The war came into Vitalina’s life not with russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but eight years earlier…
The war came into Vitalina’s life not with russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but eight years earlier, when her father volunteered for the ATO. After two years’ service he came home to look after an elderly grandfather. Vitalina’s family lived a quiet village life: they had their own house, a vegetable garden and greenhouses. In her free time Vitalina drew, and she had lots of friends. She loved going to school because she loved learning, and every year she received letters of commendation for her hard work. On 24 February 2022 the war came to the Tabachnyi family once more – Vitalina’s father was mobilised again.
Soon afterwards the village where Vitalina lived with her mum and grandmother was occupied. It was cut off from the outside world entirely: for months neither Vitalina nor her mum knew what was happening to her father at the front – whether he was well, or even alive. Six months passed in this isolation, until tension and pressure from the occupiers began to build in the village.
“Our dad is in the army. We knew that sooner or later the occupiers would come for us – and, above all, that they would use our child to blackmail us.”
That was the last straw: the sense of danger made Vitalina and her mum decide to leave their occupied home. The journey was hard. Cars were held at checkpoints and not let through, so they spent two days queuing before they could board an evacuation train from Zaporizhzhia to Lviv.
Vitalina and her mum settled in Stryi, a small town in Lviv region. She found it hard to adjust: she felt lonely and out of place among teenagers her age, and embarrassed by the language barrier. It was hard for her to accept that stress had hurt her marks and that she now had to work much harder to reach her usual level. A lot didn’t go right, and it made Vitalina angry: she would snap, get anxious and shut herself away.
Her mum says Vitalina often misses home. But what frightens her most is the thought that home may never be a safe place again. She worries that, because of the occupation, some people in the village will accept the new authorities and hold on to the enemy’s ideas even after Ukraine is liberated.
“How do we live after that?” – Vitalina asks, feeling that she will never again be able to experience her own home as a completely safe place.
On top of that, this sensitive girl carries constant worry for her dad at the front. Sometimes she goes weeks without hearing from him. Her mum says it is impossible to live a normal life: they keep checking the phone, waiting for his call, but the worst part is living with the dread of terrible news.
Her father tries to lift the family’s spirits himself: “Why the long faces, my girls? Everything will be all right! Every war comes to an end!”
Vitalina accepts her dad’s choice to defend Ukraine as a soldier, but at times she feels despair, hurt and bitterness that it is her father who isn’t there, risking his life for the future.
When we met Vitalina at Horytsvit, we saw a shy, polite, slightly sad girl with big blue eyes. Day by day she opened up and relaxed, and more and more often we saw her smiling, lively and active. At the same time, she often went off on her own – a fresh wave of pain for her father always came without warning. This chapter of her life can’t be erased: the pain and sadness stay with her. But at the camp Vitalina found support – among other teenagers with similar stories, and among mentors who were always ready to listen, to hug her and to be there.
What Vitalina valued most at the camp was the sense of freedom and respect: the freedom to be herself, to be different, to speak her mind, to be vulnerable in front of others, and to be creative without limits or rigid tasks. Her mum said her daughter came back from the camp more emotionally open, as if she had more energy for life and more interest in the world in general.