On a clear February morning, Father Vitaly Novak glanced at the rocket that swept across the vast cloudless sky.
“I was driving and saw a rocket above us, it flew to Kyiv,” he said. I a little later during a phone call from the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine. “Today the sky is very clear and sunny. It can be seen from the Black Sea.”
It was February 10 when air raid sirens woke Ukrainians as explosions rang out across the country, including in the capital, Kyiv. Dozens of drone and missile strikes hit the south and east of the country, causing destruction, destruction and loss of life.
The lives of the millions of Ukrainians who remained in the country have changed beyond recognition, where air raid alarms, power outages and constant fear of death have become their new reality.
But even as cities fall into darkness and homes are destroyed in brutal attacks, people are still trying to live some semblance of normalcy.
“You come home, you don’t have heating and electricity, you have to think about when I can do laundry, when I can cook or heat my house,” Father Vitaly said.
“We are learning every day and adapting to all these changes.”
The sight of rockets roaring in the sky has become familiar to Vitaly’s father – “no one is running anymore,” he said, “but it still hurts to know what’s going to happen next.
“This flying death will kill and destroy,” he said.
Father Vitaly was driving as usual in the morning to deliver humanitarian aid across the country in his truck when a rocket flew overhead. He led the humanitarian effort for global charity Depaul, which reached nearly 400,000 people last year.
Much of his work is focused on Odessa in the south, Kharkiv in the northeast, and Kyiv, which is now home to many internally displaced Ukrainians who have fled front-line or Russian-occupied cities.
Alexandra*, 66, a humanitarian worker, fled the southern city of Kherson to the capital with her adult children and her five-year-old granddaughter.
The family of five lived in separate houses in Kherson until the capture of the regional capital by Russian troops shortly after the start of the war. Now the family is squeezed into an apartment in Kyiv.
Alexandra has sent her granddaughter to a kindergarten in Kyiv, but her first day is still ahead of her as the school still lacks the necessary equipment.
“He doesn’t have a bomb shelter,” Alexandra said. “That’s why we’re afraid to take her there in case something happens, that’s why we have her at home for now.”
Alexandra spoke calmly, even as she sat in the family center with DePaul’s help, wearing a coat – with a hood – and with a scarf wrapped around her neck, almost covering her mouth. She explained without emotion that the air raid sirens would immediately go off.
“I don’t think anyone can get used to these air raid sirens, especially when we have a small child, and if it’s midnight or early in the morning, we all need to get dressed and go to the bomb. shelter,” she said.
“Obviously it’s scary and we’re scared, I don’t know how to adjust to this new reality,” she added with a shrug.
Andrei*, 68, also did not seem to care about his position in Ukraine during the war.
“At first it was really scary, but people can get used to a lot of things,” he said of the air raid sirens.
He said he finds it difficult to retire when he can “talk to people, make friends and speed up the day.” He also described the struggle to survive “a few days” without electricity and water cuts.
“Over time, you just get used to it and it becomes your new reality, whether you like it or not,” he said.
But Kira, 45, fought back tears as she spoke of the “peaceful life” she left behind in Energodar, in southeastern Zaporizhzhya Oblast, which has recently come under a series of Russian rocket attacks.
In November, she fled to Kyiv with her 20-year-old son, and as he adjusts to his new life in the capital, where he studies, Kira is overcome by fear of being robbed.
“Since the war began, I hardly sleep at night,” she says.
She described a recent incident when she was awakened by the sound of an explosion. “I was about to fall asleep when the shelling forced me to jump onto the bed. You can’t get used to it.”
She paused. “How can you deal with it?” she asked. “I do not know how.”
She hopes to return home one day, and Andrei shares this dream.
The former builder lived in the city of Berislav, Kherson region, which was also occupied by Russia last year, but was recaptured by Ukrainian troops in November along with the city of Kherson.
It is these small victories that keep Andrey loyal, especially since his 36-year-old son is fighting on the side of the Ukrainian army.
His son is the only family he has left after losing his wife many years ago. Andrei said that what he misses the most is home, that in the house he once shared with his family, he “woke up every day thinking about what would happen next.”
For Ukrainians, the daily struggle they endure is a kind of act of resistance – a refusal to give up. Moments of pain alternate with moments of joy as the Ukrainian army successfully fends off the Russian invasion.
“They can no longer destroy us with fear,” Father Vitaly said.
“People have learned to live in wartime, to endure war, because life goes on.”
*Names have been changed to protect their identity.
Source: I News
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.