Tag: Interviewed in English
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Chrystyna’s story
This interview took place whilst volunteering in a kitchen in Kyiv. Chrystyna [name changed] was born in the USSR in territory which is now Russia. Her family moved to Ukraine when she was a child, and she is solely a Ukrainian citizen. TW: This story contains references to suicide. Part two: Chrystyna on folk heroes…
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Discussion on staying safe during air raids
Vic: Could you just say the thing you said again about how you think that maybe people are more interested in luck when they’re dealing with IEDs? Jason: Yeah. I just think the nature of the threat that IEDs pose in the wars that the US and the UK and NATO and definitely thought Iraq…
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Jason on premonitions
Jason: It’s big in the US military. It’s not formalized in any way, but there are stories about people driving through neighbourhoods where an IED’s been planted and they can sense that something’s off, and then deviate from what they’re gonna do in some way. And it turns out yeah there is an IED laying…
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Jason on good luck charms in Afghanistan
Vic: <laughs> Proceed Jason: Before my first combat tour in Afghanistan- my mom, who’s sort of, a bit of a lapsed Catholic but still semi-practicing, wanted to give me a St. Christopher medal. St. Christopher is the patron saint of travellers and soldiers, maybe, I don’t know. And she figured that two St. Christopher’s medals…
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Mary on Five Huts
Mary: It was really funny today to see a bus coming from the north, coming down the main street of Sumska [in Kharkiv], and the destination on the bus was Pyatykhatska, which means “five huts”. And that’s a name of a town which obviously started off with just five huts. But it’s a thing with…
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Iryna and the fish
Iryna: So we were in Balakliia back in 2022 and there was this local market for the local people. It wasn’t regulated or anything, so the locals would go fishing and they would sell whatever they had in that local market. I got sick and I asked Henry to go and pick up some fish…
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Jay from The Phoenix
Jay: Hi, my name is Jay Rivera. I’ve been volunteering in Poland and Ukraine since June 2022, and right now the project I’m working on is the Phoenix. So the Phoenix is a long term stay shelter, but primarily a reintegration centre. What we do is we look at focusing on providing families with safety,…
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Queen Elizabeth at The Phoenix
Vic: I have a very important question for you. Jay: Yes. Vic: Most important question of the day. Why have you got Queen Elizabeth up there? Jay: Ah, ha, ha, ha! Because she never died. So we have a volunteer named Kate, who- when we started Hope Shelter, Kate was one of our founding members,…
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Jay’s Easter Egg hunt
Jay: We were doing supply runs out to Mykolaiv, and Mykolaiv was under artillery bombardment. We had these Lindt eggs. So we would distribute some just to people, and then if there were like a whole gaggle of kids, we would basically tell them they have to cover their eyes for five minutes, and we’d…
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Sofiya on life in Crimea
[Sofiya is from Crimea. Prior to starting the recording, we were discussing the border crossing process]. Sofiya: It depended on the officers at the border. You would have to show your Ukrainian passport at the Ukrainian border, and then you would have to walk 3km with all your luggage, all the way to the Russian…
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Dariia on culture
Wider interview with Dariia: Daria from Melitopol Українською мовою: Дар’я про культуру Vic: I think, you mentioned knowing about Pes Patron? Dariia: Yes, I do know [it], but… like… because I was in occupation, we didn’t have such things there. I read about all those jokes about Pes Patron only when I went back to Ukraine.…
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Dariia from Akimivka (Yakymivka)
Українською мовою: Дарія з Мелітополя Vic: What part of Ukraine are you from? Dariia: Zaporizhzhia, well, Zaporizhzhia region. Closer to…. Well, not as close to Crimea. Near Azov Sea, to be precise. Melitopol, well, maybe you know? Vic: Okay. So, during that time, I guess you had a bit of an information blackout, like you couldn’t…