Greetings! I’m glad you found some time for our conversation! Please, tell us more about yourself. Where are you from, and what do you do?
Good afternoon! I am also very happy to be here. I was born in Kherson region and lived in Kherson for ten years. When the full-scale invasion started, I lived in occupation for a month and a half, and then I moved to Rivne region with my family, and now I live in Rivne. I am a lawyer by profession and I work a little in this field, but now I spend a lot of time volunteering, and the rest of my time I devote to art.
Did you expect a full-scale war? How was your February 24th?
I probably did not expect such an invasion. On February 24, my mother called me at about 5 a.m. She said that the war had begun and that the city was being shelled. My parents lived in Beryslav. Opposite is Kakhovka, which is still occupied. She said there were very loud explosions there. A few minutes later, these explosions were heard in Kherson. Antonivka and Chornobaivka were shelled too. Honestly, it was just scary, but this fear was strange because you didn’t know what to do.
At that moment I was just at home, reading the news and telegram channels, talking to my military acquaintances. Sometimes my friends who were abroad told me about the events in Chornobaivka and asked if I was far away. I answered jokingly: «Yes, very far. It’s 11 kilometers from my front door». We didn’t know what to do because none of the civilians were prepared for it. Everybody knew about it, heard about it, but nobody was really ready.
Please tell us about life in occupation.
Activists started making anti-tank hedgehogs when the Russian military had not come to the city yet, but the mayor said to stop this activity and claimed that everything would be fine. I am a little surprised by not understanding of people who have not lived in occupation. When you tell them that everything disappeared from the store in a few days after the full-scale invasion, they say that was the same situation in their cities as well. The main difference is their stores were already full in a few days, while shops on the right bank of the Kherson region were full only after 8 months. There was a shortage of everything. Residents of villages from the left bank of Kherson brought vegetables while the bridge was open. Hygiene and medicines had to be searched like in survival movies. Bread factories did not work because there was no raw material. There were small bakeries, but you had to stand in line for 3–4 hours. You could only get one loaf of bread per person. So if you had a large family, you had to go in several. All this was accompanied by constant shelling.
We spent a few nights in the basement, and then it made no sense, because the basement could not save us from a direct hit, but quite the opposite.
Every noise was frightening, and knocking on the door even more so. There were looters, but they were less dangerous than the Russians who kidnapped and tortured people. Sometimes there was no contact with parents for 3 to 7 days. Many animals did not survive due to intolerance to regular food and lack of medicine. One of my cats died from heart rupture. Animals do not understand what war and explosions are.
Despite the difficult situation, we did all possible to help our military. I have many friends among motorcyclists who helped to monitor the movement of the enemy.
I am terrified because you do not know what to expect. It is scary that so many people are dying. We don’t know if we will have a place to come back. My parents’ house is no longer appropriate for living. The apartment where I lived in Kherson had no windows, and the apartments below it were flooded. Many things remained at home, I can say that everything. No one knows how life will go on.
You mentioned that you lived in occupation for a while. Can you tell us when you decided to leave your hometown? Did your family move with you?
Yes, we lived in occupation approximately for a month and a half. We agreed to move out of Kherson region with my parents. Had to meet them not so far from Kherson. We found a taxi driver who agreed to give us a ride, because there were a lot of Russian posts on the way out of town, and we do not have our own car. Only then we began to move together to the territory controlled by Ukraine. It was really hard for many people to leave their places because the whole life was there.
Leaving was probably scarier than staying in Kherson, because there were no agreements, no humanitarian corridors. When we were leaving, we came under fire from the Russians. Some people were leaving the city on motorcycles and bicycles. The Russians stopped us right in the middle of the road when Ukrainian troops were shooting at their positions. So they were hiding behind civilians. There were a lot of complaints and jokes about «why are you going there, you can hear who is shelling now, where the debris is coming from, it’s not us, you can see that». They took everything what they wanted, even such small things as painkillers.
It happened several times that the safety of the weapon was taken off behind your back while the car was being searched. You hear this sound, and you don’t know whether you’re going to live or not. It felt like you took a deep breath and the whole time you were driving to the government-controlled territory, you didn’t breathe at all. And only when we saw the Ukrainian flag, we could exhale. I talked to a lot of people, and they all say that everything seemed to be in a gray color. When you were finally on the territory controlled by Ukraine, just then you started breathing and seeing colors.
It’s hard to imagine what you and your family had to go through. You have found your own way to fight with the occupants – it’s really cool! Tell us, how did you come up with the idea of auctions, and when was the first one held?
