Rise after a Fall

Volunteers

Volunteers

I always imagined Ukraine as numerous settlements, independent from each other, but in case of danger they united to fight against the aggressor. This is what happened on the Maidan and after it. The war was coming from the east. Its rotten odor was in the air intoxicating people of towns and villages. The question was whether a non-trained person who had not served in the army could offer anything against skilled and trained Russian military people? My assumption was negative. But that did not mean that I had to sit still and do nothing. I recollected a girl from the Maidan, a medical volunteer, who rushed to save the injured guys during the shooting. That is why she was shot, but if it had not been for her then who? That brought me to the decision to set up an organization that would train volunteers to provide first medical aid. At the same time it was agreed that assistance would be given to any injured person. A person had to stay a person.

Using my contacts, received during the protests, and social media, I posted my suggestions and offer to everybody who shared my views. At least thirty-five people positively responded within the first hours of my call. These people included a theatrical art studio company. The actors offered to use their rehearsal ground for our training sessions. Their only condition was that what we were to do on their ground had to be limited to the medical area only.

Public adverts in all available social media, personal invitations and common word of mouth worked well. Hundreds of people started responding to our call for becoming a volunteer in the fight for our land. To equip volunteer medical persons with required kits we opened a bank card account where people from the whole country sent their donations. We used them to buy helmets marked with red crosses, medical kits with medications, knee pads, elbow pads, respirators and, if possible, bullet-proof jackets with the minimum protection. Hundreds of deaths on the Maidan in Kyiv taught us a lot. The volunteers quickly formed a group and the course was a success. The first sessions were on the highest level. Teachers were professionals, who used visual aids to demonstrate how it worked. With no medical training we, in fact, could do little, but still it was better than nothing. For the fast transportation of the injured we informed our volunteers who were at the wheel and also found a shelter for two hundred people, where, providing the seizure of hospitals and policlinics it was possible to deploy an infirmary.

Naturally, we were to remember about those who were still surrounded by Russian troops. Who, if not the citizens of Ukraine, would take care of our military? People from the whole country sent us jars of honey, preserves, tins, sweets, socks and cigarettes. Sometimes we managed to transport illegally dozens of meters of barbed wire, obtain torches and other tools that could be of help in the defense. At night we would bring all these collected items to military bases and hand them over to soldiers by throwing them over the fence.

Our activity during that hard time could not stay unnoticed. More and more various people began contacting us offering cooperation.

Every day many journalists needed our help. They needed protection, transportation and information of what was happening in the hottest spots. Foreigners needed interpreters, whom we had enough to meet the full range of requests.

The organization of these processes took all my time, but I also enjoyed the feeling of being involved into something indeed great and historically significant. I stepped out of my comfort zone and set off on the way that had to make me a man.

Everything that was done seemed to us insufficient, and therefore, we needed to move on to public protest events, which had to show that we were against annexation, against occupation of the Crimea, which was, is and will be Ukraine.

The first event to counteract Russian aggression was held in Simferopol next to the Ukrainian military base, located near the railway station. Hundreds of men and women were standing with posters: “Stop War”, “Crimea is Ukraine”, “Peace”. There were not so many of us, just about a thousand people. We were surrounded by Kuban Cossacks, local collaborators and armed regular Russian military men. However, nobody was afraid. People gathered to support our soldiers. To say that the people of Ukraine were together with the army. The Ukrainian flags, the national anthem, tears of anxiety, joy, despair and pride.

We were changing, we were rapidly maturing. From coach potatoes we were turning into the resistance, which would later on stop the attack of the Russian troops. To create something new, something old had to die. The Revolution of Honor and Dignity awoke Ukrainians’ historical memory, showing who they really are.

At nights our guys would stand near the military bases, expecting the seizure at any second. It seemed to us that if Russians started killing civilians the global community would finally come to rescue. Every day I made buckwheat and packed it in five-liter containers, after which I took them to the security guards, and also to the soldier of the base to cheer them up somehow and add up provisions to the heroes. That was not substantial help, but at that time everybody helped as much as they could.

Nights were the busy time for the teams working on propaganda as well: they painted street walls with Ukrainian symbols and called for living in peace. They tried to tell the public what could follow.

There were calls for resistance and take to the streets. We showed that Russia was not a friend but a typical invader, interested in land and potential military bases on it. Creating graffiti was extremely dangerous. Night streets were patrolled by numerous separatist cars, which used searchlights and watched for suspiciously loitering persons. To get into their hands meant to get lost forever. Those days many people of our movement were kidnapped, sometimes dozens per day, at times they could be found dead... But we did not give up. Instead we kept on fighting as much as we could.