A firsthand account of what it’s like to be in Ukraine right now

Today, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and a few men in his cabinet showed their bravery. They took to the streets to rally people against the Russian invaders. The men look stern and concerned… tired, resolute, and defiant.

Zelensky looks straight into the camera and says directly to his people:

Good evening, everyone. The leader of the party is here. The head of the presidential administration is here. [Prime Minister] Shmyhal is here. Podolyak is here. The president is here.

We are all here. Our soldiers are here. The citizens of the country are here. We are all here protecting our independence, our country, and we are going to continue to do so.

Glory to the defenders of Ukraine.

Glory to Ukraine.

Svyatik Artemenko was born in Ukraine and raised in Canada. We talked to him in his apartment in Khmelnytskyi, Western Ukraine.

Artemenko is a professional soccer player who went to Ukraine on trial in search of a team. He succeeded but one day after signing his contract, war broke out.

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SVYATIK ARTEMENKO: Well, I can’t say I’m a hundred percent calm right now, but I am not as nervous as I thought I would be. Go back two years and I was thinking of myself being in this situation, I thought I’d be really nervous, but I’m the only more proud of myself going rather than being nervous because I’m here to protect my, my homeland, my home country and my family that’s living in Ukraine at the moment and all people and fighting for its for liberty and and freedom.

I’m going to Odessa within a couple hours right now. In Odessa, I’m going to be enlisting in the military.

I’ve always had the patriotism for my country, but currently I’m not forced to be in the military here in Ukraine, but it is a personal choice as I was born here and I do have all my family members here that are enlisting in the military. So I think it’s the right personal choice for me to enlist myself instead of running away.

I do have my family members. I will not be naming names at the moment for their own safety, but they are enlisting right now too in Odessa as well. So this is why I also decided to go to Odessa.

Ukraine is lacking a bit of military manpower, even though when I went to the military base here to sign up, you could have been waiting in line for as long as two hours.

What I think the main thing is that we are missing is preparation at the moment. Yes, I do think that the [European Union] and [NATO] should be aware and should start sending in military manpower to Ukraine . This is all assuming it’s going to lead to World War 3, so the whole world is preparing for this because you never know with [Vladimir] Putin. First, he says he’s bringing in military manpower into Ukraine just to save the Russians. And now all of a sudden, he wants to take over the whole country. So you really never know what he’s up to.