‘Our brothers did this to us’: Ukrainians are sheltering in place — or heading to the front lines

One high-level Kyiv official asserted to me that they had foiled several Russian plots, including one during a peaceful demonstration in front of the presidential building. ‘These so-called protesters had a gallon of blood; one was dressed in a medical gown. It seemed they tried to make a movie showing one person laying down and medical staff desperately trying to help them.’

A woman reacts as she waits for a train trying to leave Kiev (AP)

Weeks before Russia’s explosive invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the eastern oblast of Donbas still seemed strangely tranquil. While children stomped through snow-dusted parks, professionals teetered through frozen streets to small cafes and offices tucked into and around mortar-fissured apartment buildings, raw with the remnants of lives lost.

But even after eight years of war in and around the Russian-backed, separatist Donetsk region, Vitaliy Barabash — head of the military-civilian administration in the city of Avdiivka — knew something wasn’t quite right. “It has been strangely quiet the past few days, which can mean something is happening,” he said. “Everyone is nervous when it is so quiet.”

A soldier’s life is largely spent waiting – waiting for the next threat, the next explosion, and the next dreaded invasion. And scores of Ukrainians have taken up arms in recent years in order to defend the country’s sovereignty. Following Ukraine’s 2014 Euromaidan Revolution, which saw pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych toppled and the subsequent Russian annexation of Crimea and separatist assault on the east, Ukraine’s armed forces have grown from 6,000 soldiers to more than 200,000, a prominent portion of whom are women.

And if it was not for her fatigues and prominent Ukrainian military patch, Tatiana Vagridstsk, 39, could easily be mistaken for any other working woman and mother. The commander was a kindergarten teacher in 2014 when the war broke out. “I was working with children, and one day I just looked into their eyes,” she recalled. “I realized I needed to fight for the sake of our children, for their future. For their freedom.”

Hundreds of women have been recognized for their combat service since 2014, and dozens have paid the ultimate price to retain Ukraine’s sovereignty. Late last year, the country’s Ministry of Defense broadened criteria for Ukrainian women mandated by law to register for potential military conscription should a fully-fledged conflict break out. The regulation states that women between the ages of 18 and 60 from a variety of professions – such as musicians, librarians, journalists, veterinarians, and psychologists – are required to register for mobilization as part of the national reserve.

Women and their employers will face fines if they fail to register in their district of residence by the end of 2022. Moreover, women applying for jobs in an appropriate profession will also have to show their military registration certificates.

“When you see your brothers and sisters dying, it is a lot to take on. War is always a nightmare. It is a big psychological trauma that remains for the rest of the life,” Vagridstsk said. “But we must always strive for victory. I see the people who live here. I see the destroyed buildings. I see refugees having to relocate to other places, and when I see it, my soul aches. All we want is the right to live in a single, undivided Ukraine. We want our freedom, to live in a democratic society.”

As I left my meeting with the soldiers, venturing down broken streets lined with blistered buildings and destroyed dwellings, a gap-toothed, pro-Russia older man stormed around the corner, screaming to know why an American is here and yelling that I should go away with my democracy.

Even as the invasion got well underway in the early hours of Thursday, striking cities and crippling Ukraine’s air defenses across the country, associates in Russia told me it was merely a blip on the state-controlled news radar. Putin has been polishing the propaganda playbook for some time – projecting the notion that the Kyiv government is vehemently oppressing Russian speakers and committing a kind of “genocide” against its own people.

(Hollie McKay)

One high-level Kyiv official asserted to me that they had foiled several Russian plots, including the recent arrest of a group who “tried to make some actions” during a peaceful demonstration in front of the presidential building. “These so-called protesters had a gallon of blood; one was dressed in a medical gown. It seemed they tried to make a movie showing one person laying down and medical staff desperately trying to help them,” he added. “The authorities found three different groups of people in the crowd doing similar actions.”

As the White House warned of an imminent Russian invasion and sent planeloads of weapons from Washington to Kyiv over the past couple of weeks, I met Ukrainians who were keen to express their deep gratitude for the support — with much emphasis placed on the incoming javelins. Many clung to the last-ditch hope that such stern words from the US, coupled with an obvious military buildup, would push Putin back to the negotiating table.

“This is a new change for us and the Russians. The Russians didn’t expect this hard direction from President Biden,” insisted defense expert and editor-in-chief of Censor.Net, Yuri Butusov. “They expected that Biden would not react or say little more than words, but the shipments of weapons have changed the situation.”

However, several high-ranking officials repeatedly stressed in the lead-up that more needed to be done by the west.

“We need sanctions on Moscow now, not after,” one well-placed aide in President Zelensky’s office told me over tea inside the capital that has now gone dark. “What is the point of sanctions once the damage is already done?”

Civilian Ukrainians of all stripes vowed to fight and never surrender. Those who remember the Soviet era are always eager to recount the bitter memories, the difficulties of daily life, and their desire not to go back to such a rule.

“It is not just about self-protection, but the protection of freedom and the protection of independence,” said Gennadiy Druzenko, a constitutional lawyer-turned-volunteer frontline medic. “People recognize this, and they will take their hunting rifles and whatever they can find to the fight. Scientists, lawyers, teachers, professors, everyone.”

Even though one can never truly be prepared for such bloodshed, many Ukrainians said they were ready for war. And there is no doubt that Europe’s biggest refugee crisis is beginning, as people flee the country toward a glimmer of apparent safety, with little idea of when or how they will return.

(Hollie McKay)

As for the families who chose to shelter in place, it’s all a waiting game.

“The family is calm, we ‘gamified’ it for the kids, but we have to see where it leads,” one government-connected source told me in the hours after the onslaught began. “Kyiv is under massive threat from the north, so we have to wait and see where all this leads. Sadly, officials there are pessimistic. It all remains to be seen.”

And when you are looking down the barrel at a neighbor, it’s a special sort of emotion. “Our brothers did this to us,” lamented one former Ukrainian Special Forces Commander.

Hollie McKay is a war correspondent and author of ‘Only Cry for the Living: Memos From Inside the Isis Battlefield’