12 minute read
Finding a Bright Spark in the Middle of War
Since Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, 2022, the global media space has been in a frenzy over the invasion which is regarded as the largest conventional military attack in Europe since World War II. While there are a lot of political arguments, controversies, and call for sanctions on Russia over the situation, the people who are subjected to the worse imaginable conditions are the common Ukrainian people who are badly seeking some respite.
For 35-year old translator and international trainer, Oleksandra Bakun, who resides in Kharkiv, a Northeastern city of Ukraine, the past few days have been excruciatingly difficult to cope. Oleksandra’s safety has been heavily threatened due to the invasion by the Russian army, but she also has had to deal with keeping her mother who is dependent on an Oxygen machine safe amidst the turmoil.
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TO LEAVE OR TO STAY BACK?
This was the raging question on the mind of Oleksandra and millions of Ukrainians since the invasion began. Diplomat Magazine got in touch with Oleksandra Bakun to get first hand understanding of the situation and how she and others have been coping.
“A lot of people don’t want to flee and a lot of people who did flee and leave Kharkiv, especially the elderly people they are regretting, they are in the bus going out of their apartment and, you know, they’re sitting like arms crossed and being very sure that they are making a mistake. But, you know, I have been trying to convince my mom for five days to leave. She is very used to not extremely comfy, but that’s been her life in Kharkiv. When I reached the place, I called mom and she asked where will you live?”
Imagine having to leave your home, your community, your shared experiences, and your livelihood behind for uncertainty. This has been the difficult choice that many Ukrainians have had to make, as this war has displaced an estimated 1.5 Million people since it started.
“I and several other families with children, elderly people, cats are staying in the city in Central Ukraine in a refugee or rather internally displaced people shelter. And there is a chance that if we get 50 people who would like to, we will get a pass to Poland. So I did sign up in the form and all of the people that came with me in the minibuses also did sign up the form.”
Oleksandra’s decision to leave was not an easy one. Leaving everything behind seemed reasonable for most Ukrainians under the weight of heavy artillery, but having an aged mother who was dependent on Oxygen to survive didn’t leave the 35-year old translator with an easy choice.
“Mom stays in Kharkiv, because not only because of her oxygen dependency, actually there is a chance that she is not dependent on oxygen anymore. But unfortunately, there is no way to check it because her pulse oximeter is faulty and it shows some surreal numbers. She doesn’t know for sure what her situation is, also her heart aches, and she doesn’t understand what it is, whether it is because of oxygen, because she is diabetic and of course you cannot buy it or get insulin in a city that is bombed and blockaded. She also didn’t find her passport. I did bring her enough food and a number of volunteers bring food and supplies to people who are staying back in Kharkiv.”
In this difficult situation, Oleksandra Bakun’s disposition is laudable because apart from worrying about her safety and the safety of her aged mother, she is equally worried about her loved ones, and one can only imagine that other Ukrainians have found themselves in such difficult situations.
“Currently, I am very much worried for my aunt and her husband who are in Mariupol that is in a humanitarian catastrophe. We didn’t have contact with her for four days, just as there was no contact with any person in Mariupol. They don’t have electricity. They don’t have food. They don’t have heating and no internet or mobile connection. So I’m really worried for them. There was a humanitarian corridor organized for people from Mariupol and several smaller villages, but just as I hoped not, but I knew most probably will be so, the Russian side did not respect the silence and the humanitarian convoy was dispelled and we didn’t know whether aunt knew about it or not. Most probably aunt didn’t flee Mariupol.”
“So far, our administration is holding up, but Russians have never stopped shelling Kharkiv. Yesterday, they shelled the sports club, why? It’s not a military object.” A shaken Oleksandra answered when asked about the situation of the hostilities between the Russian army and the Ukrainian armed forces.
How is this shelter where you are currently holding up? Can you tell us about the conditions you and others are being subjected to?
“Yesterday when we arrived to this shelter for internally displaced people in the centre of Ukraine. We are in a city or town that has not been bombed. Let’s hope it will never get bombed, but you never know. Unfortunately, they don’t have an airport. Probably that’s why they’re not being bombed. I don’t know. There were two people like the mother and daughter who I spoke to earlier. They used to live in their house in the very centre of Kharkiv – a historical Center. You know, we call Russian occupiers “Orks”. We have been calling them the “Orks” for eight years, so the “Orks” have bombed the Constitution Square before that, the day before, they bombed the Independence Square because apparently they hate Ukrainian independence and Ukrainian constitution, and that beautiful square has been bombed. Their house was near there, and it was like completely destroyed, not only their flat, but like most of the house. And at that moment, both of them were in the apartment and the mother got hit by the air reaction to the explosion so, she got thrown under the busstop. Unfortunately, they had glass shattered everywhere in the kitchen and in the bathroom and afterward, the explosions just burned. The mother spent one day in the emergency care as her face was covered in glass shards. And then a male relative came one day after that and dug out summer suitcases from under the collapsed walls and that’s all they have now. Just two summer suitcases. That’s not my story, that’s a story of one of the dozens of internally displaced people who are staying here in the shelter.”
Most of the people holding up in the shelter with Oleksandra expressed their sentiments and reservations about the war. We spoke to Alexandra, young woman from Kharkiv, ethnically Armenian, who also shared appreciable insights into the situation with us.
