‘Not In Vain’

Yevgen Kuruch was on a bus from Belgium to Ukraine when the driver announced the war had begun.

If he returned, the 38-year-old reserve officer would be among the first to be mobilised.

So he got off the bus in Warsaw, Poland, the final scheduled stop before Ukraine, went to the nearest McDonald’s, connected to WiFi, and called his wife and parents.

As sirens rang in his hometown of Odesa, they insisted he stay in Poland.

“I understand that I have a duty to defend my country,” Kuruch explained.

“At the same time, I recognise that my family requires my assistance,” he explained. “Above all, I must take care of them.”

He began working as a taxi driver in Warsaw, where he was joined by his wife, his eight-year-old daughter Anastasia, and his five-year-old son Kirill.

Kuruch recalled tense encounters with several Ukrainian women while driving through Warsaw.

“I’ve been told, ‘Our husbands are fighting at the front, and you cowards are staying here?'” You’re sneaking around behind our husbands’ backs.”

Since the beginning of the war, many families have been split up as women and children fled to safety elsewhere.

According to Polish statistics, one out of every two Ukrainians registered in Poland is a child, and women account for 77% of the adult population under protection.

“I realise it’s a sensitive subject for them… “If I see that this is causing conflict, I simply stop talking and try to get the passenger wherever they need to go,” Kuruch explained.

He usually seeks solace from his family.

“When I look at them, I gain strength and realise that what I’m doing now isn’t in vain.”

Info source – AFP