News
Tattoo of memory
Tattoos are one of the ways we remember those we have lost. Words, images, colours, and details become symbols of love and sorrow. Tattoos help to preserve the memory of loved ones and make us feel that they are with us every moment.
4 women who have decided to imprint their memories under skin tell their stories below.
Alla Karpenko, the girlfriend of the deceased Yevhen Bazylevskyi, a soldier of the 79th Separate Air Assault Brigade
“My boyfriend and I decided to get a tattoo together – one single word ‘resurgam’. Translated from Latin, it[...]
14.08.2024
Is there a place for coincidences in war? How can small details change fate?
We continue to tell funny and not-so-funny stories from the frontline from our defenders.
This time, Yuliia Sidorova, our sworn sister and paramedic with the 4th Assault Battalion of the 92nd Brigade, tells us three stories about fate and coincidences at the front. About a house on fire, three wheels and Birthday.
Story about the house on fire
At the beginning of this year, an enemy drone hit our location in Kharkiv region, the house where we were living at that time, and the house caught fire. We ran[...]
05.08.2024
Every big thing starts with a small step. History of the VETERANKA movement began with a conversation in the kitchen... or maybe with a choral performance of the Ukrainian anthem in a karaoke bar in Irpin? (Only 🤫) ...but let's start from the base. From the kitchen, where women united by the Maidan and the war gathered to discuss the problems of women in the army.
The Russian-Ukrainian war had just started, and young volunteers with a burning desire to change the world had united. They had no status, but they had an idea. What came out of this — read in the historical[...]
27.07.2024
In war, there is always a room for humour, for simple moments of joy shared with your sworn brothers, and for saving little furry lives.
Our sworn sister Khrystyna ‘Kudriava’, an officer of the National Guard of Ukraine, told us three stories about the war – about borshch, almost like mother's, about a promise to a sworn brother, and about a cat wearing orders.
A story about green borshch
The settlement of Zaitseve. We went with the personnel to work with SPG. We found a house there, in the house we found a dog, which was left on guard, and in the basement we found[...]
19.07.2024
We launched the Plan B Power Center project, initiated by Tetiana Borys, a member of the Veteranka movement, who lost her husband, a soldier at the 58th Motorised Brigade in February 2023.
This project is a set of approaches and measures to study the experience of getting through bereavement in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Its mission is to study the experience of getting through bereavement for conceptual changes in the approach to working with the families of fallen soldiers at all levels of government - local authorities, social and legal support. As a result, family[...]
12.07.2024
Olha “Fenix” is a paramedic. Her path is not easy and it is dramatic. Olha is a mother of two children, son and daughter, and she joined the army to replace her severely wounded son. Unfortunately, she did not make it.
What do children mean to you, how did you keep in touch with them?
My daughter is my support. She is 19 years old. I live for her. And my sworn brothers - they are all like children to me. I could not save my son, but I can save someone's child, someone's brother, someone's husband. I have this opportunity. That is why I am here.
I always have my son's old[...]
20.06.2024
It was there from the very beginning. I realised that my potential was much greater than staying abroad to raise my children. I was engaged in humanitarian aid, volunteering, but this is not the same as I have a medical degree and experience in intensive care.
With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Oksi decided to take the children abroad to a safe place, and joined the ranks of the National Guard.
What do children mean to you, how do you keep in touch with them?
Children are the people for whom I am at the frontline now. This is my support and backing, which gives me[...]
13.06.2024
Liudmyla "Malva" lived in Moscow together with her youngest son Stanislav. In 2012, they returned to Ukraine and participated in the Revolution of Dignity.
At the age of 50, Malva became a volunteer of the Aidar battalion. She worked her way up from the clerk to the first sergeant of an assault company. In 2018, she became the first woman who headed the armored service of the battalion, after being wounded she received the second group of disability, but at the beginning of the full-scale war she returned to the front as a combat medic and a senior sergeant for logistical support. She[...]
01.06.2024
About the most valuable things that soldiers carry with them, the values for which we fight with the occupier, and the strength that helps endure losses - three stories about war are told by the hospitalier Tetiana "Rudy" Romaniuk.
Story about the polaroid
Our hospitalier crew evacuates wounded soldiers and retrieves the bodies of the fallen. Sometimes we manage to take the bodies of the deceased immediately, during the evacuation of the wounded. But sometimes the bodies can lie for several months until the soldiers can retrieve them from under the shelling.Usually when a body is[...]
18.04.2024
Anzhelika Volovych, an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) pilot and volunteer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, shares her memories from the war zone.
Read three stories about her work in the Ukrainian Air Force, her most difficult memories from the war, and the homeless dogs of Bakhmut.
A story about the report from ru💩💩ians
Now I work as a part of the FPV drones crew, where I am a navigator, although I prefer to fly. I love FPV kamikaze drones and the fact that with their help we can reduce the number of the enemy. From time to time, the commander gives me the opportunity to[...]
04.04.2024