1000 days ago, the Russians invaded Bucha, Irpin, and Vorzel near Kiev. After the Russian Federation withdrew from these towns, the world saw the massacres that were committed there. Recently, a movie “Bucha” was released in cinemas, telling the story of Konstantin Gadauskas, who saved 204 people from Russian occupation. The first journalist to see the liberated towns was Ukrainian Alina Turyszyn. – “When Konstantin and I drove into Vorzel, I felt panic. We were driving 30 km/h in an old jalopy. The houses were still burning, the first people were taking to the streets with white armbands on their arms. The Russians were still close,” she says in an interview with Piotr Kaszuwara. What is the motivation of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians today? Is the scenario of ending the war in the “nothing about us without us” option possible?

• “I remember a woman who had vision problems. She underwent surgery just before the war and during the occupation she spent many days pretending to be dead in a basement. She said that she was lying among decomposing bodies,” says Alina Turyszyn in an interview with PostPravda.info.

• “I didn’t want to believe the rumors about mass graves. I remember when one of the foreign journalists told me about it, I said that it was impossible and definitely not true. Later, someone noticed a hand sticking out of the ground.”

• “I really wish it was all fake and that it never happened, but unfortunately. I simply feel sorry when some politicians use the tragedy of Ukraine for their own purposes. Maybe they are paid by Russia, maybe it’s convenient for them. God grant that they never experience this firsthand. I don’t wish for any of their loved ones to ever lie tortured in a barrel or on the sidewalk,” says Alina Turyszyn.

Alina Turyszyn: “I really wish it was all fake and never happened”

Piotr Kaszuwara, PostPravda.info: What did you see when you drove into Vorzel, near Bucha, right after the Russians had withdrawn from Kiev?

Alina Turyszyn, Ukrainian war correspondent: I remember being very scared. I knew the Russians were still close, but Konstantin calmed me down. He prayed loudly as we drove past abandoned Russian checkpoints. I knew that the Russian army had already withdrawn, but it was still hard to stop the panic. I pulled myself together somehow and explained that the Russians were not here anymore and already on the other side of Vorzel. The view was apocalyptic. The houses were still burning, smoke was rising from everywhere and explosions could be heard from afar. I slid down in my seat and started praying that no one would kill us in that car, because we were driving really slowly. The car was old, the road was scarred by explosions, so we were driving at 30 km/h.

Were there any people on the streets? The Russians forbade anyone from leaving their homes. As Konstantin told me, they shot those who came out of the basement, for example, to get water.

There were few people. We saw a few people riding bikes. Everyone I saw had white ribbons tied around their hands. I had the impression that I had been transported back to the times of World War II, where the Nazis marked Jews in a similar way. White flags hung on houses, and there were signs on gates and doors, which wrote in Russian how many people lived there. People said that as soon as the number of residents changed, the signs on the building had to be changed. Failure to change meant being shot.

When you entered Vorzel, did people already figure out that threat had gone away?

At first, they didn’t believe that we were Ukrainians. Once they were sure about us, they’ve started crying because they couldn’t believe that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had managed to free them. I remember a woman who had vision problems. She had undergone surgery just before the war, and during the occupation she spent many days pretending to be dead in a basement. She said that she was lying among decomposing bodies. She didn’t really talk, she just shouted at us to get her out of there.

Were you aware of what happened in Bucha? That the Russians had murdered so many civilians?

We heard such news, but at that time we had no idea what exactly had happened. We were not aware of the massacre that had taken place there. I guess at that time such a scenario simply didn’t fit in our heads. Although I knew how many journalists the Russians had shot at the beginning of the war. Not only near Kiev, but all over Ukraine. Ukrainians and foreigners.

They say that journalists who are first on the scene have the opportunity to describe the story as it really happened. Later, it starts to be deformed in various ways.

I remember that we stopped somewhere in Vorzel with Konstantin and we were glad that our guys managed to clear the area. A man on a bike rode up to us and started asking about a friend he hadn’t been able to contact for a long time. Konstantin looked at him and replied: “killed”. We rode together to the house where he lived. His grave was in the yard. Konstantin buried him. The man who asked us for information fell to his knees and started crying wildly.

They were from the same city and didn’t know about their fate?

Most people didn’t go out on the streets. Vorzel itself was divided into two parts. One part – you could say – was the military headquarters of the Russians, and on the other, at designated places and times, people could move around. Where the Russians had settled, it was the hardest. From that place Konstantin took away a raped girl whose mother had been killed by the Russians in front of her eyes. Dead bodies were simply lying on the streets.

It was only a few days after you entered Vorzel that journalists from all over the world began to enter Bucha. Everyone was in shock.

I also did not want to believe the rumors about mass graves. I remember when one of the foreign journalists told me about it and I replied that it was impossible, that it was definitely not true. Later someone noticed a hand sticking out of the ground. The doctors who buried these people finally started to tell what really had happened there.

