Oleh (72)

March 14, 2022, Bratislava. Day 19 of the war.

Oleh reminded me of my father a lot. If they had the opportunity to meet, they would certainly have a good discussion. Like my father, Oleh too built his home after he retired. He had to run away twice from his own house. He and his wife lived there for only a half year. For now, no one knows if they will be able to return. No one knows whether they will have a place to return.

"We are more than 70 years old and we have nothing. Nothing! We lived in Crimea for 30 years, we built a house there. After Russia annexed Crimea we wanted to sell the house so we could leave. We haven't been able to sell it for 7 years. Of course, the Ukrainians did not want to buy houses there. Our house was big, built on a large plot. There were state villas next to us, our house was located in an elite place. The Russians wanted to buy the house for almost nothing. We had to sell it for half the market price in 2021 and then we moved to Kiev. We only managed to live in Kiev for a half year and then we had to run again. We're lucky to have kids. We raised them, took care of them, we ran after them. They grew up and became smart and  skilled people. And now, instead of taking care of their children and helping them, they have to take care of us."

"The war is terrible. It stays in your heart. It's awful, you can't describe it in words. I want people to realize that the war is very close. The bombs are falling on Lviv, even 40 km far away from the Polish border. Our strength is in unity. We must stand up to him (Putin) together. We saw all the horror three days ago. I'm an honest man and I've worked hard my whole life, and now, at the end of my life, I'm reaching out for help. I do not understand why!" 

"You know, we were so glad we escaped the claws of the Russian world. All republics felt incomplete under the regime of the Soviet Union, they did not have the same education, health care, etc. And now Putin wants to draw us back into that world again. We want to be a free and independent Ukraine. We lived well. We went to the streets to protest in case we didn't like something, but no one would beat and arrest us. Czechs and Slovaks remember the year of 1968. It is a history, but not too ancient. You are lucky to be a part of Europe. We come here and we can see that Ukraine is a richer country, but for some reason our lives are poorer? Why? Because there's a monster living next to us. Russia also has huge mineral wealth, but can you see how they live? Look at how people live in Saudi Arabia. The Russians have even more wealth, yet their lives are worse. And now they (Russia) want us to live like them. We want to live in a free Ukraine!" 

"I understand that you tend not to care if the war is not right there at your doorstep. We too had an 8-year long war in Donbas and we didn't consider it a war. We only realized what war is when it came to our home. You would only believe what's happening if you saw Kiev and the whole area surrounded by anti-tank hedgehogs. I am 72 years old. I thought I had heard enough about the war in my life. But you would understand only when you experience it. Please do everything you can to stop this monster, that inhuman creature. He is also hurting his nation, the Russians themselves are not evil, they are just being disinformed. After all, it is the nation of Chekhov, Tolstoy, Shostakovich. When Hitler fought, he fed his nation, so they followed him. But Putin stripped his nation naked. Why?" 

"Everything was fine when Crimea was Ukrainian. Evil has come with the Russian world. The sun was shining, but you were not happy. You went swimming in a warm sea, but you felt a kind of coldness. There was no longer the peace and comfort of the days of Ukraine. Good days were gone" 

"I called a friend in Mariupol, and he told me that he has never been able to imagine anything like that. Bodies are lying on the streets, legs torn apart. It's all like a bad dream, like a nightmare. You tend to feel that this is not your life, but then you realize that it is a reality."