A staff member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff press office kept repeating on the phone: "The coming night, or these days, there will be strong strikes on Kyiv... Don't ignore the air raid sirens; if you have no shelter, go to the metro and spend the night there..."
Although I called about a completely different matter, he was more focused on this warning. I said goodbye and headed home. It was evening. On the way, I scrolled through the local segment of social media on my phone. I also came across Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's similar appeal to the population. Zelensky urged people to immediately go to shelters when they hear the air raid sirens, stating that Russia was preparing for another massive strike. This came just a few days after Zelensky promised not to attack Moscow during the May 9 parade and ironically signed a decree allowing Russia to hold the parade.
I wanted to relax when I got home, but I couldn't. I've been living through this war for over four years. What I dislike most are preannounced attacks. In such moments, anxiety wears people down more. The night passed, but there were no air raid sirens. "Probably it's passed for tonight," I thought, and lay down to sleep. I had just fallen asleep when I woke up to the roar of air raid sirens followed by explosions. It was around 2 a.m.
Usually, despite everything, I prefer sleeping at home over sitting in the basement, but the explosions and anti-drone machine guns were getting so close that I got dressed and went downstairs. The shelter was in the basement of a neighboring building. The building was about 200 years old. According to the older generation, before this war, the basement was last used in 1943 when Soviet troops attacked Kyiv and recaptured the city from the Germans.
The neighbors were already gathered in the basement. Grandma Tanyusha said: "I was a little girl then, but I remember it like it was yesterday..." Everyone was speaking Russian. Suddenly, around 3 a.m., a woman aged 30-35 arrived. In Ukrainian, she said: "Why are you speaking Russian? That is the enemy's language, aren't you ashamed?" The neighbors rebuked her. Soon they calmed down.
I sat next to the woman. I asked in Ukrainian: "I see you here for the first time; you must have moved recently." She said: "I was born here. I just moved to Europe when the war started; I came back two days ago for a document." I said: "You rebuked the neighbors for not speaking Ukrainian so harshly that I thought you were one of those who stayed in the country throughout the war." Then I went upstairs. Dawn had broken, and the strikes had subsided.
On the way, I thought about the paradox of the past night. Ukrainians who moved to Europe showed more "patriotism" than those who stayed. Some time passed. Professional boxer Oleksandr Usyk met with US President Donald Trump in Washington. Usyk stated: "The Ukrainian government must reckon with reality and sit down for negotiations with the opposing side to stop the bloodshed. We all have the same blood, and its color is red." Users in Ukraine supported this, but Ukrainians in Europe started lynching Usyk...
I decided to write this article.
Mubariz Aslanov