“I’m from Kharkiv, but I am in this place now, and I’m OK with my friends, but I left my home in Kharkiv. Kharkiv and Kiyv regions are now the most dangerous regions in Ukraine. I left my friends behind, and they are in very big danger in their homes. They have been bombed all the time and while thinking about this, I am broken to pieces but I hope that soon it will be all over. Now I am going to Poland because this war is a total disaster, and I don’t understand how it could be happening on our land because our land is a land of clever, nice people and the Russians came to us with their weapons in our cultural cities. It’s a very bad situation and I don’t understand how things could turn out.”
War is bad, and even more so, recovering from the effects of war is not easy, but in the meantime, the strong resolve of people like Oleksandra Bakun has been a bright spot in a gloomy situation. Despite the difficult situation, Oleksandra Bakun manages to post updates on social media several times a day. From her updates, she shares information about herself or the situation in Ukraine. Via her social media, Oleksandra has been in constant touch with journalists from all over the world. We asked what drives her in these hard times?
“For me, actually, it is not hard. I don’t know, maybe because I’m an extrovert and it is naturally easy for me to share anything. Even when, for some people, they feel like I am over sharing things. So I guess that’s for me, a type of coping mechanism given the situation. Because when you’re trying to describe the situation to people, it seems like, it’s not really happening, but for me, I’m not just living inside of the situation, I’m getting the situation out of my system.”
Oleksandra draws inspiration for sharing daily updates from her professional activities. Oleksandra is a trainer and facilitator with several successful projects added to her feathers over the past nine years. Right now, sharing daily updates seems to be a buildup from the experiences she has gathered from working during the COVID-19 pandemic which was another difficult experience. “For two years during the COVID pandemic, I have been moderating the international virtual poetry meetings where people were sharing their stories through poetry and just by speaking. And it was a safe place because I’m a trainer and facilitator and I’m organizing safe places for participants, but not for refugees though.”
While the impact of Oleksandra Bakun’s work reached far across Europe during the pandemic and the effects on people made her understand that sharing factual information about events as they happen, was the best approach to help people understand and deal with the difficult war situation.
Ukraine’s conflict with Russia has several historical and political undertones that has spanned several centuries. The invasion seemed to be a matter of when it will happen, rather than if it will happen and people who are directly facing the threats of missiles, bombs, and heavy gunfire like Oleksandra believes that it is important while sharing situation updates about the war to let people know that this war is not just an “11 days old conflict.”
“We have not had a conflict for eight years either. We have had a conflict with Russia for three hundred and fifty years. The world starts to forget that or just do not understand that, because for them, they say that Ukraine was part of Russia and then you get an independence out of a settlement, but that’s not the truth. And for me, it was like all my life I have been sharing both inside and outside of Ukraine that Russia is not our friend.”
Several generations of Ukrainians have been subjected to different degrees of threats from the Soviet Union at different times. It is difficult to be subjected to external tensions from a neighboring country for just being “Ukrainian patriots or just by being Ukrainians.”
Oleksandra recalls her family’s grim story. “We have had a lot of people repressed, and a lot of my family has died from artificial famine in 1932, 1933. So when Russia attacked Crimea eight years ago, I was not surprised. A lot of people were surprised. A lot of people still don’t believe; a lot of people were absolutely horrified when Russia started bombing Kharkiv, because Kharkiv is not necessarily a pro-Ukrainian city. Even our ex-authority was trying to create Kharkiv as an independent republic under Russian control, similar to the so called Donetsk and Lugansk republics.”
The strong resolve of the people of Kharkiv has not brought this independent Kharkiv republic to fruition. “The people of Kharkiv have shown Russia that they don’t want them to become a part of Kharkiv People’s Republic. That’s why they are bringing in people from Crimea to Kherson to south cities of Ukraine now to organize meetings for the Kharkiv People’s Republic. But you know, our people in the South are good with understanding what is true and what is not, nowadays.”
From the US to the UK, there have been strong showings of solidarity with Ukrainians but no visible actions intended to help displaced Ukrainians like Oleksandra to mitigate the situation. Sanctions may seem to hold a lot of weight to the Western world, but Ukrainians are badly in need of help.
Of course, we cannot deny that there are issues which have culminated in this war because it did not begin with Russian attacks on Kharkiv or Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk or the other cities of Ukraine, which had airports. “The war began with the so-called peaceful referendum to get Crimea to join Russia. With Donetsk and Lugansk separatist republics, my relatives, like half of my family, are in Donetsk and Lugansk so-called people’s republics.”
The Kremlin authorities are banking on the actions of these separatists’ republics to wield attack on Ukraine. Apart from the invasion by the Russian armed forces, Putin also has an active propaganda spreading machinery that have been spreading false narratives about the actual events in the currently attacked parts of Ukraine.
“Propaganda that Ukraine will attack Donetsk and Luhansk regions. That’s why they need to attack first. That’s pretty much the same as what Stalin wanted to do. She wanted to attack Germany first. They were allies for like three to four years, since the Second World War began, the Second World War also didn’t begin with the attacks on Brest and Kyiv, they began with the attack on Poland…” Oleksandra travels down the path of history, “And Russia has had a narrative, about the Second World War that they feel can be replicated, you know, and they are repeating it now in Ukraine, while Ukrainians were always standing on the other side – “never again”.”
As each day passes, the devastating effects of the war are spreading, with the Russian army taking more territory and leaving mass destruction in their wake. For millions of Ukrainians like Oleksandra Bakun, their resolve is unwavering, “never again!!!”
