Ukraine Analysis #24 9/6/2022
Ukrainian women
Jeffrey Owens

March being Women’s History Month, it would be very fitting I think. I follow 7 Ukrainian women from the morning of the full-scale invasion, February 2022 through August 2022.
A Churchillian sensation may have briefly passed through Natalyia Bugayova’s mind in the early morning hours of February 24 as Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion of her homeland Ukraine.
Churchill reasoned that: “...to each comes in their lifetime a special moment they are…offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents.” He further lamented “What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared …for that which could have been their finest hour.”
No such tragedy would befall Natalyia as her life experiences, education and work had prepared her exactly for this moment. Natalyia was a National Security Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington D.C. and the author of multiple publications on Russia’s foreign policy and worldview of Ukraine.
As a result, she was in a unique position and held the prestige to guide and advise world leaders on exactly how to best understand and respond to Putin’s aggression.
Raised in Severodonetsk in Luhansk Oblast, Bugayova grew up primarily a Russian speaker, but her mother saw to it that she learned English at a young age. Her excellence in school coupled with English fluency placed her in contention for a coveted slot as an exchange student through the U.S. State Department’s Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program. She was not only selected into the program for the 2004-2005 school year, but also was later described by its manager as a “perfect example of a FLEX success story.”
Residing in Maryland with her host parents and living the FLEX experience to its fullest, “fundamentally changed the course of my life.” FLEX is a competitive and challenging experience in which all students are required to perform community service, and many of them create and organize their own volunteer opportunities. Upon returning to Ukraine, she earned a degree in Near East Studies from Taras Shevchenko University, and while doing so, turned an internship at the Kyiv Post into a reporter job.
Never one to sit still, she took a “crazy shot” at the age of 21 and applied to Harvard Kennedy School graduate program in Public Policy. Although her age and only two years’ work experience were stacked against her, Nataliya not only was accepted but she also excelled.
After graduating Nataliya returned home, and at the age of twenty-five took over as CEO of the Kyiv Post. Opened in 1995, the Kyiv Post was a western owned media outlet and was the first Ukrainian newspaper to be published and proliferated in English, with a target audience of Western Europe and the United States. Each successive CEO had been a western compatriot, and this allowed Nataliya to break down multiple barriers. She was not only its youngest CEO, but also the first female and first Ukrainian to fill the top spot.
After two years as CEO, Nataliya relocated again back to the United States in January 2016. There she launched a successful career with the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington D.C. where she has been employed ever since. With her diverse background she navigated the roles of Russian Research Fellow, Russia Team Lead, and National Security Research Fellow, all while juggling the challenge of simultaneously serving as Director of Strategic Insights for Vertical Knowledge.

In her tenure at ISW Nataliya honed her expertise on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and established herself as a foreign policy expert. In doing so she has crafted a flurry of publications and delivered multiple speeches to global conferences on topics ranging from Putin’s worldview towards the west, the status of the “separatists war” in the Donbas, the control Putin lords over Russian foreign policy, and the threat that Russia posed to the world at large.
She has assessed that “Putin’s worldview is the Kremlin’s foreign policy.” That Putin sees “global hegemony by which he means a world order led by America” as “unacceptable to Russia,” as a result “Russia must assert itself to maintain its sovereignty.” Putin “places his principles of state sovereignty above humanitarian concerns,” and asserts that as a world power, Russia resolve issue within its “sphere of influence…independent of external pressure.”
Whether she was publishing in the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine or addressing any number of global councils live, Nataliya consistently reminded her audiences that no matter the rhetoric coming out of Moscow, that Putin’s attitude towards Ukraine “has never and likely will never change.” Few people anywhere possessed the experience and expertise as Nataliya on Putin’s Russia and it is no accident that U.S. foreign policy towards Russia since February 24 has mirrored her council in near lockstep.
**
As Putin’s bombs fell, the lives not only of Natalyia Bugayova, but also of Angelika Zayika, Anastasiia Lapatina, Katya Savchenko, Alina Mykhailova, Alisa Vysokaja and Eugenia Mazureko changed irrevocably.