Do you have any nightmares from that place?

I have been covering the war in my country for three years, for a thousand days. During this time I have seen a lot and I think I have become somewhat accustomed to it. At first, it only seemed to me that it was some kind of nightmare, a terrible dream. My brain did not want to accept that such things were actually happening in the 21st century. It’s sad to say so, but war has already become some completely abnormal normality for our society. I just returned from the Donetsk region and what scares me the most is the view of our soldiers screaming in pain when, for example, their legs have to be cut off. I was at the stabilization point and there was one boy who, in shock, asked to be allowed to hold his own, severed hand.

Bucha, Irpin, Izyum have stuck in the world’s memory.

I was also in Izyum and I saw people buried along the roads, in the yards, between the blocks. Near Chernihiv our soldiers were buried in the fields. I remember the wooden crosses and the river of mounds sticking out above the ground. I think it is not quite as we think, that we have become accustomed to it or forgotten. It is still going on and we have not had time to experience it all the way we usually experience death.

Vorzel, Bucha, Irpin. Do you think it was yesterday or a hundred years ago?

A hundred years ago. Sometimes I realize that I do not remember my life before the war. It is as if I had been born again in a country where there had always been a war. I calm myself down in this way, that I have simply stopped waiting for it to end. I have stopped thinking about it, because I know that it will not change anything. We have to live with the war and somehow deal with it, not expect anything. When you have expectations that someone will help you, that someone will decide for you, life is harder. I see how civilians are constantly waiting for something. And now for the F-16, for the election results in the United States, later for weapons, tanks, for salvation. The military often explain to me that even if the cannons stop firing one day, the next phase of the war will come anyway, because Russia will never leave us alone.

When you put all together, into one picture, and think about politicians such as Janusz Korwin-Mikke or some sympathizers of the Confederation in Poland, who try to conjure reality and claim, among other things, that there is no war in Ukraine, that this is a hoax, that Bucha was a film set, what would you tell them?

I really wish it were a fake and that it never happened, but unfortunately. I am simply sorry that some politicians are using the tragedy of Ukraine for their own purposes. Maybe they are paid by Russia, maybe it is convenient for them. God grant that they never experience this first-hand. I don’t wish them to have any of their loved ones ever lie tortured in a barrel or on the sidewalk.

Some people are bothered by the fact that restaurants, discos, expensive shops are open in Kiev, and luxury cars drive along the streets.

I invite you to the party, if you’re not afraid (laughter). Fortunately, in Kiev we no longer have this active phase of war and tanks are not parked in the city center. It’s relatively peaceful here, similar to Lviv or even Chernihiv. However, when we go further to Kharkiv, Donbas, or the south of the country, there is no peaceful life there. People had to learn to live in an atmosphere of air raid alarms going off every few minutes. If someone decided to believe that there is no war in Ukraine, they will believe it anyway. If they had a real desire to find out what the truth is, it can be done very easily. If someone doesn’t believe Ukrainian sources, let them look at Russian ones. After all, the Kremlin also shows pictures from cities in the east. And unfortunately, the situation there is getting more and more terrible.

Sometimes I also feel sad that our Ukrainian society has become so strangely divided. Some are immersed up to their necks in war and fighting, while others have covered their eyes and act like there’s no war. They don’t want to read about war, they don’t want to hear about it. But history has always been created by a small part of society. Enormous changes were made by the bravest, not the majority. There has probably never been an event that everyone followed in unison. Whether it was during World War I, II or even during the civil war in the USA in the 19th century. Most civilians just want to live their lives. On the one hand, it’s sad, because if we were more united, it would certainly be easier for the boys on the front, but on the other, maybe people also have the right to cut themselves off to some extent. Whether it’s out of fear or because of the pain it causes. It’s hard for me to speak for others, I can only speak for myself.

Is there still faith and motivation in people that this war can be won? Some soldiers wrote to me after the elections in the US that it was the end of Ukraine.

Faith works miracles. Fate can change at any moment. Maybe a “black swan” will come and something will happen in Russia suddenly. It is currently difficult to motivate, to find people to fight. Obviously, many of us would like to know what Donald Trump’s policy will be towards Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but we don’t, so for now we can only believe that the return of great America is not just words in the election campaign, but also a sign that the USA will not allow Russians to continue committing crimes in our country.

In your opinion, is it possible to return to the 1991 borders?

Many people have their own visions of the future and the end of the war. For some, it is the independence of Ukraine, for others a return to these exact borders. Personally, I would very much like Crimea to return to us, because my mother was born there. It would be difficult for me to accept the loss of my native land to someone else’s dreams of an empire.

“Nothing about us without us”? Will Ukraine have an influence on these future decisions, or is it rather a fairy tale of moss and fern?

We will see.