When the Russian marching orders were announced, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” blared out of the loudspeakers. Anastasia reads the breaking news that Putin wants to send troops to the Donbass “for stabilization” and cannot believe it. “This is the declaration of war,” she says, looking up from her cell phone as people sipped coffee and ate raspberry donuts.
This Tuesday she is sitting in one of the hip cafés in Uzhgorod in the far south-west of Ukraine and was just about to tell what her plan is in case of an emergency. The border with Slovakia is still within the urban area, and it is not far to Hungary either. But she doesn’t want to flee, but wants to continue working in her job as a nutrition and exercise trainer as long as she can.
Even after Putin’s announcement, the war seems far away, not only geographically – it’s more than 800 kilometers to Kyiv. On the banks of the Usch, young and old stroll through the longest avenue of lime trees in Europe and enjoy the winter sun. The cafés and bars in the pretty center are full of young people with laptops, while the older ones cavort on the small shopping street and in the market hall. Everything as usual, you would never guess that a day and a half later, tanks would roll towards Kyiv.
Even if the signs of an escalation have become more and more concentrated: First Putin’s aggressive speech and the recognition of the “People’s Republics” in the East by Russia. Hacker attacks and secret service tips. Rumors that it is now so far. And on Tuesday the first certainty that at least in the Donbass there was fighting. Two days later, rockets were fired at Kyiv and other cities, and Russian tanks entered the country from three sides.
The threat has left its mark
But far away from all contested areas lies Uzhgorod, at the foot of the Transcarpathians. Anastasia and her family have been living in a big house on the outskirts of town for four years. Friends from Kyiv have been calling for weeks and asking if they can stay here if the worst comes to the worst. You can and will, there is plenty of space.
The months-long threat scenario has left its mark, she says two days before the Russian attack. Her two sons, five and 16 years old, are scared and can hardly sleep. The smaller one doesn’t understand the connections, says Anastasia. “But he senses that we parents are stressed.” Anastasia also has deep circles under her eyes. Like so many others, she has hardly slept the last few nights and has been following the news spellbound. Late-night press conferences by the Russian president’s own rarely bode well.
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Yura’s packed backpack has been waiting in the hallway for weeks – he wants to defend his family. His wife doesn’t like it at all
Foto: Harikrishna Narayana Swamy
Nevertheless, she wanted to keep her everyday life to the end. The younger son’s birthday is the next day, and a small party with friends is planned at home. And on Friday we were supposed to go to Dnipro for the inline skating competition. Even if many parents are getting nervous about whether that’s really smart, because the city of over a million inhabitants is only 300 kilometers away from Donbass. This question should no longer arise.
Yura, 38, has also prepared for the war. Until the very end, he worked shifts in the oncology department of a hospital and then picked up his children from day care, everything as usual. But Yura’s packed backpack has been waiting in the hallway for weeks. If he gets a call, he has to be at the local army headquarters within two hours. Because he enlisted in the army three years ago. As a reservist.
Caught between the fronts in the Donbass
He wants to defend his family, he says. “My wife doesn’t like it at all, but she understands me.” He could not have guessed that this would happen two days later, but President Volodomyr Zelenskiy called up the entire reserve of more than 200,000 men and women. For Yura it means leaving his wife and children. He does not yet know where he will be deployed. He also hopes to work as a doctor in the army.
One of his former colleagues from the Uzhgorod hospital is Hari. He comes from India and studied medicine in Luhansk before war broke out in 2014 and he suddenly got caught between the fronts. Many of his Indian friends left the country. Some too late, some of them were shot in the proclaimed “People’s Republic” there, as he says.
“You could lose your life for the equivalent of a few dollars if you got mixed up with the wrong people,” says Hari. He first went to Kyiv, where it was safe. Then there was the opportunity to continue studying in western Ukraine. He decided on the city of Uschgorod, met his current wife – and stayed.
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At first Hari wanted to stay in Uschgorod. Not to fight, but as a doctor. Now he is traveling to India with his family
Foto: Harikrishna Narayana Swamy
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If necessary, Vlasta also wants to defend the country. The founder of the organization “Volunteers of Transcarpathia” has no combat experience
Foto: Harikrishna Narayana Swamy
In the meantime, he is well anchored here, and acquaintances are always greeting him. He speaks fluent Ukrainian and now works primarily as a wedding photographer. Again and again he does documentary photography, for example in a house for war orphans. He has given up medicine for the time being – at some point, he says, working as an oncologist became too oppressive for him. His Ukrainian wife also works in the hospital, which is enough to support the small family – she has a ten-year-old stepdaughter.
At first Hari wanted to stay in Uschgorod. Not to fight, but as a doctor, he’s also had experience as an emergency medicine physician. “I’d be much more useful there than on the front line.” War is far away, but it’s getting closer every day. After days of uncertainty, the decision to emigrate to India, his former home. In the next 48 hours, a car from the embassy will come and take Hari and his family to Budapest. From there it goes to the other side of the world. However, he hopes to return to Uzhgorod as soon as it is safe again: “My friends, my work, everything is here.”
you will fight
Not far from the city center, in a large Soviet-era office building, Vlasta R. answers calls non-stop. She is the founder of the organization “Volunteers of Transcarpathia”, which takes care of returned war veterans, for example with rehabilitation or programs for reintegration. At the moment, however, everyone is taking care of donations of money and equipment for the active armed forces.
“We urgently need camouflage nets. Only two companies in all of Ukraine make them,” she tells a caller who wants to help. But bandages, bedding and warm clothing are also needed right now. Vlasta or one of her colleagues brings things to the base of the 128th brigade, not far from Uzhgorod, almost every day. They also tell her what is needed at the moment.
“Everyone has been very active in the last few weeks, everyone wants to do something,” says Vlasta between calls. Behind her are three ventilators to be used in veterans’ post-Covid rehab. The furnishing of the unadorned office, from the coffee machine to the printer, came from US Aid, the organization’s largest donor.
She’s not afraid, says Vlasta. She has previously helped at the front, handing out food, for example. If it should become necessary, she will also defend the country. She has no combat experience. Your husband does. He was deployed in Luhansk Oblast, where fierce fighting raged in 2014. He was hurt, she says on the verge of tears, without being more specific.
Since then she has had to take care of him and her three children. That morning, the day before the war began, her disabled husband drove to the local armed forces office. To tell them he’s available and wants to fight again.