Every soldier is a HUMAN BEING WITH A NAME AND A FACE
I conducted this interview with Volodymyr Kulyk very carefully, constantly afraid I might accidentally, carelessly, go too deep into his soul. Then, while writing it up, I wanted to embrace him across the distance, even just in words - just to give him warmth.
I have been in war for a long time now. Sometimes I begin to feel that I had already seen a great deal of it, perhaps even very much. Until January, when I traveled to the Kursk direction. Returning from that meat grinder, I began to feel as though I was coming back from war for the first time, as though I had never really seen war at all, it was that terrifying there. The premonition of death hung in the air, sharply cutting through it. Much that was left unsaid fell silent forever, carried away by those who will never return, who will remain lying, forever somewhere in the fields, in the column marked “missing in action.”
I have been accompanying my regiment's men in war for three years now. When it seems like I have already understood a great deal about war, suddenly I realize I haven't understood a damned thing. My conversation with Volodymyr was one of those moments. When you begin to realize, that you are nowhere near capable of understanding the pain they experience alone, by themselves, within themselves, silently in the night, without complaining, even when they want to howl. When they absorb all the pain within themselves, because all around them are others just like them - and who is there to complain to, who is there to confide in?
I've put a link to the article for you. Please share it. Share it if for no other reason than so, that as many people as possible understand that these soldiers are not just some heroes somewhere far away, but real people. People with names and faces, people with their own joys, and sometimes unbearable wounds.
I thank the Media Support Fund (MRF) for supporting the post series “War in Ukraine: The Gap Between the Military and Society”