Polina Lukashenko, 15 years old

Winner of the 2024 essay contest, 1st place

Lyceum with a structural unit of gymnasium No. 6 of the Pokrovsk Town Council

Teacher who inspired to write an assay - Viktoriia Yaroslavivna Lukashova

 

«1000 days of war. My way»

"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind"-

John F. Kennedy

Rumours are like spiders, crawling out of all the cracks, weaving their sticky webs, frightening, confusing, and sucking away peace.

That's exactly what I thought when more and more people were talking about February 16 as a possible start of the war. Many people thought it was a silly story, some argued about it, but no matter what anyone said, everyone was afraid that it would turn out to be true.

Then came the words of the President of Ukraine: 'We are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack. We will make it the Day of Unity’.  The country continued to live.

It snowed on the night of February 23. I dreamed of a wonderful morning, was happy that I had prepared well for my lessons, and imagined how the boys would throw snowballs at us girls. These were the thoughts of an ordinary teenage girl.

I had no idea that I would become an adult in one day.

It was not snowballs, but bitter news that kept falling on us, hitting us in the heart. Volnovakha was still intact and Mariupol was still alive, but Bucha and Irpin were torn apart and raped, and the Ghost plane rose into the Kyiv sky, trying to defend the capital.

And the people, the Ukrainian people, became one strong steel cloak.

A grey-haired man trying to stop a tank with his bare hands. Young men with sticks and pitchforks blocking the way to the village for an armed enemy column. The Roma who stole an APC from the Russians. How are you? No age, no nationalities, no professions, no division into easterners and westerners. A single monolith has risen, the name of which is the Ukrainian people.

The war has been moving towards my city, its claws and stinking breath familiar to us since 2014.

Even then, it took away our Donbass Arena, our loved ones and relatives who remained behind Pisky, turned them into enemies, and destroyed the airport. Then it was held back by the cyborgs, but the time for the titans came.

They tried to close the western gate of Donbass - that's how our town of Pokrovsk was called, and it became a lifeline for those fleeing the settlements scorched by fire.

Almost 1000 days of war. I have travelled this path together with my town. I learnt not only how to dry breadcrumbs, hide during shelling, live for many hours without light, weave camouflage nets and make trench candles. I learned to appreciate the moments before they become memories. I no longer save money for my girly whims, but send it to help the Ukrainian Armed Forces and shelters for abandoned animals.

I can hug an unfamiliar soldier on the street and say: ‘Thank you’. And he will definitely take a candy out of his pocket and treat me, because heroes are like that, they know how to appreciate moments too.

I am not ashamed of tears and now I speak only Ukrainian.

I am writing these lines on the platform near the evacuation train. My uncle has already brought our belongings, and my mother is hurrying me.

The town is seeing me off. This grey-haired miner hugs my shoulders with a gentle breeze:

- You have to go.

- What about you? You will turn into a ghost, you are wounded.

- Don't be afraid, my dear. I am a miner, I know what lava is. I have lived through revolutions, two wars, and famine. I rebuilt mines and built neighbourhoods. I buried heroes. I know what a fight is. Look, dragon's teeth have grown next to my roses.

- I am afraid of getting lost in the worlds.

- Just remember where you come from. Hold on tight to your roots. Tell others who we are. When I need you, I will call you, you will feel it. We will definitely sing Shchedryk with you again.