YULIA BONDARENKO, like many young people, struggles to remain whole since her and her boyfriend’s apartment was bombed in Kyiv, and sends this message: “I want people to understand what is going on in Ukraine affects the world and people should not consider their own interests only because in the end, war impacts everyone, and when it does, it doesn’t matter how long you hide—the horror comes after you.”
LESIA BODNARCHUK – Born in Kyiv, married to a combat soldier, and the mother of two, Lesia risks all as a Frontline Medic who has seen the horrors of war close-up—and nonetheless maintains “the only real danger is losing hope.”
LESIA BODNARCHUK – Born in Kyiv, married to a combat soldier, and the mother of two, Lesia risks all as a Frontline Medic who has seen the horrors of war close-up—and nonetheless maintains “the only real danger is losing hope.”
NADIA BOGOVICH – Wife and mother, the “most wanted woman in Ukraine” has served as a Deep Reconnaissance Tactical Team Leader since 2019 and is an example of her own conviction that “Ukrainian women are strong—we are wolves—and if you get in our face, we will crush you.”
DIANA DIDENKO was born and raised in Dnipro, Ukraine’s largest city nearest the Frontlines, and was widowed at nineteen when her husband, a combat soldier, was killed just weeks before Diana gave birth to her second child.
DIANA DIDENKO was born and raised in Dnipro, Ukraine’s largest city nearest the Frontlines, and was widowed at nineteen when her husband, a combat soldier, was killed just weeks before Diana gave birth to her second child.
ANASTASIIA PODOBAILO was only fifteen-years-old in 2014 when, after the Russians first bombed her home city of Kharkiv, she determined she had to prepare for her destiny—and did, as a first-response Combat Medic that, for her, began with the Battle of Kharkiv in May 2022.
NATALYA RESNICK works seven days a week, dividing her time as a Frontline Supply Coordinator with the all-important responsibility of ensuring that medical supplies get to first response medical teams, and as a Special Ops nurse herself, assessing ten or more wounded every day.
NATALYA RESNICK works seven days a week, dividing her time as a Frontline Supply Coordinator with the all-important responsibility of ensuring that medical supplies get to first response medical teams, and as a Special Ops nurse herself, assessing ten or more wounded every day.
ALISA SAZONOVA is the administrator of the first World Central Kitchen in Ukraine and supervises the preparation of meals and snacks for hundreds of frontline soldiers in the face of constant, daily logistical and supply chain problems and challenges.
OLENA STRELTSOVA and her husband are Ukrainian Jews who view the Russo-Ukrainian war “with a deeper understanding, perhaps,” she says, “because Jews are more prepared than Ukrainians as a result of our past, and what we as Jews went through in World War II.”
OLENA STRELTSOVA and her husband are Ukrainian Jews who view the Russo-Ukrainian war “with a deeper understanding, perhaps,” she says, “because Jews are more prepared than Ukrainians as a result of our past, and what we as Jews went through in World War II.”
IRYNA SUTUGINA chose to remain in her native Kyiv to establish the “English as a Second Language School,” now with almost 200 students, while additionally serving as an international, live-on-air broadcast translator “to get out the truth to the world.”
Few women have the courage of HANNA VASHCHELKO, parachute jumping instructor, frontline medic, wife, and mother whose advice to her only child is, “Dear son, never give in to people who want to hurt you. Be brave and honest to your heart, to your country, to your family.”
Few women have the courage of HANNA VASHCHELKO, parachute jumping instructor, frontline medic, wife, and mother whose advice to her only child is, “Dear son, never give in to people who want to hurt you. Be brave and honest to your heart, to your country, to your family.”
“You ask if I’m in danger? Yes, every day. I am on Russia’s “Killing List,” says Supreme Court Justice IRYNA ZHELTOBRIUKH, who shares her small apartment with ten relatives, including her two children and her mother, who has cancer.
IRYNA ZHIAKOR is an connector and thinker, and was out of the country for work at the time of the invasion. She has been working since then to find her life in the Bay Area while advancing the cause of Ukrainians, especially creatives, from the United States.
IRYNA ZHIAKOR is an connector and thinker, and was out of the country for work at the time of the invasion. She has been working since then to find her life in the Bay Area while advancing the cause of Ukrainians, especially creatives, from the United States.