Most never expected an invasion. War in the Donbas had been going on for eight years, and for all that time each had witnessed a non-stop barrage of anti-Ukrainian propaganda emanating from the Kremlin.

Putin’s deployment of tens of thousands of soldiers on two additional fronts in early 2022 seemed to most Ukrainians as just another intimidation tactic, and a vast majority of the population went about their daily lives as normal on February 23.

One of these women, because of circumstance, could do little more than survive, while another went straight to the front lines. A few temporarily left Ukraine as refugees and worked abroad, while others remained, but had to adjust all daily routines to war.

One was so influenced by her brief experience as a refugee that she dedicated months of her life to helping other displaced women and children.

Yet another was a college student in France when the invasion began, but returned to Ukraine in the midst of war to pursue the work she loved. All are trilingual in Ukrainian, Russian and English, with one proficient in Hebrew.

No matter the situation they found themselves in, each of these women kicked life into high gear in the days after Russian forces invaded their homeland, seeking not to liberate, but to destroy Ukraine. Even in the midst of war, each found an inner strength, and in applying that to their own abilities, all may have mastered their finest hours.
**

Standing before the Munich Security Council on February 18, 2022 and representing Kyiv City Council, twenty-seven year old Alina Mykhailova pleaded with its delegates to not let her country be destroyed. The request may sound simple enough, but the helplessness of the situation as of mid-February for Ukraine was all too real.
Ukraine was surrounded on three sides by the world’s “second army,” and few military analysts anywhere gave Ukraine more than a week to hold out if Russia invaded. A quick glance at history dating back to Russia’s raising of Grozny in 2000, the brutal invasion of Georgia in 2008 and its relentless bombardment of Aleppo Syria in 2016 revealed exactly the level of violence, destruction and murder that Ukraine would be facing if full-scale war came.
Alina however needed no such historical references, as she was nowhere nearly just a “girl in a navy suit,” as she described herself that day. She was a three-year veteran of the war in the Donbas, which began in 2014 when she was just 19. At that time, she was a student at Kyiv State University but upon graduation she volunteered for service in the “Hospitaliers” medical battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where she became a paramedic.
On the front lines she not only experienced the sting of battle, but also honed her leadership skills which were recognized by her superiors. She was promoted to commander of her unit, then headed up the aerial reconnaissance team in support of medical services, and later built up the Hospitaliers’ Facebook page to over 40,000 followers.

“Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone,” Alina once told a group of girls she was mentoring upon returning to civilian life. “You cannot learn to be an honest person,” however “if you have this virtue, believe in yourself and lead the way.” For Alina these were not mere words but rather guideposts for how she lived. Upon leaving the medical battalion, she was honored with the Bohdan Radchenko scholarship, and used that opportunity to attain a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Kyiv School of Economics.
Her service and education combined opened yet more doors, as she was elected to Kyiv City Council in 2020. There Alina fought against corruption, went after illegal construction projects in and around established nature preserves, pushed back against Russian propaganda, and sought decommissioning of all remaining Soviet era monuments in the city. With her war background, she also naturally concentrated her efforts on defense, healthcare and veterans affairs.
Just six days after delivering her speech to the Security Council in Munich, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. Without hesitation, Alina “traded high heels for military garb,” and rejoined the Hospitalers battalion as a volunteer paramedic, serving on the front lines in the Donbas.
**

Loud ringing from her apartment’s intercom awoke Katya Savchenko at 6:30 on the morning of February 24. “The war has started” she clearly heard her sister call out from the threshold of the door. Looking at her cell phone, which displayed a notification listing 17 missed calls, Katya quickly gathered up her belongings for a road trip.
Although her apartment was in Kyiv, Katya and her sister decided on the spot to relocate to their parent’s home in nearby Bucha. Although they could not have known it then, leaving Kyiv for Bucha, was the epitome of jumping out of the frying pan and landing in the fire.
Within a half an hour they arrived in Bucha, but were greeted by massive explosions, as the battle for the nearby Hostomel Airport had already begun. This large commercial airport was just miles north of Kyiv whose capture was considered essential for Russian logistics to allow supplies and reinforcements to be inserted directly into the Kyiv front. Poor planning and execution resulted in a seesaw battle that inflicted heavy losses on Russian elite forces and left the airport both destroyed and unusable.

