(Karlivka) Svitlana Povar and her husband Semion had made a pact: he would go to the front while she took care of their son. Her death with arms in hand changed everything, pushing this widow to enlist in the Ukrainian army.
At 42, Svitlana’s world was turned upside down when she learned, on her birthday, of the death of her husband, with whom she had shared her life for almost 20 years.
It was last September. Semion wanted his son to be able to live in a country at peace and had gone to fight the Russian invasion.
After this tragic news, it was unthinkable for Svitlana to stay at home to wait for the end of the war.
“I spent five months begging the enlistment offices,” she told AFP in Kyiv, during a duty granted by the army.
According to her, her husband understood her decision.
“Sometimes I feel like someone is watching over me. I tell myself that he is by my side, that he is helping me, ”she said when recalling her first days on the front near the hot spot of Bakhmout in the East.
” Everything will be alright ”
According to Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar, 42,000 women are engaged in the army, 5,000 of whom are fighting on the front lines. It is impossible to know, however, how many joined the ranks after the death of their spouse in combat.
PHOTO GENYA SAVILOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Svitlana Povar shows a photo of her dead husband.
At the mention of her husband, Svitlana cannot hold back her tears. She remembers that during their first romantic walk in a park, he had fun saying that they would get married one day.
She says she wants to finish the work started by her husband.
“We must put an end” to this war, she said. “Not our children”.
However, she did not find the strength to tell her son that she was going to fight in the Donetsk region, where Semion, who served as a sniper, was killed.
But the teenager, who is now studying in Poland, has come to understand it. He even tries to talk to his mother about the possibility of her being killed at the front.
“When he starts talking about it… Maybe I’m wrong, but I cut it short and tell him it’ll be fine,” she explains.
Yevgenia Kolesnichenko decided during her husband’s funeral that she would help her country by becoming a war nurse.
Originally from Avdiivka, a town on the eastern front line, the 34-year-old was in Poland with her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old twins when she learned of her husband’s death in Bakhmout in November.
“When he died, I realized that someone had to take up the torch,” she told AFP, although she knows her husband would not have accepted her going to the front.
“People who are not currently fighting should gradually prepare for war. Sooner or later, most of us will be engaged,” she says.
“My Sacrifice”
“I work with one idea in mind: ‘that as many husbands and fathers as possible can return home'”, she explains, saying “always keep in mind that there is someone waiting at home the wounded soldiers she treats.
Yevgenia’s life changed dramatically within a few months.
Before the Russian invasion, she had an embroidery workshop. Now she works alongside two other widows and knows others who are at the front.
“Some were so affected by the death of their spouse that they too joined the army in one way or another,” she told AFP.
This Ukrainian is well aware of the risks of her commitment: she has already organized the guardianship of her son in case she were to die on the front.
“If you take the situation from an ’emotional’ point of view, it is likely that no one is ready to pay this price”, she says about the death of her husband.
Before adding, certain that the future of her country also depends on her actions: “That’s why I’m here now. I could die too. It would be my sacrifice”.