As relief efforts ramp up in the U.S., WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard connected with two women in Kyiv via Skype on Thursday.
Victoria Field flew into her native Ukraine on February 23rd from South Africa, where she lives with her husband.
Waiting for her bags to arrive from the airport, Field arranged to stay at her friend Kate Kotenko’s flat in Kyiv.
“Kate was kind to me to offer to stay with her but…”
“Next morning…”
“Next morning, we wake up from knocking on the door our neighbor who’s been telling that war started,” said Field.
Now, for over a week, Field and Kotenko have been witnessing Russia invade their country.
Outside, the shopping center in the distance has its windows boarded up. Since the beginning of the invasion, sirens warning of rockets have grown more frequent.
But they have supplies, internet access, and the lights are on, for now.
“It’s very difficult to predict something right now. Right now, we have everything. We have food, we have water, but…
“Electricity…”
“Electricity. But on the other hand we also hear shelling…so to be sure what is going to be next, it’s very difficult.”
More than a million refugees across Ukraine have already fled their homes, risking their safety to wait for a train out of the country.
But Kotenko says she and Field do not plan on leaving.
“Why we must leave house?” asks Kotenko. “ And who will be protect our country?”
Kotenko and Field have been doing their part to assist the Territorial Defense Forces, which have been staving off Russian ground forces so far. They, along with their neighbors, are helping to make Molotov cocktails.
But the reality of war is hitting home. Kotenko describes witnessing a woman tearing up her child’s old clothes to plug the bottles of flammable chemicals.
“I saw a little child clothes, it was so awful and hard because parents took their little child clothes for making cocktail Molotovs,” said Kotenko.
“And it was really, really heartbroken for her because it was like Mickey Mouse – he’s smiling, flowers, butterflies…and everything was going into…close bottle and later it will be put on fire to make dangerous weapon,” said Field.
On Thursday, the Russian and Ukrainian governments agreed to open humanitarian aid corridors.
But the women do not trust the Russians.
Early images and videos showed abandoned Russian military vehicles being seized by Ukrainian resistance fighters.
But, as Field has read in news reports, some of those vehicles have been booby-trapped.
“Now, the Russians they run out of diesel, out of petrols and they leave a lot of their military vehicles on the roads in villages. But what they do, they actually put mines inside. So, yesterday I read in the news that one village decided to check on army vehicle and it was explosion,” said Field.
The Ukrainian government is in desperate talks to join the European Union, as world governments mobilize to sanction Russia.
The friends say it’s not enough. They want international peace-keeping troops.
And as Russian missiles strike targets across Ukraine, Field says she wants a no-fly zone over the country — which remains a step too far for the White House.
“It will be the most effective, for now, step and we’re asking for it because it’s our survival. We are strong on ground but we doesn’t have enough power, enough equipment to protect ourselves from sky,” said Field.
For Ukrainians, the war with Russia is not new. They say it really began with the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Kotenko and Field want Putin stopped, and they’re determined to fight for their country.
“If we don’t stop Putin’s army, it will be the first country in Europe which will, can be under Russia,” said Kotenko.
“We really ask us to help us to stop it because our world will be much better place without Putin,” said Field.
