She’s still fighting this
Anya, the DIY evacuation co-ordinator for Mariupol and Bakhmut, is still going strong...
One thing about Ukraine is that it’s huge by European standards. Another thing is that, just because someone is supposed to be 500 miles away, that doesn’t mean they won’t turn up in your yard at a moment’s notice. This happened yesterday with Anya and Yuri, a duo of super-active super-volunteers who, as Anya put it, have been to all the hot points together.
This included evacuating people first from Mariupol and then Bakhmut in the early stages of the war – those who wanted it, at any rate, which is a story in itself. Sashko made a film about their work: My Favourite Job. When I was in Ukraine last autumn I did a long interview with Anya and Yuri, which you can read here: ‘All your hatred, all your pain, goes towards fighting this’. Yes, it’s grim. There’s a war on.
Yuri is now a driver for the famous Azov battalion, which takes the couple all over Ukraine, including time to drop into friends’ kitchens. Anya fundraises and they both still find time to pursue other projects that support the war effort. I asked her for an update:
‘We did a project in Kherson, taking a tractor, and setting up a well and pump in to two villages, so 90 courtyards in two villages got safe water. Now we’re collecting money for batteries for drones on the Kherson front.
‘We’re going to be planning more civilian projects in Kherson, for when the front line moves [i.e. when the temporarily occupied left bank of the Dnipro river is liberated]. For villages, but mainly to help the army. That’s the most important thing at the moment.’
It clearly is the most important thing - Anya even has her own fund, Independent Nation, where she raises money for drones - but if you read the original interview you may warm to this news: ‘We got married on 6 April! It was a small wedding. Yura’s fellow soldiers came, lads from the front, and we just got married at a registry office then went to a café with some friends.’
It’s generally best not to sentimentalise Ukrainian resistance: cliches of true love under fire, and all that. On the other hand… these two are so cute! They really do gaze at each other adoringly all the time!
The captions aren’t a mistake. They’re from the longer interview I linked above. They match the images perfectly, because this duality is how people live.
Go Anya! Go Yuri! and go Anna!