The Daily - A Year of War in Ukraine

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

The war has already done untold damage. By some estimates, tens of thousands have died, and the country has sustained tens of billions of dollars’ worth of damage that has left cities flattened. But Ukraine has also largely stopped the offensives of its much larger and better-armed neighbor and has regained some captured land.On the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion, these Ukrainians reflect on how the past year of conflict has changed their lives.Background reading: Here’s a guide to how the war came about, and what’s at stake for Russia and the world.People in Ukraine have become adept at telling which threats are probably not deadly, leaving room for a little enjoyment, and even hope.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

My name is Igor Lutsenko. I am 44. I am a reconnaissance specialist in the Ukrainian army in one of the military bases not far from the front line now. In February and March, you just go and meet a lot of people, and you try to talk to everyone, to be friends with everyone who you see, because you have an emotional need to speak to someone. And the operators of the mortars were very nice guys and we became close with them. Then we lost contact for a couple of weeks and when we tried to ask where the the mortar guys, I remember the eyes of one of the person from that unit. We didn't talk to each other, we just looked at each other and we understood that we know our friends died. We don't have to use some words, we just share the same grief, just with the sight, with each other. That time when you are trying to be friends with everyone who you see in your position, it's just better not to know much about them. Now I have a rule not to be so close friends with people on war,

because if you lose your close friends it's much more pity than if you lose just your war mates. So it's kind of a way to protect yourself from more grief than they already have. From The New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi, and this is The Daily. For much of the past year, the war in Ukraine was mostly defined by Ukrainian success. In battle after battle, Ukraine had unexpectedly and improbably kept winning. But now, a year in, that momentum has slowed. Russia has hit back, throwing tens of thousands of draftees at the Ukrainian front lines, causing casualties on both sides to soar, and forcing Ukrainians to come to terms with a new reality, that the war is unlikely to be over anytime soon. Today, I talk to Ukrainians about the ways that the war has changed their lives.

It's Friday, February 24th. Hello? Hi, Maxim. It's Sabrina. How are you doing? Hi, Sabrina. I'm well, and how are you? Good, good. So, Maxim, could you introduce yourself for me? Okay. My name is, as you know, Maxim. My nickname is Mouse. I'm 44 years old. And before the war, I was a lawyer and have my own practice. And I live in the same city where I am now. It's Dnepr. Wow. And what about your family? Do you have a wife, kids? Yeah, I have a wife.

I have two kids. My daughter is 22 years old and my junior son, he is 11 years old. Oh, 11. I very miss him. I bet. What's his name? Mikhail. Michael.

Michael. Yeah. Oh. Michael. Michael. Yeah. Oh. Maxim, tell me about your recent military experience.

In the military service, I became in April of 2022. When I came to the army, I have not a lot of experience in this case. That's why I must learn a lot of new things for me. But as I know right now, I have a good practice in this. So you joined the military and you've been fighting. Where has the battle been most intense? It was the beginning of December. We spent a couple of days already in the forest near Krimina. Before that day was a couple of days, maybe two or three days, when the Russian forces were trying to capture us.

15 of us was on duty. It was in the forest. It was a hole in the earth. A hole in the earth? Yeah. We call it a blindage. So it's a military shelter. Yeah, yeah, correct.

And when our soldier who was on duty saw a couple of Russian soldiers coming on our position and they're screaming Russians, Russians. We didn't expect that they came to our position so close.

30 meters, unseen. And they start shooting on us, we start shooting on them. In that time, I just trying to make my job and trying to stay alive. I didn't think about nothing. They start to falling down. Some of them was killed. No screaming. Just falling down on the ground.

That's all. Life is over. Another part of them continuing to shoot on us. After that, way after way after way, they continued to move, move, move, shoot and move. And didn't try to hide from the fire, our fire. Like a zombie. For me it was, I'm an actor in a horror movie. I don't feel that

it's real. And all of this continues quite a long time, two and a half hours. That's just unbelievably long for a firefight. Yeah, yeah. We lost 90, 95% of our ammunitions. If you ran out of ammunition and the Russians captured you, what would you do?

