In the eyes of Vitaliia “Vita” Tomakhiv, Ukrainian troops are more than just camouflage-clad figures fighting and dying in the largest European war since World War II.
They are regular people with fears, hopes for the future and loved ones waiting back home, and they know exactly what they are fighting to protect.
Tomakhiv, a University of Maine graduate student, knows because she traveled to the eastern front this past summer to interview four members of the 67th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. She turned the footage into a 37-minute documentary-style video, called “The Dimension of War: Those Who Hold the Independence of Ukraine,” which she released on her YouTube channel.
Tomakhiv, who studies global policy and will graduate in May, was not satisfied with staying silent and watching from afar as the war raged on in her country. So once back in Ukraine, she traveled 17 hours by train from her hometown to Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, to tell the stories of those on the front lines.
Tomakhiv risked her safety while making the video, which she said is meant to humanize Ukrainian soldiers and show viewers that there is a price to be paid for freedom.
“People around the world go to work and live their lives, and we cannot blame them for this,” she said. “But I want to remind them that there is still a war happening. People on the frontlines also go to work, but these are jobs that require giving their lives if they have to.”
Tomakhiv, 24, was a political science student at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February of last year. She fled to be with her parents in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil. Four months later, she moved to Orono to continue her education at UMaine.
During her trip to Ukraine this summer, Tomakhiv used her iPhone and a tripod to record her conversations with the soldiers, which she filmed in a tiny village near Kramatorsk and a military base near the city of Lyman.
She also shot footage of buildings pummeled by shelling, and it was hard to find a home left untouched, she said. Seeing dishes, clothing and other belongings left behind was depressing because it’s possible that those who fled may never return, she said.
Tomakhiv’s friend in Ukraine’s armed forces, Andriy, helped her gain access to Kramatorsk and the troops, and he is featured in her video. It was not always easy getting to where she needed to film, particularly passing through checkpoints in dangerous areas. She also had to find quiet moments in between air raid sirens blaring daily.
The soldiers — Andriy, Bohdan, Dmytro and Oleksandr — have different occupations and levels of military experience, but they all are passionate about defending Ukraine. Tomakhiv asked them what they miss most about their civilian lives, what lessons the war has taught them and if there was ever a time when they were a step away from death.
Andriy said that his intuition saved him because there have been times when he chose one route over another that ended up being heavily shelled. Brushes with death only crop up after an operation, when there is time to process, Dmytro said.
The soldiers miss simple pleasures, such as enjoying a cup of coffee and hiking. One misses “the absence of responsibility” in his former life because it existed on a much smaller scale prior to the war. Now his worries are much larger and involve the well-being of many men.
Besides battling for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, each soldier had their own reason for joining the armed forces, Tomakhiv said.
“For freedom,” Bohdan told her. “For freedom to be yourself. For freedom to choose your purpose, your language, your view of history. And for the freedom of my children and family.”
The soldiers were also funny and sincere, Tomakhiv said. Spending time with them solidified her feelings that “all the best people are fighting” in this war, she said.
“They don’t have these fake masks on,” she said. “They’re just real because this is war, and there isn’t time to be fake. Our soldiers are fighting not because they hate the Russians, but to protect what they love — their land and families and friends.”
After Tomakhiv graduates in the spring, she plans to stay in Maine for a year-long internship. She eventually hopes to live and work in Ukraine, where her parents, Volodymyr and Svitlana, and older sister Marta reside. Her twin sister, Nataliia, lives in Poland.
