A War of Independence. President’s Birthday

8 min readMar 8, 2022

A sixth article in a series dedicated to my personal memories of events that are related to Russo-Ukrainian War, its new and active phase that started 24.02.2022. Check below for the rest of the articles.

Part 5. President’s Birthday

Why I was frightened by Zelenskyy’s presidency

I didn’t vote for Mr. Zelenskyy in 2019. However, 73% of Ukrainians did. I was devastated when he was elected. Mr. Zelenskyy was the worst thing that could happen to Ukraine in times of war. He had economic and cultural ties with Russia, he did not appreciate the severity of the war with Putin’s Russia, he had serious economic ties with one of the major oligarchs, he did not have a team of competent people around him, he was a comedian and did not understand anything about government or being a president, people in his team suggested a pay raise of 25 times to 430 000 Ukrainian teachers, he promised to end the war — he was a populist, he was not even slightly a nationalist, hell, he barely even spoke Ukrainian. He also was arrogant and his unnatural voice he chose for his speeches in advertisements was irritating. He continued to profit from his business operations in Russia via companies registered in Cyprus right until the presidential race.

Infamous debates on a stadium in Kyiv, a public embarrassment for both candidates in my opinion

With his party obtaining majority on legally questionable unscheduled election, he had immense power in our country. And how did he use it? He sequentially murdered western reforms brought to Ukraine by Mr. Poroshenko: independent National Bank of Ukraine, independent (and financially recovered) Naftogaz and replaced the teams running them by incompetent but loyal people (not to mention Security Service of Ukraine and Office of the Prosecutor General). His government created multiple obstacles to institutions created to combat the corruption. He had a really bad episode of strained negotiations with army volunteers, in my opinion he did not pay enough attention to army and was barely seen on the frontline; his government had even reduced the military spending in wartime. He was responsible for a failure (due to information leak) of a special operation to capture a Russian mercenary group responsible for downing MH-17. I knew pretty damn well my country was on the road to hell and I was getting ready to migrate. I started learning Spanish and was going to live in Spain for several months as a trial period after repaying my mortgage (fully repaid in February, 2022).

Mr. Zelenskyy next to Mr. Kolomoyskiy, one of the wealthiest and most influential Ukrainian oligarchs. He allowed Zelenskyy’s media content on his TV channel “1+1”, which contributed greatly to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ratings during election campaign. My parents voted for Mr. Zelenskyy after watching his TV series “Servant of the People”

Judging from previous Mr. Zelenskyy’s speech, he was scared. On the 24th of February he found himself being at war with Russia, with Russian Army attacking from all directions and doing airstrikes using jets and ballistic missiles all over Ukraine. There was almost no safe space that day and the West failed to support him in a way that he expected. It seemed from Zelenskyy’s speech that day that he was ready to be “forced to peace” and surrender regions of our country. However, on the next day, February the 25th, I and all the world have witnessed something impossible.

Opposing Putin

There came a message on peace negotiations that Russia proposed. Vladimir Putin proposed to hold negotiations on Belarus soil, a country that allowed launches of multiple ballistic missiles towards Ukraine, a country that allowed Russian troops to stay on its soil and to launch invasion from it. Mr. Putin wanted to have negotiations on his terms and wanted to see our government surrender and beg for peace. Choosing Belarus as a place for negotiations was like starting negotiations from a spit in a face.

However, I read a message saying that Ukrainian President’s Office first suggested Warsaw as a place for negotiation then asked to stand by not approving the location proposed by Vladimir Putin. After that moment of strategic indecisiveness, Russian president started using term “junkies” towards members of staff of Ukrainian President’s Office (and Ukrainian government as a whole).

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his members of staff addressing Ukrainians, proving that they have not abandoned Kyiv, footage made on the 25th of February

The Implications

These news were enough to make my day. They meant that Zelenskyy was ready to openly oppose Mr. Putin’s lead in negotiation process. If he couldn’t agree on a place, he certainly wouldn’t agree on an unconditional surrender. It meant that Volodymyr Zelenskyy understood that his only reliable allies were Ukrainian Armed Forces and that they were doing a hell of a job. His decision to stay in Kyiv lifted their spirits and they were fighting valiantly to save his life now, him being a symbol of independent Ukraine that they could not afford to lose. Their mutual trust increased many times over after Ukrainian Armed Forces kept him alive through the night. And that day Zelenskyy has transformed from a comedian playing a role of a president to a fearless wartime leader of Ukraine. Metaphorically, I consider 25th of February as the President’s Birthday.