Katya and her mother and sister promptly took refuge in the Bucha bomb shelter where more than one hundred civilians were already living. Upon arrival they had to literally find a corner, clear off a couple of benches, and set up sleeping bags for overnight living. Fleeing war however was not new to Katya although she was only 27.
She was not native to Kyiv, but had grown up in the town of Horlivka, Donetsk Oblast. Within months of the Russian invasion of the Donbas in 2014, Horlivka fell to Russian backed militants, and Katya and her immediate family moved west and took up residence in Kyiv.
Fear was a daily companion in the Bucha bomb shelter. The walls constantly shook from nearby impacting shells, while food and water were perpetually in short supply and had to be rationed. Within twenty-four hours, and perhaps aided by her previous war experience in Horlivka, Katya discovered that she could determine the location of artillery strikes merely by sound of the impact.
Life in the bomb shelter was about survival and during daylight hours residents could venture out for fresh air and sunshine. Some returned to their homes while others searched for food and supplies. On a few occasions while the town remained under Ukrainian control, Katya along with her mother and sister went home for showers.
Then if they were lucky to find a store that was open, they had to stand in line for hours to get basic supplies. Each evening the bomb shelter chiefs took roll call and checked everyone’s documents to ensure security and to create a paper trail of residents in case any one was killed or went missing.

Undoubtedly due to a mix of fear, pride, patriotism and likely many other emotions only known to survivors of war, Katya found herself infatuated with the heroic soldiers defending Bucha. She not only penned a letter to the local army garrison admitting she was “bursting with pride for them,” but upon seeing a group picture, wrote “our soldiers are so handsome.”
She likewise found a “personal hero” in Vlad, “the most responsible man here,” who tirelessly worked to keep her calm during shellings. Katya often daydreamed of walking in Shevchenko Park in Kyiv, visiting friends while enjoying sparkling wine, attending theatre performances, and just having fun dancing and enjoying life.
**

Living through and becoming internally displaced by war was among the last things Eugenia Mazurenko expected to experience as of February 23, 2022. Europe had not seen a full-scale conventional war in nearly eighty years, and Ukraine possessed U.N. chartered international security guarantees which Eugenia felt confident would deter Putin from any serious aggressions.
A college educated wife, mother and career woman; Eugenia was not only already serving as CEO of the philanthropic Zagoriy Foundation at the age of 33 but also was fast tracking her way through an Executive MBA at Kyiv-Mohlya School of Business. Her husband was a businessman focusing on logistics, and their four-year-old daughter Vasylyna, was just as full of life as her hair was radiant blonde.
Although raised in Kyiv, Eugenia’s parents in their retirement moved to a small rural community. There they not only maintained a room in their home for Eugenia and her family to visit, but also tended to a sprawling garden complex, complete with fruit trees, fresh vegetables and honey apery.

The hour commute Eugenia had resulting from living in Bucha but working in Kyiv was among the most important periods of her day. Whether she was singing along to Alicia Keys’s “Superwoman,” which her husband joked was actually written about her, or contemplating upcoming projects, events, or conferences, Eugenia’s car was her “place of power.” This is where her ideas took shape, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine putting her car in a body shop after its backend was crushed by a Russian tank.
February 23 was a routine day in the life of Eugenia. The Zagoriy Foundation board approved her 2022-2025 strategy and, on the way, home she stopped off both for a haircut and a doctors appointment. The next morning, she had to catch a very early train out of Kyiv to attend a major philanthropy conference. Putin however had other plans. Eugenia’s day was brought to a screeching halt when she received a call from her sister at around 5:00am while standing on the train platform, informing her of Russian bombs falling all over the country.

