Sofiia Petiukina:
Within this time, I feel like everything has changed fundamentally and life will never be the same. The moment of waking up from the explosions for the first time felt like my whole personality was destroyed by that rocket and renewal wasn’t possible — I had to rebuild it, rethinking all my beliefs. It’s suddenly no more gray between black and white for me, war took it away. Now I see things different, more clear.
Sofiia Nadtochiy:
War has changed not only our entire lives, as well, it changed our mind. First, it’s about revaluation of life and the significance of our existence. It forces us to wake up and smell the coffee, so we realised what really patriotism means to us and how valuable it is. All our previous life, emotions, hopes, and predictions were destroyed by russians, so we were obliged to learn how to live now, without confidence in the next day and the exact future. Unfortunately, many people became adopted to these circumstances because now we have no choice.
No less significant is the fact that war destroyed our personal boundaries, implying exactly internal world. We became very attentive to someone’s life and their personal views. It matters what music we listen to, what language is spoken in our family, what attitudes we have to certain personalities. Previously, these things were private, but now everything has changed.
Olexandr Efremov:
The year and half of war had forced the Ukrainian people to reevaluate their stance on life.
The choices we made, the lifestyles we had, the values we upheld, had been destroyed.
We had been forced to choose, how to proceed, either to double down or switch our outlook. Ukrainians had taken a more callous, fatalist view on life. Perhaps that was my biases and personal outlook speaking in the previous statement. Yet on the other hand, most people had adopted a national consciousness during this war, understanding what it is to be Ukrainian, something that had been eroded and persecuted for the past 370 years. The best course of action for us now, is to harden against personal adversity and believe in the nation and our Armed Forces.
Hutsul Sofia:
My answer to this question will probably not be inspiring. The first thing that came to my mind was that I am used to war. I am used to anxiety, to the fact that my parents are far away, and I have been living alone since I was 17. After I came back to Kherson to volunteer for a few days, I realized that people experience the war differently. People in the frontline areas cannot go to the store in peace because a shell can hit them at any moment.
I am happy that there are places in our country that are safer than they are, but I am still in pain. In Kyiv, I have the opportunity to sit quietly on a bench outside, read and study.
And like everything else, good or bad, you get used to it. I got used to it too.
I don’t forget about the war, but I’m used to it. And it’s scary.
Yelyzaveta Chernova:
It is one and a half years of the full-scale war in Ukraine. My life has been changed. It has moved from «seeing» to «hearing» in some aspects. It is a matter of one quite crucial for today’s case: we need to hear the alarm to react and not see the explosion. Therefore, my new rule is covered in «giving ear» principle – it is about both carefulness and involvement that are quite valuable in today’s Ukrainian reality.
The principle of «hearing» or «giving ear» demands from me more inside calculating and provides much deeper consciousnesses in some issues which I have been just «seeing» before. «Giving ear» for me is about not indifference and real action, while «seeing» could be about just passive witnessing.
⁃ Giving ear to self-importance and own potential impact in extremely significant sectors – each small donation can save at least one hero’s life.
⁃ Giving ear to social moods and own role in them in order to neatly reduce frustration and let inside communicational war never exist.
⁃ Giving ear to the stories of other people – only had listened we can realize needed help to give it.
⁃ Giving ear to the world’s cyclical history in order to find real keys for nowadays.
Meanwhile, today is the time not only for reevaluating, but also for gravity to relish the available moment… To giving ear to the moment with its people and emotions. Until this moment is here. Until we are here. Until we can listen to and we can hear.
Ani Arutiunian:
The start of a full-scale invasion was a wake-up call for me. I’ve finally been forced to face all the questions and worries regarding war that I had been ignoring for the past eight years. The more explosions I heard, the more repressed memories flooded back into my mind. It was a painful and overwhelming experience; it felt as if I was drowning in my anger and fear. Mentally, I was once again an eight-year-old child, watching my hometown be destroyed by Russians.
However, this sudden rush of memories also had its benefits: it helped me finally set my priorities straight and helped me analyse my past beliefs under a new, clearer light. I am a much more conscious person now. My life has changed completely, and it will never be the same as it was before the invasion.
Yarema Svarnyk:
When it all happened, I wasn’t surprised by the fact of it, it felt like nothing. The only thing I had was the acceptance that now all of us would have to face the consequences of inhuman thoughts bearing in the wicked minds upfront. The reason was the responsibility for one’s self, not indifference set to enkindle the hearts of others not by fulminating with fury to go on an irrational rampage, but by preserving the emotional side for those dearest ones. To stand stalwart, too persevere sanguinely, to make a difference with thoughtful actions and a pellucid mind..
This is what is always definite in my mind, alongside the other principles and values I have, which only proceed to reinforce with each day – let it be enchased in the treasured encephalic memory to convalesce one day..
Miasoiedova Sofiia:
In a year and a half of full-scale war, I feel a sense of anxiety almost all the time. It became difficult for me to communicate with my father, with whom we see very rarely because he is a military doctor.
Last summer I thought that I could not study and work normally because my close friend was killed at the age of 19, he was a soldier. I think it is unfair that Russia takes away from our young people the opportunity to get an education and live a real life.
In a year and a half of full-scale war, I learned to hold back the pain of losing people who are important to me, no matter how much I loved them.
Olexandra Savych:
During the full-scale war, I rethought the concept of home for myself. Felt anew what home is. I can’t say that I lost my home – my situation, thank God, is much better than that of many Ukrainians – but at the beginning of the spring of 2022 I had to go to Germany, and it was 4 months of hell: depression, loss of a sense of family, derealization. Everything around, every day, seemed unreal – in a bad way.