Kill myself. Kill myself. With a grenade. You were prepared to do this? At that time, yes. And after that fight, we continued to look around us. We were awaiting another group of Russian soldiers. But it's ended.

They didn't come. Yeah. I just hear a scream. Help, help. A couple of minutes. Russian soldier was dying. And that's all. И это всё. После этого был полный тихий тихий.

Только ветер в лесу, в деревьях. Знаешь, иногда я всё ещё слышу этот шум. You know, sometimes I still hear this scream. It was, Помогите, помогите. Yeah. Help, help in Russian. In the dream. A couple of times.

It was a nightmare. I heard the sound. I heard the sound. I heard his scream. And I wake up. It's not very usual thing for human being to kill each other. For normal human being.

Do you think the war will be over soon? No. Maybe I'm wrong. No, I hope I am wrong. Did you think the war would be over soon at the beginning of it? When it first started? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What made you change? The war. How it looked like. And what did I saw? Maybe I opened my eyes. Maybe I understood something about war. I will be a most, most happy man in the world if this war ended tomorrow, for example, and even from the week or month, I don't know. But soon.

But I understand that it's unreal. Maxim, thank you for talking to me. You're welcome. Hello? Hi. Hi, Ira. How are you doing? Hi, can you hear me? I can hear you. I can hear you. And Ira, can you introduce yourself? Ira, can you introduce yourself? I am Irina Tsibuk.

I am from Kiev and I am 24 years old. Now I am very not far from Bakhmut. Do you know about Bakhmut? I do know about Bakhmut. Are you on the front lines in Bakhmut? Yeah, but like not exactly in the Bakhmut, but we're near. On the front line near Bakhmut. And I am the paramedic on the Kaz Evac evacuation. We are exactly the team that going to the front line

and taking the person is injured from that place where it happened. And I'm in my car right now. So now I'm just trying to be quiet, to listen to what is going on outside. Ira, do you hear fighting? Is there fighting happening now? Yeah, for sure. Yes. I'm just waiting for the commander and for his tasks. If somebody will have injuries, we will have work. Ira, remember back for me to a time when you saved someone's life.

Tell me that story. This is, you know, like many stories and nothing special. Tell me that story. drawn yeah so he has like really huge injuries with the many many many of that part of the bombs you know in his hands a massive bleeding and we just help him to the hospital but after that he write me do you remember me you evocated me so uh how are you i just want to have a video call with you and i said man no not today no video calls i just evocated you you know i thought that maybe he wants to have like communication with me and I don't like such things so that's why I told him no no worries see you take care and blah blah blah so but he said please I'm very asking you you need to have a call video call with me and I said oh my god okay just for a minute and he said

yes okay just for a minute and he called me and he said i need to show you somebody and he showed me his daughter six years old daughter she's like very tiny girl and she was just um just smiling to me and she just said, Hi Miss Ira, I just want to tell you thank you for my, that you saved the life of my father. And that was, oh my God, very strong moment. Sometimes here in the war, everything is very depressive. But in that moment, all my sadness, tiredness is just gone. And I'm just like staying there and feel that I can, I know why I'm doing this. And I can do more and more and stay for how much that guys need me.

Yeah. When I remember the story, I just feel like I have a sunshine inside of me. Yeah. Wow. You know, after all these months of the war, I just really feel like I don't have emotions enough. So this is something that war did with me, and I really don't like it. I just want to stay that person that I have been before the war. Very easygoing. I had every Friday night with my friends where we drink the wine and it was a perfect life. I loved myself and I loved everything that was going on with everything, with my boyfriends, with my life, with my job, with the Friday

nights. And it was, it was the person I loved. It was me. And I don't know if it's clear right now to understand, but I'm telling you this and I'm smiling right now because that was crazy perfect life. Now I just want to come back and to feel the same, to feel all these perfect things from living life. This is, that's why I love this this life and I just

sometimes feel very lonely because of this because I come back to my parents' cities where I have had a lot of friends

and we had coffee together and I said to my mom I said here you mom, I said, here, you know, I just don't know how I can ask somebody to go with, to have a coffee with me because everybody's died. You said to your mom, how can I ask somebody to have coffee with me?

