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Feb. 24 (UPI) -- One year after Russia's military invasion, some Ukrainian citizens have been forced to adapt to life amid the conflict as they face the stark reality of loss and find ways to aid the war effort. The start of the war was marked by loud blasts early in the morning on Feb. 24, 2022, as Russian forces crossed the Belarusian border toward Kyiv following days of tense speculation.
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Since then, Ukrainians have lost loved ones, seen others step onto the battlefield and used their talents to help keep the nation from falling.
Waking to explosions
The war came to Anastasia Paraskevova's doorstep at 5 a.m. local time when explosions struck her home city of Kharkiv as she and her family slept in a single room.
"I remember we were under the covers and we sat in silence for maybe about 10-15 minutes, just listening to that 'boom, boom, boom.' It was a pretty surreal experience and then I remember saying very clearly, 'It's started, they attacked!'" Paraskevova, who was an activist during the 2014 Maidan Revolution, told UPI in a phone interview this week.
She said it was difficult for her family to accept that the invasion had begun as her sister insisted it must be "something else."
"My mom called my father and she told him that the war is on and he was like 'I thought it was fireworks' and she was like, 'Why are you being stupid, man? What fireworks at 5 in the morning? It's war,'" Paraskevova said.
Rotislav Tynski, a 20-year-old student living in Lviv, said he was in disbelief at reports that Russia had amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border and said he learned the war had started on social media.
"I opened Telegram and in my Telegram were channels ... full of news, 'Guys it's started. There are explosions in Kyiv. Air alarms.'" he told UPI this week. "After an hour I swear, I had the animal fear inside me."
Nastya Sil', a 30-year-old comedian from Lviv, said she was gripped by fear and disbelief when her parents in Canada called her at 5 a.m. to warn that "the war has started."
"I was obviously asleep so I woke up and started checking news sources and yeah ... I didn't want to believe it, but it turns out unfortunately to be true. Then I didn't know what do, so I started packing and eventually, around 7 or 8 a.m., sirens went off in the streets in Lviv," she told UPI.
"That was quite scary because I didn't know what that meant, just loud sirens, first time I'd ever been in a situation like that, so that was the scariest thing for me."
Grappling with death
As the invasion set in, the threat of death began to loom over the people of Ukraine as shelling intensified near their homes and friends and family joined the war effort.
Paraskevova first came face to face with death while returning from a trip to find water for people to drink.
"We were returning home with these bottles. We basically saw people lying on the ground. It was very white because of the snow, and red dots of blood everywhere, and people were just laying in the snow with bottles of water. So they were basically doing what we were doing, and it was the first time it really hit," she said.
"I very clearly remember the man, I think he was like maybe 60 years old. He was dead, and he was lying in the snow with a bottle of water near him, and a bag of potatoes lying next to him. It was such a bizarre thing cause he was just trying to get food for his family, just like we were."
Tragedy struck closer to home for Paraskevova when her father was killed after a rocket struck the yard of a house where her parents had been staying in July.
"It was about 10 in the morning. My mother was going to the clinic. She's a dentist, and my father was supposed to get her there with his car, so basically they were having breakfast," Paraskevova recalled. "She called us. We couldn't understand what she was saying because she was screeching in an inhuman way. A policeman took the phone and he explained what happened. My sister asked 'Is mother OK?' He said, 'She's fine' and she asked 'Is father OK?' He said 'No, he's dead.'"
Paraskevova said her mother survived the strike with "a couple of scratches."
Tynski's older brother is a soldier serving in the Ukrainian military. He said his brother's safety has haunted his thoughts throughout the war but he is getting used to war as a state of normalcy.
"Every day we are texting to him. Usually, his response is 'I'm OK. I'm alive' because he cannot stay on the phone. We are trying to keep in close contact with" his wife and children to offer help, he said.
He added that he "used to always think" of his brother when hearing reports from the front lines of the war.
"It used to be perpetual stress," Tynski said. "When he is telling us about what it is like at the frontline for him, it is routine for him, but not for us."
Aiding the war effort
In addition to helping residents find clean water, Paraskevova said she began to use her experience from the Maidan Revolution and her presence as an English speaker in Kharkiv to help international media outlets gain access to the city.
"I worked with ITV journalists and made content with them. I was giving them interviews and hanging out with them. I managed to get myself on CNN and I spoke with Anderson Cooper," she said.
After that, Paraskevova began to receive donations for aid.
"I started to buy homeostatic dressings for soldiers with the money people donated. I did what I could," she said.
After the invasion, Sil' moved to Zakarpattia, where she began volunteering to assist the war effort.
"I took two weeks there and I started doing volunteer work there, got in touch with a lot of other volunteers, some people who work directly with army battalions, and we started fundraising money and making purchases that are important for the army," she said.
Sil' considered fleeing Ukraine altogether, believing she would no longer be able to make a living through comedy during the war.
"I considered leaving the country because I thought, 'That's it, my previous life is over. Standup is gone,'" she said. "Because there's a war and I thought my previous life is just gone, so what am I to do, might as well move somewhere else to safety. Then I had a moment to sit by myself and just think about it, and I decided I wanted to contribute to help the war effort."
When she returned to Lviv she found interest in Ukrainian comedy acts had actually increased and she began connecting with comedians outside Ukraine to arrange for them to perform in local comedy clubs to raise funds for the military.
"That motivated me. So I decided that maybe my previous life is gone, but I can still be a part of this country and write my future story ... to make it feel less like I'm a victim of the war," she said. "I decided to take control over my life, my destiny so I decided to start a new beginning, where I choose to help and contribute to our victory, our Ukrainian victory. That's how I decided to remain in Ukraine."
