“I understood that I was needed at the fires. That’s the very place where I can do something, no matter what.” During the full-scale invasion, Oleksandr first participated in the liberation of the Kyiv region, and later he put on the pixelated uniform again and went to defend Ukraine’s East from the occupiers…

An enemy mortar round landed very close to Volodymyr’s position. “There was shelling, and a mortar round hit a tree. Its shrapnel rained down from above. Both of my legs were cut. There were open fractures, but fortunately the blood vessels weren’t damaged.”

“On February 24, when I saw people panicking — rushing to the stores, some fleeing — it just… I’m the kind of person who can’t allow that for myself. I wouldn’t respect myself. So, on the first day, I went to donate blood, and on the second, I signed up for the Territorial Defense.”

“When he was still lying in the hospital, all bandaged up, I told him — this won’t last forever. Some time will pass, we’ll go somewhere, see something new,” recalls the father about how he prepared his child for a long battle ahead.

“We were in the same crew. When we went down, we stayed together the whole time (laughs). Even when we were in captivity, our beds were next to each other. But when it came to assigning treatment, Oleksii was sent to Germany, and I was sent to Norway. That was a real tragedy — not seeing each other for nine whole months.”