A Ukrainian teacher volunteered to join the troops and defend her country a year ago as Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine.
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The one who had never touched a weapon before or even had any interest in the military, Yulia Bondarenko, felt challenged by the war raging at home.
“I had never held a gun in my hands,” she said.
This decision changed his life completely.
More than a year ago, this teacher’s life was overflowing with lesson plans for Secondary One (Grade 7) and corrections students.
As the blasts rocked Kyiv, Bondarenko took the metro to report for work, doubting the recruiting office would take him without checks or a physical fitness exam.
The officers asked no questions and handed him a rifle and 120 bullets.
“For the first two weeks, I felt like I was in a cloud of smoke. It was a perpetual nightmare,” she said.
Constantly on the alert, she expected to die at any moment. She remembers the intense stress that inhabited her.
Of a shy and intellectual nature, she would never have imagined such a turnaround. She greatly doubted her abilities, she who knew nothing about war.
Gradually, she learned to become a soldier thanks to other volunteers, mainly men with some military experience, who trained her.
Based in a shopping center, the volunteer soldiers took turns working shifts at various checkpoints in the capital.
Yulia and two other women were changing in a bathroom, out of sight of the men.
The nights were cold, she recalls.
After fighting for several weeks, she was offered a job as a cook or even the chance to leave the army.
This fighter decided to overcome her fears by remaining in the infantry, thus gaining more and more skill and experience.
– According to information from the New York Times