Stories/Lived Experiences
Author: Iryna Tekuchova, PhD Researcher, Department of Law, Maynooth University.
February 24th, I woke at 7am in rainy Ireland. It had to be a busy day: reading, researching, editing. I made myself a cup of coffee and turned off the “airplane mode” on my phone. Five missed calls from my mother, seven – from my sister, and twenty-five unread messages from my friends popped up on my screen. I did not even need to read them to understand what it was about.
Russia attacked Ukraine. The war has begun.
I will never use the “airplane mode” on my phone again.
“Failed “Blitzkrieg”
I cannot say that this was an absolute surprise for the Ukrainians. The week before, when the political situation between the two countries escalated, Ukrainians started taking precautionary measures, as we call it, “in case of”. Some prepared an “emergency go bag”, some people checked the bomb shelters close to their houses, others shared evacuation plans. I discussed with my family their actions in case of the bomb attack, internet and phone interruption, road blocking, the collapse of the bank system, nuclear attack (there was not much to say). I helped my former colleagues to prepare a list with everyone’s contact details to be printed and kept in the “emergency go bag”. Since most of them have disabilities, we knew they would be on their own “in case of” attack.
The scent of war had been in the air for weeks. Despite all this, you are not ready to hear your country is on fire; your sister must sleep in the underground metro; your friends must witness jets bombing neighbouring houses. And there was no time to process it. As the only person among my friends being outside of Ukraine at that moment, I knew I had to provide active support. I have never worked in the field of wartime emergency or conflict, and possess zero knowledge about evacuation, or even how to instruct people paralyzed with fear. So, I had a couple of hours to become a specialist in all these spheres.
Political experts argued that Russia intended to launch a Blitzkrieg in Ukraine. After one week of war, the media and analysts described the attack as a “Blitzfail”. Russia failed in its goal to quickly defeat Ukraine in a lightning campaign reminiscent of WWII Blitzkrieg. However, the civilians and volunteers mobilized and unified their resources to stand up against Russia at such a pace that if something in this war has to be named a “Blitzkrieg”, that would definitely be the civilian response.
“Btw. what is your name?”
On the first day of the war, I started evacuating my family and friends. In the meantime, I began receiving messages from unknown people offering their help. The team of volunteers grew rapidly and started evacuating everyone from friends and relatives to people who could not leave their houses. The first volunteer was an outstanding American activist, Avery, who the week before, launched a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe to help Ukrainians with disabilities in an emergency. Together we started working on supporting and evacuating people with disabilities. Messages offering help and requesting it continued popping up in my messenger. After three days of working non-stop side by side, one volunteer wrote to me and asked, “btw. what is your name? My name is Andrea”. I understood that I do not know the names of most people I’m volunteering with, or their countries.
The feeling that we Ukrainians, are not alone in this fight, that strangers are ready to spare time to help us, gives incredible courage and motivation. Now we have a team of nine foreign volunteers and ten Ukrainians working 24/7 on evacuating people with disabilities, older people, and people living in institutional settings.
“A nation raised on grandparents’ stories”
The whole world is amazed how Ukrainians bravely fight against a country which is twenty-eight times larger and outnumbers the population by a multiple of five.
We were raised on the stories of our grandparents about the Second World War, Holodomor of 1946-1947, and Russian occupation. My grandmother never read me fairy tales. Instead, she was a good storyteller. In the evenings, with a calm, whispering voice, she shared with us grandchildren what she went through as a child in the 30s and 40s.
Remarkably often, she told me about the Holodomor of 1946. After the war, the Soviet soldiers came to her family and confiscated all the food. They entered the house with the scoop and broom to make sure they didn’t leave even one grain to the family. In the winter of 1946, dying from hunger, she had to catch gophers to eat. My grandmother and her friends went to the fields to look for mice burrows. In the summer, mice prepare stocks of grain underground for a winter. So, they searched for these stocks and emptied them to bring some grain home. While fighting hunger, she also took care of her father, who acquired a disability in WWII. She was 12 by that time.
The trauma of Holodomor never leaves you. No matter what, my grandparents always had in their storeroom a 50 kg sack of sugar, salt, corn, and a package of lights. And it was relevant for many older people of that generation.
We are courageous now because we have not forgotten it yet. We have not forgiven it yet.
“For the Homeland”
In a mere fourteen days, Russia achieved something which Ukrainian governments could not for forty years – cohesion of the Ukrainian society. People with different political views, speaking various languages, have finally united. 91% of citizens support President Zelensky’s actions, and 70% believe Ukraine will repel the attack. The whole nation stood up against the invasion. After five days of war, almost 80 000 men returned to Ukraine to protect the country. Everyone feels the need to contribute to defending the land.
Ukrainians say now that they do not know what the date is today or the day of the week, but they know it’s the fourteenth day. Fourteen days since the war has begun. For me, it feels like a never-ending morning of the 24th of February, the day which has not ended yet.
Iryna Tekuchova is being funded by the project ‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths – DANCING’. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 864182).