After seeing that lonely message related to place of negotiation, I knew what was going to happen in the next couple of weeks. Ukraine was going to fight a long and bloody war with Russia. We were not going to surrender, neither our government nor our people wanted it. We were going to lose a lot of military servicemen, even more civilians and suffer a number of humanitarian crises. Russia would throw at us all it had (except for the nukes, possibly) and would still lose. They would not be able to take Kyiv, where over 15 000 yesterday’s civilians were armed with automatic weapons, NLAWs and Stingers. We would make the ground burn under Russians and they would know no rest on our land, even in “liberated” cities. We would fight them till the bitter end — one of Russian Empire. Only way for Mr. Putin to force us, Ukrainians, into submission would be to butcher our entire population.

Territorial Defense members are helping themselves to arms

My biggest fear — the one that our government would surrender — was lifted. Even though I was stuck in Ukraine I felt free.

A Scary Night Ride

Darkness fell as I continued driving. Kate woke up and we switched places. We were passing Ivano-Frankivsk region, which was attacked by ballistic missile the day before. It was strangely dark on the road. The gas stations were not illuminated as usual, they were barely noticeable. Other building near the road did not have lights on and the road was not lit either. We decided to stop on one of the gas stations to take a nap: I didn’t have a sleep for 40 hours already and fatigue started to kick in. A couple of gas stations we passed before were not lit and we didn’t want to stop there. Judging from google maps the next gas station was pretty big, but when we approached it we were met with darkness. There were almost no cars next to the gas station. Kate switched off the engine, locked the doors and I passed out.

I woke up after about 1.5 hours shivering: it was cold. Kate woke me up and pointed into the dark. The gas station was filled with parked lorries and cars, dozens of them, all with their engines and lights off. Kate told that she wanted to inquire one of the drivers parked nearby about the lorries but he just locked the doors and pretended not to hear her. She suggested those were military lorries. The situation grew more ominous by the minute. Kate started driving away and I helped with navigation. We stopped in a well-lit gas station in about 10 minutes to refuel. Only then I realized we were driving in a wrong direction, towards an airport that was hit by missiles (I was sleepy and made a mistake). So we turned around and drove past that scary road stretch once again.

For about 100 km more we drove on dark roads, surrounded by dark villages and gas stations that seemed abandoned. We switched seats before driving up the mountains. Stuck in 1.5 hour line of cars high in the mountains on a border of Zakarpattia region, I started writing replies to my manager, detailing the situation in Ukraine. As I wrote about heroism of one of our soldiers who sacrificed his life to blow a bridge and to stop advance of Russian Army, I thought of what I was going to do once I arrive at a quiet place. I decided that I would join the cyber volunteers to help fight the cyberwar against Russia.

Vitalii Skakun, a 25-years-old marine combat engineer who sacrificed his life to stop advance of Russian Army. Photo taken taken from another medium blog by Ukrainian

Writing messages made my mind occupied while in 1.5 hour jam, but back on the road I grew sleepy. Kate slept through the queue, so it was just me, the other cars and the road at this point. As we descended, the temperature outside increased. I decided to drive until it was +4 degrees Celsius outside, but I abandoned that idea as I saw a gas station with free parking spots. My eyes were closing and it was too dangerous to drive further.

This time Kate woke up shivering after about 2 hours. We switched on the engine to heat the car and drove further. On one of the crossroads we encountered a large gas station where they sold hot tea and hot dogs. We were thrilled to be able to buy those simple treats. It seemed like an eternity has passed since we last enjoyed hot meal and hot drink. Refueled, we pressed on: there was just a small stretch of the road that separated us from hostel’s warm room and bed. We had to switch seats every 30 minutes to avoid falling asleep during this final push. And after total of 50 hours spent in a car we have reached a safe place that was pre-booked for 2 more days.