TestimonialsOn February 24, like millions of Ukrainians, the lives of Olga, 34, and Sasha, 32, turned to war. The eldest lives this tragedy from France, the youngest is stranded in Kiev, taking refuge in an underground car park. They agreed to write a logbook, witnesses of a surreal and distressing daily life.
Sasha K. and Olga K. are Ukrainians. They are 32 and 34 years old. Sasha lives in Kiev, she started her PR business, she lives with Victor and their dog. Olga has been living near Paris for seven years, she is a wine merchant, a fine connoisseur of French wines, she is in a relationship with Yanis. We met Olga in Ukraine just after the Maidan revolution in 2014, she was studying French at university. In Olga and Sasha’s family, we are very francophile and francophone. Their father is a French teacher. Olga often calls her little sister a rock, and Sasha says her eldest is very sensitive.
This Thursday, February 24, the day the Russian army invaded Ukraine, they were asked if they agreed to start a logbook, each on their own. Since then, they write what has become their daily life. One in Kiev hidden in an underground car park, the other in Paris waiting in anguish for news of his family. They recount in two voices the war that has befallen their country. A conflict where every day everything changes and everything can change.
Thursday February 24
Sasha: We were woken up by the sound of shelling. All day, we did shopping and our luggage. We imagine all the possibilities: stay or go, take things or leave them, stay with the older ones or save ourselves. My mother doesn’t live very far away, she packed her bags and came to the apartment where I live with Victor, my partner. Dad, who lives in another neighborhood with his wife, went down to take refuge in the metro. My grandmother is at home, with my disabled aunt, they cannot go down to shelter. With Victor and mom, when we heard the three sirens, we went to the shelter near our house. It dates from the Second World War, it is very old, there were a lot of people… I don’t want to go back there. But good news: we have the Internet! Fortunately, Putin wants a hybrid war and he needs it. I managed to walk my French bulldog, at the bottom of the building. We are going to leave Ukraine, we have no choice. Olga is waiting for us in France.
Olga: This morning, on my phone screen, I saw my little sister’s terrified eyes. I do not know what to do. I go ? Yanis, my friend, who is not Ukrainian, tells me it’s ridiculous, that I have to stay to welcome them to France. I had my mother on the phone several times. She is convinced that Putin is already surprised by this resistance from the Ukrainians. She says that the Russians are going to come out into the street… My 85-year-old grandmother puts everything that is happening in perspective: she has already been through a war, she had already hidden in a bunker when she was 5 or 6 years old. My grandmother reminds me that we used to call Russia and Ukraine the sister republics. A sister’s not supposed to do this to you. And Sasha who hasn’t answered for an hour and a half, it annoys me!!! I want to know what everyone is doing all the time, I’m calmer if I know. I can’t stop watching the news: the website of the presidency, the website of the Kyiv town hall, the independent Belarusian channel Bielsat TV, Instagram, Facebook… I’m never going to be able to sleep.
You have 77.05% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.