Photo: Collected
They dreamed of opening a business, starting a family, buying an apartment or climbing mountains. Instead, these Ukrainians are fighting to hold off Russia's army in a war they never asked for.Three years after the start of Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022, AFP asked soldiers to recount the hopes the conflict has stolen from them. Moroz, his war name, was a driver and answered to the first name of Mykola before being mobilised in 2023.
In the army, he drives military vehicles for evacuations or deliveries at the front, where "it's hot", says the 30-year-old with a sweet smile. He never imagined himself in a uniform and among his family members "many couldn't even believe it" when he was called up.
"If it wasn't for the army, it would be starting a family. A wife, family, children," said the soldier originally from the west of the country. "It's a bit scary to start a family at such a time," he said, but when the war is over "then we'll start living."
Alina, a 45-year-old military medic, said war was inevitable "with a neighbour like that". "But if there had been no war, I would have had a family, children, a house, a happy, peaceful life, and a business," she said. She joined the army in 2018 because for her and many Ukrainians the war did start three years ago but in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea and supported pro-Russian separatist militias in the east of the country.
Seeing no end to the war coming, she is now training to become a sniper, an even more dangerous position rarely occupied by women. "I am 45 and I have already lived my life. Now, after eight years in the army, the only thing I have left is revenge."
Oleksandr took up arms in 2014 to fight the separatists. At the time, he defended the airport in Donetsk and fought in all the "hot spots" until 2018. Then? "I had a so-called "smoke break", he says, smiling. In fact, he had ended up in prison for car theft.
When Ukraine's army opened its ranks to inmates in 2024, he signed up. "And now I am here", the soldier in the "Alkatraz" assault battalion tells AFP. In the life he dreams of, he would have started a construction company and become a father.
He still thinks about it sometimes, but says he does not expect peace for many years. With mixed feelings, he said that "in a way the war also helped me, because otherwise I would still be in prison".
Oleg, 33, was a photojournalist until being called up last year, giving up his professional ambitions as well as sporting ones. The keen mountain climber would rather be scaling summits, above all the Matterhorn, he says, smiling as he mentions the fabled Alpine peak on the Swiss-Italian border.
Oleg had already put this dream aside after the birth of his two children, and then because of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Now it's the war," said the press officer of the 24th brigade, "But it will come."
Asked to describe what dreams the invasion has shattered, Artem, a company commander in the 93rd Brigade, breaks out into a bitter laugh. "Everything was postponed. I wanted to buy an apartment. I wanted to be a present father for my son," said the 42-year-old.
He also lost his social life. "Many friends moved to Europe. Some friends stayed here, but I don't have the opportunity to talk to them." A psychologist by training working in the humanitarian sector, he joined the army at the start of the invasion.
"There were so many ideas, but the war erased everything," he said. He says his pre-war identity is "lost" but still hopes that peace will bring it back.
Messenger/JRTarek
