Meet Ukrainian Couples Preparing For War

ODESSA, Ukraine, March 19 – A generation of Ukrainians who only knew about the war from history books and stories from their grandparents have been forced to prepare for war, and some prefer to do so with the partners they built. lives just a few weeks ago.

At the training center in the southern city of Odessa, the city’s young professionals, who usually choose where to meet friends for coffee, learn how to handle weapons and provide emergency first aid to the wounded on the battlefield.

“Everyone should be able to fight, make medicine, help their loved ones or other people,” says 26-year-old graphic designer Olga Moroz, who is studying civil defense with her boyfriend, 32-year-old sales manager Maxim. Yavtushenko.

The couple, who were planning their wedding in the summer, were in a dimly lit room where 80 to 150 people a day do basic training, all anxious to prepare somehow for the day when Russian troops approach the city. finally arrive.

Odessa, a picturesque Black Sea port through which more than half of Ukraine’s imports and exports pass, is seen as a major strategic and symbolic target for Russian forces. Russia invaded the country on February 24 in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation.”

Internet marketing sales manager Maxim Yavtushenko, 32, and his girlfriend, graphic designer Olga Moroz, 26, who volunteered to join the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Force, pose for a photograph during training as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in Odessa, Ukraine . , March 18, 2022 REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Three weeks later, the capital Kyiv and key cities such as Odessa are still uncaptured, and Russian forces are facing heavy resistance from Ukrainian troops and determined civilian resistance. But some cities, such as the city of Mariupol east of Odessa, were bombed for several days.

The reality of the war came as a shock to the residents of Odessa, a bustling city where designer ateliers and bean-roasting coffee houses sit side by side with historic architecture, overhanging cranes and port train stations.

“To be honest, it is very difficult for us to understand that there is a war going on now,” said Murager Sharipov, a 26-year-old employee of an Internet marketing agency. “Now people are dying somewhere, people are dying, and these are our people,” he said.

While the civil defense training offered at the center is basic, Yavtushenko said it helped prepare one mentally for what could happen.

“Ukraine is now alone, and the people who are watching it now should understand that the war is here, but it can be in your house, it can be with your friends and in your country.”

Reporting by Natalie Thomas Editing by James Mackenzie and Francis Kerry

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