Houses have been destroyed, lives uprooted and loved ones lost but despite this terrible toll, Ukrainians remain upbeat
iudmyla Bikus recalled how she had tried to dissuade her son Andrii from joining the army. That was in March, weeks after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of, one year ago today. “Andrii told me: ‘Mum if I don’t go then who will?’” Bikus said. She added: “He was a golden boy. The best son, husband, father and brother. He wanted to defend his country and his family.”
Andrii was quickly dispatched to the eastern front. Less than three months later he was dead, fatally wounded on 6 June near the city of Lysychansk. A Russian shell landed on top of his artillery position. He was taken to hospital and died from blood loss on the operating table. Eight men from his company perished in the same lethal strike.In September Andrii’s widow Natalia planted a blue and yellow flag with her late husband’s name on it in a memorial garden in central Kyiv.
They couldn’t find the flag. It had somehow got lost among hundreds of new ones, left by grieving relatives. Each marked a victim of Russia’s war: soldiers, civilians, volunteers. There were names, places, dates of birth and death. One said simply: “Anya from Mariupol”. Another: “Roman Stetsiura, 54th brigade, Bakhmut”. Nearby, under a tree, pigeons pecked in the February snow.“A whole young generation is being wiped out. Guys are dying aged 19 and 20.
Since then, Ukraine – in the shape of Andrii, and other patriotic volunteers – has staged an extraordinary and inspiring fight back. Putin’s war plan didn’t work. Last spring Russian troops withdrew chaotically from the Kyiv region but not before going onA crumpled car left on residential street in Bucha, one year on from the invasion.
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