Illustration: #IlliaUhnivenko
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Before the full-scale Russian invasion, many Ukrainians lived and worked abroad. It would seem that these men had the opportunity to live calmly and peacefully elsewhere, but they decided to return to Ukraine and defend their homeland with weapons in hand. Only in the first weeks of the full-scale war, 66,000 men came from abroad with the intention of fighting for their native land.
A military man with the call sign Kharkiv is one of such heroes. On February 24, 2022, he was in Poland, where he first helped displaced people fleeing the war. However, volunteer work wasn’t enough for Kharkiv. In a week, the man gathered a team of other Ukrainian volunteers who also lived in Poland. A truckload of humanitarian aid and military equipment was collected in Warsaw and headed for Ukraine. When they arrived in Kyiv, they immediately started serving in the National Guard.
Kharkiv believes in victory and is actively planning his life after it. He wants to build a better country and knows that in difficult times he is needed right here.