Nothing has changed in the gym of one of the schools in the town of Buča near Kiev: Nothing has changed at first glance: instead of heating and various sports aids, there are still spreading racks with camouflage networks that have been knitting local women for the Ukrainian troops for three years.
When I volunteers from the organization Bučanský spider, they struggled with a lack of fishing networks. Now it seemed that the material had more than enough. In the gym, there were a number of fabrics with shades of green and brown and boxes ready to be sent to the front.
“Our work is not stopped, the front continues to have its demands,” welcomes me in the workshop of Alona Ščerbanukukova, whom I once called “Camouflage champion”. Immediately he assesses that in order to be able to knit the networks, they need enough people, enough materials and after all.
“As for the first time, we do supplies. Because we never know if we will have enough money. As far as people are concerned, it is my ‘favorite period’ – the garden time,” he notes and explains why there are only a few women in the hall this time. One sat behind the sewing machine, another of the strips of the fabric they knit a few meters wide mesh.
I came to the women of Buča with a difficult question: Do they believe that a ceasefire can wait in the foreseeable future?
It was shortly after direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia and ether were both diplomatic phrases and scandalous statements. One of them was taken care of by the head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky, who had the Ukrainian negotiator that Russia is ready to fight hoc and “forever”. Are Ukrainians ready?
“The Russians have already spent it. What they say is not paying too much attention, but as a Ukrainian, of course, it outrages me when they ask for the demands from where we are to withdraw from. We all have seen ‘Kiev in three days’. I believe our soldiers, less politicians.
According to her, the last proposed ceasefire in Buč actually “enjoyed”.
“The cannonade began at midnight. One felt that everything that could be shot down was shot down right above us. And what did not shoot into Kiev,” he was angry. “We’ve been sleeping one night without an alarm in the last few weeks! I don’t know if it is worth such a ceasefire.”
In addition, it adds, men have no ceasefire on the front, the war lasts since 2014 and everyone knows how it works in practice.
What if they bluff?
“Medinsky said the war with the Swedes lasted 21 years,” said Ksenija, one of the Bučan volunteers, with whom we got into the gym, while together with other women, the pieces of dark green fabric between the eyes of a huge fishing net.
“Only if they are ready to fight for so long their soldiers. They will not give up on it? After all, they have families. Not everyone wants to die for Russia,” says one of them who listened to Kseniya’s words.
“I think they are trying to startle us. They bluff,” Ksenija continues, recognizing that the Russians who go to the front are trying to motivate the Russian government with high salaries. Plus, if the Russians had no problems with mobilization, perhaps Kim Jong-una would ask for North Korea soldiers?
“The Russian economy may not be as powerful as they look. However, it is true that this is an exhausting war. It is about who lasts longer. Therefore, I hope they will give us stronger weapons and we will be able to last longer. If we last, their economy will fall to their knees.
Women who gradually joined our debate, however, do not see it pink.
They point out that the Russians will only motivate the war to stop them when they are crushed by real misery. Concerns about the explosion inside will then force Moscow to step on the brake – take away from the war budget and direct the means where it will burn the most in Russia.
“Hope does not extinguish. I still believe that they will also take into account our demands, not only what Russia is asking for. I am not relying on Trump anymore. Rather, I rely on European leaders,” says one of them, who introduced herself as Ludmila.
Greater horror of occupation than from bombs
The conversation with women in knitting networks had one bitter dimension – they all experienced the Russian occupation in 2022. They mentioned one over the other how many days they spent in the Russians occupied by the city until they managed to evacuate. Some five days, others fifteen.
“Whoever was lucky, he got out, who wasn’t, died. I witnessed how the man was brought to our court where the infirmary was located. He tore his leg. Later we learned that his wife and two children were shot. To surround Kiev, which in the end led to the destruction of many cities and villages on the periphery of the capital.
I knew who Ludmila was talking about. The man whose Russian fire deprived a woman and children was called Oleksandr Čykmarov. The son of Oleh Tovača, who died in the car, who died in the fateful morning of March 5, followed the Cykmar Auto. Families wanted to evacuate from Buča, but found themselves under Russian fire, which lost the life of four members of the crews of two cars.
Ksenija also knew what the word occupation means. Russian soldiers lived in her block of flats while the families who were occupied by the apartments were pushed in the cellar. According to Ksenije, they were about forty in the basement, including a pregnant woman and ten children. The youngest was only three months.
“We listened to the Russians coming, leaving the door to the apartments. But they gave us peace. We spent five days in the cellar. We had to leave it finally because we got water and food, the children started crying from hunger.
Her family was one of the happy ones and eventually managed to get to safety in Kiev. Ksenija still claims that it has not experienced a greater horror than when she watched the Russians on armored transporters enter the city. They were afraid of them more than bombs that fell on neighboring streets.
“I was shaking like an aspen. You are sitting and not knowing what awaited you. We thought they would just kill us. That’s why I’m against them to give them our territory. In short, the betrayal of all these people, ”he adds.
Increasing gap
Alona also resolutely points out that if he was in danger of having to live under Russian rule, he will leave the country.
“I don’t know how it will end. I just know I don’t want to leave Ukraine. We were born here, this is our home,” she said.
I asked her if she still believes that victory is for Ukraine axioma, a kind of basis of everything, as she described it in January 2023.
“I still believe in it,” he says quickly. “I am not ready to give up our territory. I want a fair peace. If we gave the Russians the territories they want, nothing will change. They have Crimea. It has changed something? But I realize that it will probably happen. In that case, their appetite will just grow. Network with pieces of green fabric.
However, she noticed that society is increasing the gap among those who continued to help the army, and those who returned to their lives as if they wanted to forget that the enemy still stands in front of the gates.
According to her, Ukraine is mainly losing the information war in this situation. While younger at least they suspect how important information hygiene is, the older ones have it differently.
“They think that when someone wrote something somewhere, it means it is true. A lot of fejkov is spreading, false information, and people are making an opinion on them – done tomorrow, I’m going to iron the embroidery. The company is tired. The longest.
However, it recalls that while at the beginning of the war there was a unity in society, today people are once again closing into social bubbles. “If we do not wake up and stop biting each other, even if the war ends tomorrow, there are very big problems. One will start to clarify with others who did what he did,” she thought.
And what should happen for Ukrainians to unite again? Alona has no clear answer.
“When Russian troops stood near Kiev, people were afraid and doing something. Today, when the war is in the east, the 2014 scenario is repeated again. It is not enough just to want to repeat what we experienced in 2022.