Everybody's died. You mean because so many of your friends had died? Mm-hmm. Exactly, yes. And I just, like, don't know whom I can ask for this. About how many of your friends died in this war era? About how many of your friends died in this war era? If we can say from 2014, I guess it can be 16 person. 16? Yes.

Oh, you're, that's a lot of people. Yes, yes, that's, that's like something that hurt me the most in this war. Yeah. This is the feeling like people of my age, this is very hard to explain, like feeling that I lose my youngest, yes, I don't know how to pronounce it. Feeling that you lose your youth. Yes, my youngness, yes. Just a moment. Okay, just a moment.

Just let me answer my commander. Yes. It sounds like you need to go. Yeah, I'm very sorry, but I need to say to my team that we will have a new task. Got it. Ira, thank you so much for talking to me. It's nothing. Good luck. Bye. We'll be right back. Hello? Hi, Olga, it's Sabrina. Hello, Sabrina, hello. Hi, Olga, it's Sabrina.

Hello, Sabrina, hello. Hi, hello, hello. So, Olga, let's begin. Tell me your name, your age, and where you are right now. My name is Olga Berzul, and I'm 40 years. I'm 40 years. I'm currently based in Vienna because, as you know, Ukraine is still under shelling. And I gave a promise to my husband that I will protect our daughter. She's nine years old. Her name is Zaharia. And he asked me to stay for a while somewhere in a safe place. Got it. Olga, I'm going to ask you some questions about Victor. Mm-hmm.

How did you meet, you and Victor? We actually meet on the 1st of January. And it was a very funny story because Victor called me. We had mutual friends and he got my number, but we actually haven't seen each other at all. We just heard something about it. And I even don't know, I've asked him why he decided to call me. He told me that I actually can't explain.

I just had your number and I told him, why not? And just called and like, hi, what about meeting? I have some champagne, about meeting I thought that it's a joke and they said yes of course he just came to my flat and I was surprised because I thought that it was a joke and actually and like we talked a lot we laughed a lot we were kids we were 23 years old and as usual you need some time to understand that this guy is good for you yeah but like I was really surprised that we have so many common favorite things I mean music film books art and like after that we just started to meet each other, and very fast we actually started to live together.

And after eight years, I just asked, what are you thinking about having a baby? Because, like, eight years is quite long. And he told me that I think that having a baby is a very good idea. And, yes, we were very happy young parents because, like, it was a kind of adventure for us. And tell me your occupation, your job before the war? I'm actually a film curator. I've organized a film festival.

And Vitya, he was a film editor on different artistic films. And actually, it was a quite strong glue for us. It's like our, how to say it, our air. Yeah. It was quite popular activity for us to spend our evenings by discussing different films and our impressions. And actually, sometimes we had different opinions and for us it was quite, you know, usual thing to fight because of the films. We had a joke that normal families as usual fight trying to find proper refrigerator,

but we instead of it fight to find the common impressions regarding the film. But then, as you know, when the war started, Vita told that he would go to this military, recruiting military services. And he told me that, of course, he feels fear and it's normal, but it's not like that point of history when he can wait and to hesitate. And then he was sent to the war. that it's very important not to panic during the communication with your husband when he is at war because it's quite difficult for them to stay there they don't sleep they they can't eat normally they're under pressure all the time and when you explain to your husband that you are worried, that you are in anxiety, that you can't sleep.

It doesn't help them to fight. And actually, I also was trying to talk with him about books, literature, history, and especially films. We have one favorite film, which is called Apocalypses Now, which is made by Coppola. Apocalypse Now, which is made by Coppola. And Vita told me that he definitely would have another impression of the film after this war experience, that the film can express all that human being experienced in war line.

And he told me that it's quite important for him to hear all these pieces of previous life, this peaceful life, because it helps him to believe that war is not only the reality in which he now exists. Yeah. in which he now exists. Yeah. And during these nine months in war,

we only had one chance to see each other. It was at the end of August. I had my birthday. I had my 40th. Your 40th. 40, yeah. And I asked Vitya to find like a day or two to meet us.

