Anton Brushkivskyy (25) was born in the Ukraine, works as an investment advisor in Hamburg and is a member of FC Barcelona’s Berlin fan club. Anton is in constant contact with relatives and friends in the Kiev region via WhatsApp and Telegram messaging services.
His relatives currently all live in a house in a suburb of Kiev. The relatives are Anton’s aunt Larissa and her husband Anatoly, daughter Aljona with husband Viktor, granddaughter Viktoria (10) and grandson Roman (6) and Aljona’s brother Evgeny.
The family has agreed that Anton will answer questions from the Tagesspiegel in the coming hours and days and also forward parts of the communication to WhatsApp and Telegram. In this way, a kind of diary of the family in Ukraine will be created. The first entry is from February 27th.
The only condition was that the name of the suburb should not be mentioned, so that Russian authorities, who might also read the newspaper’s website, would not find out about the positions of Ukrainian soldiers in the Kiev area.
Sunday, February 27, evening:
Anton, how is the situation with your relatives in Kiev tonight?
There is currently fire from above again. As always when something like this happens, everyone is lying on the floor in the house. Around my relative’s house, there were again many impacts and explosions during the day. Also in the place where my cousin Evgenij usually lives. Friends of mine are staying there at the moment. It’s going to be a long night for everyone. But everyone is fine.
Viktor is back on patrol tonight. He’s supposed to come home tomorrow to rest.
Is Viktor armed?
Yes, he has a gun. He was also a former police officer.
Does the family have enough supplies?
They were able to organize 200 liters of water. Food was also bought for several days. In the village one helps oneself in case of need.
Sunday, February 27, afternoon:
Anton, how are your relatives?
My cousin Evgeny writes, “We are scared. The children jump up in the night and cry. We sleep on the first floor of our family house to be protected from the roof collapsing”. My relatives give our soldiers water to drink. The children drew pictures for the soldiers.
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What does the family notice about the fighting?
Every morning, says Evgenij, we are woken up at around seven o’clock by explosions. He writes, “The whole thing goes on for at least two hours. After that there is silence. Followed by shots in the country. Right now you can hear it again. About 30 kilometers away from us. Every morning we wait for the evening and for the night and everyone Evening and every night into the morning. When the sun goes down there will be rocket fire again. Tonight an oil depot was hit about 15 kilometers away. The whole facility is on fire. Smoke is seen rising and the fire is likely to continue for weeks.”
Viktor, my cousin’s husband, volunteered for the territorial defense of Kiev two days ago. He couldn’t just stand idly by. He absolutely wants to defend his country, his homeland. At night, Viktor controls cars on the outskirts that are arriving or leaving. Thank goodness there have been no incidents so far.
Do your relatives want to stay in the Kiev region or are you thinking of leaving the country?
They say they want to live in Ukraine. They write, “We were fine here. We definitely don’t want to be part of Russia and certainly not a slave of Putin. It would be very difficult to leave Kiev. We would have to drive several cars. Lots of roads and bridges that leading out of town are damaged. There is no gas at the gas stations. We have to wait.”
My cousin’s girlfriend Evgenij went to western Ukraine several days ago. But Evgenij didn’t want to leave and leave his parents and sister alone.
Anton, how do you deal with the tension yourself?
I can’t put it into words. I am very worried about my relatives, friends and acquaintances. The topic is so present that I can think of nothing else. You try to distract yourself, but the thoughts of the people there don’t go away. The first two days it was even worse. I cried and just looked at my cell phone, waiting for messages from my relatives.
Unfortunately, you slowly get used to the whole thing. I would like to help. So I thank everyone who writes to me and stands by my side.
