-old Leonid, a sociology student in the capital of Kyiv, described how Russian forces altered the world they once knew.
“I saw a warplane for the first time in my life on the way to the supermarket,” Leonid wrote in his diary. “The shelves were quite bare, but I bought four bottles of wine in case we need to prepare Molotov cocktails.”
Thirty-year-old Vika Zavhorodnia, an artist and a translator in Kyiv, offered a more optimistic tone initially, saying that she left her home after a friend invited her to stay with them.
“My favorite band is Queen, and I’d painted a huge picture of Freddie Mercury that sits right above my piano, so as I left, I said, ‘Freddie, please guard my flat!’ " Zavhorodnia wrote.
Later, Zavhorodnia wrote that she took a train to Warsaw, where a chaotic scene unfolded: “It was so crowded — people were shoving — they were desperate, wild, just trying to save their lives. We begged the attendant, and she let us on, handing us bedsheets to sit on in the aisle.”
After a few hours, Zavhorodnia wrote, “the train stopped and they turned off the lights. We heard shooting and explosions, far away but clear. It was like 1941, like the stories our grandmothers and grandfathers would tell us about that war. Then we started moving again, and the attendant said we could turn the lights on.”
Lisa Bukreyeva, 28, a photographer based in Kyiv, told of how she and her family members had taken turns sleeping beneath a table in their basement, in the event of a rocket attack: “In case of quick evacuation, we sleep in boots and coats. It feels like I was born in shoes.”
“Because of the lack of sleep,” Lisa wrote forNew York, “it seems like it’s one long day, but the diary helps keep the days separate.”
Roman Vydro, 27, an engineer inbesieged Kharkiv, said he squeezed 13 people and four animals (a dog, two cats and a turtle) in two vehicles for a three-day drive to Chernivtsi.
Others wrote of dismal home environments, where hygiene had become a distraction from other matters.
“I don’t wash my hair. I don’t brush my teeth. You feel like you don’t need that — there is important stuff to do,” Mariia Shuvalova wrote. “I haveCOVIDright now. I am fully vaccinated, but still it got me. It’s a distraction.”
“Despite everything,” Shuvalova added, “our spirit is pretty high because we are winning.”
Two 4-year-old girls who were staying with them, she added, had a different perspective: “The girls know that bad guys came and now we have to hide. It’s like a game for them.”
With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy, 44, called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin, 69, insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
