“We are fighting for freedom. We are all targets. It’s like a bad
dream. The city has totally changed, there are so many military people with weapons in the streets, and every night we hear this…(he plays an air raid siren
from his phone.) “That means we have to prepare for rocket attacks,
bombings. It’s like a horror movie with no finish.” “Life has changed totally,” Vitali told me. “It’s non-stop, there are a lot of challenges right now, and we are
responsible for the infrastructure in our city, the electricity, the
water, the heating and getting people to a safe place who have been in
extreme situations. Every day in our city rockets are destroying
buildings and we have to rescue people, find them apartments, bring
them food, bring humanitarian help. It’s endless, but it must end.”
“Right now we don’t know the main answer, which is how long will this
go on ? And we don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” added Vitali. “I
start my day studying reports on extreme situations affecting the
lives of civilians in our home town. More than 100 apartments in our
city are destroyed, 300 citizens have been killed, four of them
children. We have 16 children in hospital and more than 1000 people
injured in hospital. It’s like a horror movie – and we don’t have an
answer for when it will finish. Nobody has the answer. The answer
depends on sick people who sit in the Kremlin in Moscow and we –
everybody – is a hostage from the crazy idea to rebuild an empire.”
Wladimir added:
“We know every day we are a target, like millions of Ukrainians do,
but you also know each day could be your last day, so you take every
day as a gift.”
Their mindsets have changed to a new reality,
a new way of thinking about the world. “Oh, yes. YES. The world is
fragile,” explained Wladimir. “You think you are safe, and life is
good and you have all the events — I don’t know if you were here in
Kyiv for the finals of the Champions’ League — and the world is
celebrating life and creativity and all of a sudden you have
destruction in the blink of an eye. Destruction, war. You didn’t think
it was possible. You just understand how fragile the world is, how
things can change in a flash. Then you understand the importance of
unity, because alone you are going to fall and fail. And in this case,
Russia is, pretty much, with some exceptions, alone.”
“It’s been a month, over a month now, there are sleepless nights, all
Ukrainians are having sleepless nights – but we have learnt how to
handle it. You also basically accept that you are a target as well as
millions of other Ukrainians have done. Foreign journalists have been
killed here too. You accept that every day could be your last day so
you take every day as a gift. You know the worst could happen and it
could happen to you. You just do your job and try to make the best out
of each day. But there is an amazing unity that people have here too
and this spirit.”
“We know the world is against Putin’s aggression, Russian aggression,
Russian military forces that are destroying our infrastructure,
killing our innocent, killing our children,” said Wladimir. “This is
genocide of the Ukrainian population and this is what is happening and
it’s very unfortunate and it is real. It’s not a dream. It’s not fake
news. We need to stop this war and stop the aggressor now and here.”
Keep supporting us. We are aware of the support of the British people
and the British Government.”
ON USYK:
Vitali explained: “Wlad and me had a conversation together about Usyk just a few hours ago. A very important message could be carried through an event like this. We
do not know if in three months we will exist. I actually have plans to
speak to Oleksandr Usyk to give him advice if he decides to make the
fight, to have some special messages that he can put out there.”
Wladimir added: “There are pros and cons and it’s a hard decision to
make for Oleksandr Usyk but to have the Ukrainian flag raised and our
anthem played and one of our ambassadors of our country out there in
the world with the right mindset could be more positive than negative.
We need support. Since the beginning of the war, the economy is down
to nothing, but please don’t forget we are defending democratic
principles of freedom and free choice.”
Vitali, finally: Some people think this
war is far away. Some people don’t think this war touches them
personally. It’s the wrong opinion. This war is one of the biggest
wars after the Second World War. This war touches everyone in the
European continent. It has affected 40 million Ukrainians. It’s a huge
drama for us, but it’s a huge drama for the whole European Union, for
the whole world. Stay proactive – unity can bring back peace to our
country and to Europe. Unity is key to peace, and we have to do it as
soon as possible. Right now, we in Ukrainian are paying the most
important price for peace – with our lives.