TestimonialsIn France, Olga has just given a concert with her choir and is going to Vienna to celebrate Orthodox Easter at a friend’s house. In kyiv, Sasha is gradually resuming a social life and is also preparing to celebrate Easter with her mother and… Viktor. For the ninth week in a row, they agreed to share their daily life.
Olga and Sasha are two Ukrainian sisters. The first is 34 years old and is a wine merchant in Paris, where she has lived for seven years. The second, aged 32, lives in kyiv. At the start of the war, she moved into an apartment building with her mother, her partner, Viktor, her dog and her friend Y. After deciding to part with Viktor, Sasha moved into a small apartment, alone with her dog, in the same residence as Y. The two sisters have agreed, since the beginning of the conflict, to keep their logbook to M. In France, Olga has just given a concert with her choir and is going to Vienna to celebrate Orthodox Easter at a friend’s house. In kyiv, Sasha is gradually resuming a social life and is also preparing to celebrate Easter with her mother and… Viktor.
Olga and Sasha’s diary, over the weeks
Tuesday April 19
Olga: I have a lot of work in the cellar. It’s the rush! In addition, I only do half-days today and tomorrow because I have a general rehearsal and a concert with my choir in a hall in Paris. There are also my driving lessons… I think my nervous system doesn’t act the same way as before the start of the war, with all the stress in March.
Today I spoke to L., she’s my old shrink. She lives in southern Ukraine, in Mykolaiv, a port between Kherson and Odessa. She tells me that their nights are absolutely terrifying. They are constantly bombarded. She always replies: “It’s okay, we’re alive. » It’s a creepy answer. Every time I write to her, I tell myself that one day she may not answer. Like at the beginning of the war, when I was writing to my people and the demons were next to Kyiv [Kiev, M respecte le choix orthographique d’Olga et Sasha].
Sasha: I’m adapting to life in the residence, in this new apartment. After the 10 p.m. curfew, I walk in the inner courtyard with my dog. During the day, we go out. There are places, streets where you can go even if there are red signs with mines drawn on them. We are very vigilant. There is no mine at the residence, finally I believe.
The situation in Mariupol reminds me of the year 2014, when a few dozen of our soldiers were stuck at Donetsk airport. The war seemed so far away to me at that time. I lost my friend Euvgen in the battle for this airport. He was one of the “cyborgs”, that’s what the defenders of Donetsk airport were called. He was killed by pro-Russian separatists. Deep in our hearts, we knew that Euvgen was dead, but we didn’t have proof until months later. In January 2015, images of her body were discovered in a video posted on YouTube. It was the worst experience of my life, until February 24, the day the war started.
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