At first, it was a raffle. I have auctions and lotteries from time to time. It all started when I saw that some people were selling handmade things for donations. So I decided to try to do something with my painting.
My first lottery was in October 2022, I painted a picture of cherries. We raised about 6500 hryvnias for it. I think this is pretty good money for charity.
Then I met an artist from Rivne (Kostiantyn Kachanovskyi) who introduced me to Kolia Seirga and my second painting was signed by Kolia.
I saw on the news that the pilot «Karaya» (Vadym Voroshylov) had catapulted. I texted him, and he wrote back, which immediately made me smile. We agreed that he sign my paintings. One of them will be raffled, and the other will be at exhibitions. The first painting was sold last year for about 7-8 thousand hryvnias. The second one has already been at three exhibitions in Kyiv.
The only thing that I really need is more activity from my audience. I know that there are various offline auctions, but I can’t find a way to get there. I think that not everyone can get a signature of a pilot, a hero of Ukraine, so this is a very cool thing that many people will be interested in getting.
You mentioned that in addition to auctions, you also hold lotteries. What do you raffle off, and where do you look for lots?
There are airplane shells signed by pilots, photos of pilots with their signatures, chevrons, a lamp made from an anti-tank aircraft bomb, turnstiles, and paintings, of course.
Do you do it just by yourself, or do you have someone to help you?
Everything related to the paintings I do by myself. Sometimes my relatives help me with collections, sometimes subscribers help to cover part of the collection.
The paintings signed by famous people and our defenders are really cool! How do you manage to realize this? How do you look for these people, or do they find you?
Unfortunately, if they find me, they just subscribe to me, and then I ask them about some kind of interactions. But usually I look for people on my own.
Do you remember the largest amount of money raised in one auction or lottery? What was it? Do you keep a record of the total amount you managed to raise?)
Yes, it was a painting signed by the army aviation pilot Birdie. We raised 30,000 thousand hryvnias in that lottery. More than 100,000 hryvnias were from lotteries and auctions in total, and about 2 million hryvnias from all collections for 2 years.
How do you choose painting for auctions? Do you have any particular theme or style for your paintings?
If it’s going to be signed by a military man, it can be his logo, the logo of his brigade, or something related to his subject (airplane, helicopter). It can be anything for other people.
Have you ever faced criticism in your volunteer work?
Sometimes there were comments, mostly about high prices for paintings, but nothing too serious. Once I raffled off a Russian pilot helmet which was signed by a Ukrainian pilot. I was ridiculed by Russians in Telegram channel. As a result, I had to close the Instagram page for a week because of a flood of negative comments from trolls.
I can imagine how difficult that situation was. Did you ever consider quitting after that?
After that incident, no. It’s discouraging when fundraising becomes increasingly challenging. You come up with all sorts of ideas to engage people, but sometimes it just doesn’t work, and that thought crosses your mind pretty often. Many well-known bloggers close their fundraisers within a week without any prizes, while my fundraising can continue a whole month.
I understand that many volunteers are facing this problem now. That is a really sad tendency. How do you manage to stay motivated and enthusiastic in such a difficult time?
Exactly. Honestly, I don’t know; I just don’t want the occupation to be everywhere, I don’t want everyone to feel it, I don’t want the enemy on our territory, I don’t want people to die. But I want to make a contribution to our victory. People need to understand that it’s important to help our soldiers now because it might be too late. I don’t mind raising funds for the families who lost someone on war. The thing is that there are times when it is more important to use those donations in order to keep our defenders’ life. So it’s extremely important to do that right now.
I agree with you! How do you use the funds raised, what needs do you fulfill?
It can be anything from underwear for the wounded to drones and rifles.
Do you have a story that touched you during your volunteer work?
That is so touching when the military donate or the wives of killed soldiers. This is the help I could not accept, but sometimes they even insist on it.
What advice can you give to people who want to combine creativity with volunteering?
Approach things step by step, don’t hold several collections at once, and don’t try to help everyone at once. Be careful with the product of your creativity, sometimes it may not be entirely appropriate for a charity raffle. For example, some images may not be appropriate for our military.
What is your secret creative dream?
I dream to sign Zaluzhnyi’s painting (although he has my painting with a watermelon, but we haven’t met in person), and another one to give to Budanov. I would like to hold two thematic exhibitions of my own.
I wish you success in realizing your plans and dreams. Furthermore, I am sure they will come true! What will you do first after our victory?
I will go to the sea and go fishing with the pilots.
The material was produced with the support of the NGO «Institute of Mass Information» as part of a project of the international organisation Internews Network.