Returning home to Bucha, she awoke her husband and daughter and informed them of the news. By the following day the family headed west and relocated to a rental home in the town of Frankivs, which they shared with a couple other families and multiple pets. Learning later of the tragedy that became of Bucha, they were very lucky to have moved when they did. As of February 24 however, it was anyone’s guess where to find relative safety.
**

Anastasiia Lapatina sat cross-legged in her apartment outside of Paris as Putin’s words “Special Military Operation,” hit her like a gut-punch. Although enrolled in college for three years as an International Relations student, Anastasiia, who goes by Nastya, continually held professional positions, gaining experience and honing her skills.
While just 21 in February 2022, her resume already included part-time work as a staff reporter for the Kyiv Post, full-time employment as a journalist for Svidomi, service as a trilingual interpreter for the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and lastly as a reporter for the Kyiv Independent.
In these various roles Nastya published multiple articles on a variety of subjects ranging anywhere from human rights to politics, to Ukrainian citizens living abroad in combat zones like Syria and Afghanistan.
Her employment with the Kyiv Independent began in November 2021 and by February 2022 she was already publishing on Putin’s looming invasion. Tensions were sky high in the Donbas where she reported on more than 870 Russian ceasefire violations just since January 1. Nastya correctly asserted that the Russians sought to “…provoke a reaction from Ukraine’s Armed Forces to justify a further attack on Ukraine.”
During these weeks the Kyiv Independent conducted interviews inside Russian occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but the names of those interviewed were changed “as many in occupied territories are targeted for pro-Ukrainian sympathies.” Nastya reported that although the women and children of these occupied regions were ordered to evacuate into Russia, pending a “Ukrainian offensive,” that most refused as they believed the war rhetoric was pure propaganda.

Serving as a war correspondent is rare opportunity as it is, and even more so while still being enrolled in college. Likewise reporting on the mass destruction of an entire country along with the senseless murder of tens of thousands of its citizenry is challenging enough, not to mention when that the country in question and the citizens described are of ones own. Once the full-scale invasion began, Nastya covered among many topics the siege of Mariupol, which she described as “An absolutely gut-wrenching scene…unfolding in front of us.”
In “Voices of Mariupol” Nastya chronicled the life, struggles and escape of Anastasiia Kiseliova, a forty year old resident of Mariupol and mother of three. Nastya revealed how Ms. Kiseliova’s kept a verbal journal through scores of recordings on her iPhone during the siege. All of which were passed to the Kyiv Independent after Kiseliova’s escape, and each of which enhanced the understanding of listeners to life under siege.
Bringing to life Kiseliova’s harrowing escape through her excellent reporting, Nastya placed her readers right on the streets of Mariupol as well as in the backseat of Kiseliova’s car, as she traversed danger after danger on her journey to freedom.
**

“There is a third world war now, in which only two countries are involved- Russia against the whole world and Ukraine for the whole world,” wrote Angelika Zayika, while temporarily living in Warsaw, Poland in early March 2022. This may have been among the last statements Angelika would have expected to be making a month prior, because as of February 23, 2022, Angelika was living her best life in Kyiv.
Scores of photographs capture that life, ranging anything from pool-side bikini pictures to glamorous photo-shoots. She frequented her favorite coffee hangouts and pursued her successful career as an economic and policy expert who had advised two Ukrainian presidents. She even has a picture of herself with President Zelensky. At the time, this was “just a photo with the president after a national council” but in retrospect serves as “...a symbol of courage and freedom.”
Upon completing graduate level education both at the Teras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv as well as the Legislation Institute at Verkhovna Rada, Angelika launched her lucrative career in 2015 as a legal assistant for the Supreme Court of Ukraine. From there she navigated opportunities up to and including Senior Advisor to President Zelensky as well as a Senior Associate for American Political Services; a global corporation specializing in consulting on government reform, business ethics and expansion.
February 23 was just another day at the office. A photograph of Angelika attending a professional event captures her in a business suit, half-smiling at the camera. Her hair was down, with a glass loosely gripped in her right hand, while her left, bore exquisite rings. Over her right shoulder hung a purse with the humorous logo of “Turn to Open” and “Cash Inside” across its front. The following day however came as a “total shock.”