And we met in Rivne. I came from Vienna. We spent together three days and it was a very happy moment in my life because I took my daughter and it was actually our last meeting.

It was 20th of August. It was sunny and warm, beautiful day. And I was in the bus when I saw him and my daughter, Zaharia, saw him. Actually, we ran to him and hugged him. He was with the flower, with this sunflower, you know, this our traditional flower. And he was in his military form. And we were very, very happy. But actually, it was a little bit difficult because like you all the time want to cry, but you can't because you don't want to cry during these three days. Like because you don't know when you will have this meeting will happen again. And so we went to the park, we played with our daughter a lot. And then actually, we also went to the cinema, of course, because for us, it's important because cinema is a part of our life. And watched a very strange entertainment film,

because as usual, we watch art house films. But at that moment, it had no matter what kind of film. For us, it was a desire to catch this feeling of our normal life before the Russian invasion. And it was a little bit surrealistic feeling that you know the ordinary life is surrounding you kids young families teenagers and among all this normal reality you and your husband in a military form you know that war is going on but in this part of ukraine you can't feel it because it's not on the front line and only the sounds of sirens somehow reminds you

that it's war right and i was like counting all the time the minutes and hours to the end of our meeting because I knew that we had two and a half days and as you know the time ran very fast yeah and then it was December it was cold cold. It was difficult. But he told me that he's trying to be strong, that he really believes that he will come back home, that he will hold me in Zaharia, that I should believe that he will come back. And sometimes he even apologized that he can't support me at this moment that he had to be on the war.

He never told me anything about the chance of his death. He always told me that he will come back and he promised me that everything will be okay in future, that I have to believe in this. So 30th of December, I wrote him in the morning and didn't receive anything. And during the whole day, I was sending him messages, Peter, please send me this plus just something,

tell me because you do not answer me. And I had this terrible feeling that maybe something happened and then in the evening I got a call from a soldier and he told me that Vita died because he I even can say that he died because of this missile attack. When I got this call, it was maybe the most terrible and terrifying call in my life. I had also to tell this news to my daughter, then to Vita's parents, to my parents, to Vita's sister. And on the 1st of January, we celebrate our anniversary.

So like in two days, we should celebrate the 17-year anniversary. And now I will never have New Year anymore. I think I will never have New Year anymore. I think I will never have this celebration again. And the next day, I got this message. Vita sent his friend Sasha a message when he was alive, when Vita was on the front line on the south of Ukraine and in this message Vita asks Sasha to tell me and Zaharia that Vita loves us that he always will be with us, that he actually was right to go to the front line and to defend Ukraine.

And that he asks Sasha to tell me that Peter loves me because he can't send this message to me in order not to make me panic, you know. Because he still all the time tries to create the atmosphere that he will come back. And then I was in the train, I was moving to Kiev to organize funeral and so on. And we played his favorite songs, we danced, we hugged. It was like very crazy, but I know that he wanted to have a party because in his taxes, he also told me that when he come back, there will be a good party, and we will dance in order to recover after this shocking and bloody war.

We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. A new report issued Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed that the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, carrying hazardous chemicals, was caused by a wheel bearing that overheated. The train derailed earlier this month, and the hazardous gases on board were burned off to avoid the threat of an explosion. Since then, federal and state officials have said tests have found the water and air to be safe to breathe and drink. But residents continue to report an array of lingering symptoms and have questions about whether it will be safe to continue to live there

in the long term. And former film producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison Thursday for committing sex crimes in Los Angeles. He'll serve the sentence on top of the 23-year term he received in New York in 2020. Thursday's sentencing all but ensures the 70-year-old will spend the rest of his life in prison. Today's episode was produced by Claire Tennis-Sketter, Shannon Lin, Rob Zipko, and Nina Feldman. It was edited by Liz O'Balin with help from Lisa Chow. Contains original music by Maria Lozano, Rowan Nemisto, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Corey Schreppel. Special thanks to Natalia Yermak, Carlotta Gall, and Andrew Kramer.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansford of Wonderland. That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you on Monday.