The story of Oleg, the “gentle giant” from Irpin

Oleg, the “gentle giant” by Irpin – Gambassi

The Russian tank was two hundred meters from his house. “And from there he shot all over the country.” One of her friends died in the car with her young daughter. “He had written on the windshield: ‘kids.’ She had to take the baby to the hospital. The Russians hit the car with an artillery shot and it exploded before being engulfed in flames ». Ex-wife and daughter are in Germany. “They had to be brought to safety.” Oleg, “just Oleg”, as he usually repeats, never left Irpin, the martyr city that became the focus of fighting between Russians and Ukrainians in the first month of the war and paid a price that no one has calculated: a third of the buildings are still there destroyed; hundreds of dead; Bodies also buried along the streets or in gardens.

“War changes you: for better or for worse, you have to decide that,” says this 39-year-old boy with hasty, who, when he knocks on front doors or arrives at hospital entrances, always shows up in a hat and glasses . Above all, however, with the vast amount of relief supplies that it is bringing all over Ukraine: from the outskirts of Kiev to the bombed east.

Last stops: Kharkiv and Izyum, the ghost town of mass graves. “I’m alive. And then it becomes a duty to help those who suffer most from the madness of war». The pain and the inevitable resentment are with Oleg, the “good giant”, as they are with Caritas – Spes in Kyiv, giving way to solidarity, is his second home since he returned “free”, like all of Irpin, after a month of Russian occupation.

“I’m not religious. My mother is orthodox. And today my philosophy can be summed up in one motto: If help is needed, I’ll be there. I believe that charity is the best way to meet people in difficulty,” he explains. Delivering “family packages” to the elderly left behind in the destroyed rural villages and they hug him like a son. He delivers the medicines to the clinics, which he says “mainly have wounded soldiers among their patients ” and where “one of the urgencies is their rehabilitation and long-term assistance”. It reaches to the front, to the newly liberated centers, where “there is no shortage of water, electricity, gas and therefore you cannot even cook: so you need ready meals “.

A smile. “For me, on the other hand, the fireplace and the vegetable garden are enough to survive. The rest, including one’s own time, must be given to others.” Oleg is back with his parents. Like his brother. “Together we deal better with the complexity of a conflict,” he reflects. He caused a family to flee besieged Irpin. “A night in the minus forest; and then early in the morning the river somehow crossed to reach the bank controlled by our military ». He was the first to bring fresh “Ukrainian” bread to the city that the Russian army left.

“A few sacks with packages passed under the destroyed bridge and a jerrycan to use the car again and distribute everything.” But when he talks about Russia, he shows no desire for revenge. “I have friends in Moscow. Some condemn the attack. Others tell me that the effects of the sanctions are being felt: they have been collaborating with Western companies and now they are in serious trouble ». “Of course – argues the gentle giant of Irpin, to end in his voice broken by emotion – what should I think of a country that shoots at your homes or your people twenty hours a day, as happened in Irpin in the first case month of invasion? Or that he will send the military into your house with a gun. And they yell at you: “You are Nazis. Do what we tell you and we won’t kill you”? If you don’t want to be a prisoner of hate too, it’s better to stay close to those who have lost everything».