Shortly after Russian bombs started falling, she, like many non-combatant women, crossed over Ukraine’s western border and took up temporary residence in Warsaw, Poland. Never one to sit still, she continued her work, not from an office, but rather from the hotel room which she lived in and from restaurant tables where she could set up her laptop. From her “offices” she worked to organize government meetings, with various international funds allocated to assist Ukraine. All-the-while, she longed for her life in Kyiv.
**

February 24 was the “worst morning of my life,” for Alisa Vysokaja, a resident of the major Black Sea port city of Odesa. Just the night before she had gone to a movie with her boyfriend and had a great time but was awoken by a frantic phone call from her mother exclaiming over and over “there’s a war!”
No one knew what to do and major city highways became traffic jammed for hours on end, ATMs all over the city were depleted of money within hours while stores had their shelves wiped clean by customers buying up everything they could haul.
Alisa and her boyfriend briefly thought about leaving Ukraine, but the government issued a state of emergency, which among other things mandated all men of military age to remain in Ukraine. The two made the difficult decision that Alisa would leave, and she took a rescue bus for women and children over the border to neighboring Moldova. Packed wall-to-wall, all the women on the bus were frightened and crying, all fearing for their loved ones left behind, most having no idea where they would end up.
Although born in Ukraine, Alisa had left the country for a period of several years and had only recently relocated back to her homeland. At the age of eighteen she immigrated to Israel by herself to live near her grandfather who wanted to pay her way through medical school.
Determined to make it on her own however, Alisa learned Hebrew and served a stint in the Israeli Army. Upon her discharge she worked her way through college, dabbling in a little bit of everything from modeling, acting, cleaning, and waiting tables. Despite nearly “working my fingers to the bone,” Alisa loved life in Israel.
Although multi-talented, Alisa’s primary strength was technology. After her grandfather’s passing, she relocated back to Ukraine, as the high-tech Israeli company she was employed with had an opening at their branch in Odesa. This was just two years before Russia’s invasion began.

More than 5 million Ukrainian women and children crossed borders as refugees in the first months of the war, and most found overwhelming sympathy and support from their host populations. All of Ukraine’s neighboring countries had experience with occupation by Imperial Russia and or the Soviet Union, and their peoples knew all too well what Ukraine was enduring.
Many refugees however had never been out of Ukraine and didn’t speak the languages of the countries they were entering. All were scared, many of the women had babies and young children, and most had no money for food and supplies.
While in Poland, Alisa volunteered at refugee processing centers passing out flyers and providing information to new arrivals on safe means of finding travel, shelter and food. Although generally aware of human trafficking, it was through her volunteer work that Alisa learned that criminal organizations were tragically targeting confused and freighted Ukrainian refugees for sexual slavery.
Deeply upset by this reality, Alisa became determined that she could put her talents to use, even as a refugee herself, and help prevent this tragedy from befalling more Ukrainian women.
**

