Oleh Romaniuk is 36 years old. He is a nurse by training but recently has been working as a cook in a restaurant. Oleh is from Luhansk region. His former home is only 15 kilometers from the demarcation line, which was the boundary before the full-scale invasion of Russia. Now Oleh lives in Kharkiv. On February 24, 2022, at 5 am, he woke up to the already familiar sounds of explosions.
‘I know these sounds: artillery shells and mines whistle on the approach, Grad buzzes, Smerch makes a rustling sound. Missiles and air bombs are not audible, and it is a matter of luck. A short clap without an echo is air defense. I did not expect to hear such sounds in Kharkiv but I immediately knew what to do. I got up and calmly got some water while it was still running, turned on the washing machine, looked at what was missing, what I needed to buy,’ says Oleh.
He was not going to leave Kharkiv and did not even pack an alert bag.
‘If I had a kid, I would think about sending the family as far away from here as possible. However, I live alone, I have no kids, and I didn’t even think of leaving. To run away now is to run all your life. I’ve already lost my home there, and now I still have to run from here. Where to? I decided to defend myself, to do something,’ says Oleh.
In February 2014, when confrontations continued in the eastern regions, Oleh and his colleagues organized a medical center at the Kharkiv Regional State Administration. This year he has a déjà vu: he works in the medical center in the regional state administration again. On March 1, when a Russian rocket flew into the building, Oleh was on duty.
It is still unknown whether his medical center will continue to operate, but Oleh is not going to stop volunteering. He is pleasantly surprised by the cohesion and self-organization of people, both among volunteers and in the Territorial Defense Forces. Oleh finds support in communication, even when he stays at home. He keeps in touch with friends and relatives all over Ukraine.
Oleh lives in the cottage. He has a basement with barricaded windows for a shelter. It takes him 7 to 10 minutes to get to the metro or the railway station. He says his district is lucky. There were no missile hits nearby. Even all the Russian soldiers who ran nearby during the fighting on the streets were caught there.
Oleh’s relatives live in the occupied territories, in the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic. In the first days of the full-scale invasion in the Luhansk region, there were terrible battles. Entire towns — for example, the town of Shchastia, — have almost been wiped off the face of the earth. Oleh has enough reasons for anxiety. At the same time, he is confident that, despite all the casualties and destruction, the war will end in victory for Ukraine.
‘I dream that everything will end soon. I wish for us to return all our territories. And for those bastards to pay for the reconstruction of our cities. I dream that in a few years Ukraine will look much better than before the war.’