There was a feeling that what seemed impossible to lose could now disappear at any moment.
Now, fortunately, I am in Ukraine, and I have learned how to escape from longing for the people I lost in the war, from worries about friends who are now at the front. Of course, I try to help them as much as I can.
Time doesn’t heal. Escapism heals. More precisely, treats the symptoms, not a person. I found my escape in art: making music, poetry, painting. These things have always been with me, and probably because of them, I’m still here now.
Zlata Kostinova:
When the full-scale invasion started, I was both shocked and not surprised at the same time. I’m that person, who tends to overthink everything. So when first talks about potential russian invasion started, I was thinking what I would do, what should I pack etc. For that reason, I was somewhat ready. A lot of things happened to me during this year and a half, and I don’t want to waste your time and recall each one. The most important change for me was the fact that I became more mature in a psychological way. Most of this time I had therapy sessions and reconsidered many things about others and me. Attending university also affected because even if I still live with my parents, I became more independent. University also helped me to become more sociable, and for me, this is a positive change.
As for negative changes, I became more anxious. Right now, I’m temporarily staying abroad. Even If my brain knows that this is a safe place, my first reaction to loud noises that are similar to explosions is fear. Fortunately, in February 2022 I was in a place that could be considered as ‘safe’, but I still experienced explosions and everything, and they impacted me.
All in all, it is hard for me to talk about these changes now because I’m still living through them, and maybe over time I’ll look at them in another way. One thing I know for sure. I’ll never be the same person I was before, and nothing will be like it was before the invasion. This is our life now.
Lana Shpakovych:
After 24.02.2022 my life pathway, as pathways of millions of our people, changed. But I have no right to complain because for some people it was broken at all. I could finally approximately understand my classmate, who was forced to leave her home in Luhansk region after the start of the war in 2014… I remember one day, as she went out of the classroom in tears and I tried to calm her down. It turns out that her grandfather had died because of the explosion nearby…
What do I feel? Strong pain because every day our best people, who had their dreams and plans for the Ukrainian future and, certainly, their own, die. Do you remember Julia Zdanovska? The person, who has the opportunity to enter every University of Ivy League to focus on a scientific career, but instead she has chosen to teach Ukrainian pupils in villages. Her example motivates me and as a result, has changed me because we should continue her work and the work of thousands of such people. I don’t believe in God, but in injustice, should I remind about Roman Ratuschnii and other great heroes’ names of modern time? Actually, we have no particular generation in our history that didn’t have to struggle for our Freedom and Independence
I’m trying not to feel fear because I don’t want to seem selfish, but any way I do… as many of us, I also feel fury and the great responsibility for the future because we should live worthy of heroes who have given their lives for country…
Danyil Lopatin:
The beginning of full-scale war for me was unexpected. However, I can’t say that I was perplexed and frightened. I could not realise one thing: why Putin did that? He really thought that he would definitely win and occupy the whole country? 603.7 thousand square kilometres? How naive! Putin really thought that Ukrainians would meet russians with flowers? These points I do not understand yet. How imperial desires blind the herd of primitive russians and their dictator, I thought that day. Actually, that is all the essence of russian and also East civilization. I imagine that is the war of civilizations (West and East) and we’re proving our independence and defending the West. Our victory will be a major event in the history of Ukraine and the world too. There are no other ways!
Natalia Vilkhovetska:
Honestly, I can’t be very optimistic. At first glance, it seems that everything changed. And therefore everyone changed. But after 1.5 years of the russian invasion of Ukraine, I was forced to face the unpleasant truth: not everything has changed, and — the thing that was the hardest to accept — not everybody has changed. Realizing this thing was a bolt from the blue. Cause after 1,5 years of living in this hell, it seemed apparent that at least every citizen of Ukraine must hate russia, russians and anything related to that country. But it turned out that my assumption was wrong. Many people continue to interact with the language of this country, with its culture and do not change their opinion about such things, which is quite sad.
«The family is the first essential cell of human society» said Pope John XXIII. I fully support this words as the core of our society begins with small parts – family. From an early age, children absorb everything in the middle of their family like little sprouts. They learn everything from their parents. Both good things and bad things. Sometimes children do not witness the best things in the family, such as domestic violence.
Domestic violence and abuse in Ukraine families and families around the world is daily phenomenon for today. Statistics show that there are 1.1 million women in Ukraine suffer from physical, sexual or emotional violence in their families. But only one in ten victims turn to law enforcement for help. But what forced them to hide beatings and abuse? First of all, this is the opinion of society. The well-known word “beats then it loves” is not a simple expression of love. These words and many other prejudices about domestic violence such as “it’s your fault”, “you made him hit” and many others make women hide bruises and beatings behind sunglasses and foundation. Because they are afraid of being condemned by their relatives and friends, they close their family problems behind many locks and continue to live in fear. Second, victims often do not identify themselves as victims, when they are constantly accused or controlled.
But what if you or your friends are faced with this terrible problem? The most important thing is to show your support for the victim of violence. She is more affected than ever, so it’s easy to scare her, and she’ll shut down. It’s best to start reassuring her that it’s not her fault that she got bruised. The abuser himself chooses to beat or not to beat. Verbal support is the least we can do for them, but it is still important. We need to be patient with this woman. After she realized that she was in an abyss, she would not immediately leave the aggressor. This is due to complete dependence, both financial and moral. So we have to be prepared for the fact that at first time everything will not end. It is a long and difficult process, but a woman must be saved from the aggressor. After all, domestic violence often ends in the murder of the victim.
This problem of domestic cannot be hidden, it is worth talking about, and it should not be ashamed of. People all over the world face it and they need help and support.