As the battle for Bucha drew closer in the first days of March, Katya Savchenko stated that there were fewer artillery shell impacts, “but the sounds of automatic (rifle) bursts became more frequent.” Terrible rumors reached the shelter of civilians being murdered at random by Russian occupiers and photographs were seen online of nearly the entire town of Bucha being laid to waste from constant shelling.
Although Katya’s parents did not wish to take any risks to escape themselves, they insisted that their Katya and her sister do so at the “first opportunity.”
The chance came on March 4 when in the bomb shelter, it was learned that a second evacuation train bound for Kyiv would be departing the nearby town of Irpin. Since the first evacuation had been successful, both Katya and her sister decided to make a break for it. Their father insisted on driving them to Irpin versus the two of them attempting to cover the hour distance on foot at night by themselves.
“Execution on the spot,” was a serious fear for civilians if caught by the Russians, but no one knew if one was safer in a car rather than on foot. Either way, Katya rationalized that it was “better to be shot than to be raped by the occupier.”
The Irpin train station platform was packed wall-to-wall with women and children, and was guarded by Ukrainian soldiers. Katya was relieved but wrote that she “never thought that men with guns would calm me down.” Her euphoria was short lived as for three long hours they awaited the arrival of the train as Russian artillery shells and bombs impacted all around. For a moment she “stopped believing that there would be a train.”

Once the train arrived Katya was crammed in a compartment designed for four with at least six other women, but experienced “one of the happiest moments in my life,” upon arrival in Kyiv. Just like in Irpin however, the relief didn’t last long. The Irpin arrivals faced another long eight hour wait at the Kyiv train station, listening to constant air raid sirens, while awaiting a second train to western Ukraine.
Katya witnessed mass hysteria as people were shoved, children were passed over people’s heads, and her sister was nearly pushed under a train in the chaos. After taking a series of westbound trains, Katya safely arrived in Warsaw, Poland where she took up residence as a temporarily displaced Ukrainian refugee.
**
Through poor planning, coordinating, execution and leadership, along with facing a stellar Ukrainian opponent, the Russian offensive all across the Kyiv front quickly culminated. Russian mechanized infantry divisions unsupported by any substantial armor, artillery or air cover, were cut to pieces.
By the end of March, the Kyiv offensive was called off, and all Russian divisions operating across the front were abruptly pulled out of action, and most were redeployed east for a concentrated offensive in the Donbas. Russian withdrawals were immediately followed up by Ukrainian de-occupation forces, who liberated terrified populations while simultaneously documenting Russian war crimes. Entire towns were decimated by the Russians while hundreds of murdered bodies were found in mass graves.
**
The lives of Nastya Lapatina, Eugenia Mazurenko and Angelika Zayika all intersected in and around Bucha in the months following the de-occupation, even if they never met. Nastya reported on war crimes for the Kyiv Independent, Eugenia visited her home, and Angelika served as a tour guide and interpreter for foreign journalists. Irregardless of the nature their visits, each of their lives were deeply affected by the experience.
Nastya Lapatina personally witnessed the disasters left in Russia’s wake just days after de-occupation and interviewed survivors, rescue workers and police. She chronicled a story of a mother and her two children who were shot in their van by the Russians and tossed into a shallow grave. These murders, as Nastya sadly recounted were only three of what ended up being more than four hundred in Bucha alone, each with their lives cut short and all with untold stories.

“Someday everything will be repaired, but who will heal our souls,” asked Eugenia Mazurenko as she made a video tour of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel more than a month after their liberation.
Behind her stood the bombed-out carcasses of apartment buildings, which had once been people’s homes, filled with vibrant memories of life prior to the Russian invasion. Eugenia fought unsuccessfully to hold back tears, not only because she lived in Bucha, but also because this visit was her first-time returning home since February 25.
Like millions of Ukrainians, Eugenia’s husband was immediately out of work when the invasion began. His business was in logistics, and no airports and little trucking was available for commercial use.
The two shared a special bond, and he did not want Eugenia to see their apartment looted by the Russians. He spent many days cleaning the apartment before Eugenia’s visit, discovered her damaged car, and found that nearly everything, including underwear had been stolen. Being very “techy” he made local news by geolocating the very Russian unit who had ransacked their home by tracking her stolen pair of Earbuds.
Angelika Zayika symbolically returned to Kyiv from her brief hiatus in Warsaw on Vyshyvanka Day, a Ukrainian cultural holiday celebrated annually on the third Thursday of May. Never one to sit still, she soon led a group of foreign journalists to Bucha, Irpin, Horenka and Moschun to film the devastation while Angelika translated interviews with civilians from Ukrainian to English and visa-versa.
A photograph of Angelika with the journalists upon departing on their trip that morning captured them in a good mood, with each smiling and giving cliche peace signs to the camera.
Returning however was something completely different. “What the residents told me was scary enough to listen to…not to mention to translate,” Angelika wrote, and she described a clear distinction in which “my world was divided into ‘before’ and ‘after.’” In a walking tour of Moschun their video revealed bomb craters in the middle of the town large enough to sleep in, outdoor cooking equipment where town residents now fix meals, and scores of homes torn apart down to their bare structures.
**

In the Donbas, Alina Mykhailova had since the end of February been operating just two to three clicks behind the frontline where she treated and evacuated wounded soldiers around the clock. Since the collapse of Russia’s main offensive on Kyiv, the Donbas, especially since mid-April, far and away became the hotspot of the war.
Russia’s massed artillery fires of upwards of 40,000 shells per day, combined with Ukraine running out of its stockpiles of Soviet era munitions and having to switch over mid-battle to NATO weaponry, caused casualties to mount. Throughout June, the war turned dangerously attritional for Ukraine with seven hundred casualties per day, along with dozens of towns being blown to smithereens from fierce battle.
Just miles from the front line, Alina sleeps in a tent, and is awoken at any hour of the day or night for emergency runs, in which she routinely has had to improvise medical care to save lives. Nowhere nearly enough formal ambulances are available to accommodate the incoming casualties, and scores of vans, trucks and cars have been transformed into improvised emergency vehicles.
One patient suffering from shrapnel wounds to his stomach, moaned in agony with each bump their Volkswagen ambulance hit on the way to the field hospital. With his blood pressure plummeting, Alina judged that metal shards likely remained inside him and were slicing vital organs with each movement. Without hesitation she stuffed the wound with gauze to prevent further injury from the shrapnel; a decision which stabilized the patient and saved his life.

Meanwhile Alisa Vysokaja briefly relocated from her temporary residence in Poland back to Israel, where she had spent the formative years of her early adulthood. She attended a hackathon where the budding idea came to her that she could use her background in technology to develop a mobile app to help women and children safely navigate their realities as refugees.
“Safe Refuge” as Alisa envisioned it, would be a multilingual app with interactive maps and validated contact information of reputable organizations where refugees could find safe transportation, lodging, accommodations, food and supplies, all while on the move.
Unhappy being away from her family and boyfriend in Ukraine, Alisa soon relocated back to Odesa. Although glad to be back in her homeland, Alisa found herself incredibly nerve racked about the war and subject to continual panic attacks. Since Odesa was a major port city it also was the victim of scores of Russian missile attacks.
Alisa’s mind became paralyzed with fear that even just a walk to the grocery store could be her last and formed graphic images in her mind of what death from a rocket would be like. To pull herself out of this depression, Alisa poured herself into Safe Refuge and assembled a stellar team of volunteers, who over the course of a few months, turned her idea, day by day, closer to reality.
**

Shortly after Katya Savchenko arrived in Warsaw, she learned that her father had somehow made it back to Bucha unscathed after dropping her and her sister off in Irpin. His car however was shot at by the Russians and a neighbor who had ridden with them was wounded. She further learned that the evacuation train she took out of Irpin was the last one, because the very next day the train was destroyed by a Russian rocket.
Just a week later, Russian forces overran central Bucha where the inhabitants of the bomb shelter were forced to negotiate their own survival. Possibly the most devastating news for Katya came when she learned that one of the many murdered bodies found in the vicinity of Bucha was that of Vlad, her personal hero from the bomb shelter. Even in such darkness Katya learned to not take life for granted, and discovered in the bomb shelter that she “didn’t regret anything,” and realized “what an incredible and wonderful life I’ve lived.”
Angelika Zayika was so moved from her experiences visiting the bombed-out villages of Kyiv Oblast that she founded Dakh (Roof), a charitable organization dedicated to rebuilding homes destroyed by the war. She has focused her work in Gorenka where she plans to rebuild or repair seven homes, and from there expand out to the villages of Gostomel and Moschun.
She launched Dakh over the summer by taking private donations to her personal PayPal just to get her organization up and running. Through networking, hard work, and some force of personality, Angelika is now confident she will have the funding to not only cover repairs across all villages throughout Kyiv Oblast over the course of the next twelve months, but also to begin expanding into other regions as well.

“War doesn’t stop kids from getting cancer,” Eugenia Mazurenko reasoned, so neither did her charitable work through the Zagoriy Foundation, which seeks among many other missions, to raise money for children’s healthcare. Even while temporarily displaced in Frankivs, Eugenia not only worked remotely, but also traveled to global philanthropic conferences in Barcelona, Spain as well as Seattle, Washington.
Although Eugenia and her daughter could relocate outside of Ukraine as refugees, she chooses not to. Eugenia has rationalized that it is the “human capital” which keeps Ukraine an operating country during war time. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the individual citizen to maintain the economy by contributing in any and all ways possible, which is an ideology that is “…is part of our resilience.”
Prior to Russia’s invasion, Alina Mykhailova was just “a girl who liked to snowboard,” but now has spent nearly seven months saving countless lives all during the sting of battle. Serving as a paramedic is challenging enough, not to mention while wearing Kevlar helmets and vests with artillery shells exploding all around.
Named in Forbes Ukraine 30 under 30, being among the top social media influences in Ukraine, and having a Lego soldier made in her likeness, Alina has an incredible future ahead of her. First however, she has to get through this war. Serving in it was something she never thought twice about, as things like a seat on city council are meaningless if Ukraine is conquered.
Safe Refuge is nearly operational, meaning Alisa Vysokaja’s vision she had while at the hackathon in Israel is becoming a reality. Although many Ukrainian refugees have moved back home, many more remain scattered throughout Europe, some of whom are still in need of help. Russia’s war in Ukraine will not however end refugee crises and Safe Refuge can be utilized for years to come by survivors of all sorts of emergencies from future wars to natural disasters.

Natalyia Bugayova and Nastya Lapatina switched locations for Ukrainian Independence Day on August 24. Natalyia traveled back to Ukraine and walked the streets of “formidable Kyiv” and offered reflections on “the sheer scale of war, the scale of what’s at stake” along with the “unfathomable pressure that Ukrainians in and out of uniform are facing all day every day.”
Her work with the Institute for the Study of War however has never slowed down for a moment. Meanwhile Nastya Lapatina was in Washington D.C. where she attended celebrations, met with many influential people, shared her experiences, and even toured the Gettysburg battlefield. Although a respected war reporter, Nastya remains a twenty-one-year-old college student but has experienced far more life than many have at twice her age.

War-Life balance is the key to survival for most Ukrainian women. Jobs still have requirements, classes need to be attended, children must be fed, homes need to be maintained, and for the more than 30,000 women in uniform, the war must be fought. Meanwhile, all of this is done to the background accompaniment of air raid sirens explosions and the sounds of emergency vehicles.
Winston Churchill’s statement that “without victory there is no survival” is just as applicable to Ukraine in 2022 as it was to Great Britain in 1940. War-Life balance however provides no perfect doctrine to live by, as the mere term assumes there is a physical divide that exists such as what traditionally has between the professional world and home.
War-Life balance is therefore very messy and Eugenia Mazurenko might have put it best that “this is what War-Life balance looks like…war doesn’t ask if you’re a professional, it just kills.”

Jeffrey Owens is the author of ”Victory in Europe: A People’s History of the Second World War” and he is from Grove City, Ohio, United States. His email: jeffreytowens76@gmail.com
Images from different sources
Mahabahu.com is an Online Magazine with collection of premium Assamese and English articles and posts with cultural base and modern thinking. You can send your articles to editor@mahabahu.com / editor@mahabahoo.com (For Assamese article, Unicode font is necessary)