Viktoria Ivleva. A person who stops war

The war will be over. There are many people, who stop it, both in Ukraine and Russia.

Viktoria Ivleva has become a real discovery for me. She is a Russian journalist, who collects humanitarian aid for Donbas and helps evacuate the local residents. She is a Russian woman, who was taken captive for the sake of Ukraine’s security and integrity.

… Istanbul. Journalist Viktoria Ivleva is sharply different from other people. She is harsh, uncompromising, tired. A bit later I found out who Viktoria Ivleva was, what hell she had stayed in, and what she had seen. And yet, how many people have felt her kindness, and what a sincere kind smile Viktoria has…

Viktoria Ivleva, the Russian journalist, decided to go to Ukraine for a few months at the beginning of this war. As she jokes bitterly, she went to search for Ukrainian ultra-nationalists, Bandera followers. She has not found them. However, in her sketches, the Russian journalist has told about my Ukraine in lay terms, through her heart, without theatrics. Her observations later gave birth to the photo album The Journey of facebook jockey.

The flight from Istanbul to Kyiv. I thumb through The Journey … . The album contains her photo travel throughout Ukraine, from Donetsk to Donetsk. It tells about the war in the civilized XXI century and about peace, which is so tangible now. Donetsk, Pavlysh, Poltava, Lubny, Independence Square in Kyiv, Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Korosten, Donetsk … There are different people, my people. We lose connection with them because of the heartless war “generators” on both sides of the barricades.

It hurts Ivleva. Ivleva is ashamed for her country. The volunteer heart of Ukraine has charmed Ivleva. I sometimes ironically perceive her excessive enthusiasm for Ukraine, but it’s the breath of life to me.

I keep leafing through The Journey… . The journalist focuses on the tired eyes of pensioners, who have been struggling with poverty for the last twenty-five years. The tired eyes of children, who are no strangers to war. The tired eyes of young people, who suddenly found themselves face to face with the destruction of their world. There are also different glances – careless, disheveled, euphoric … They are like children, Ivleva writes. They understand that happiness will not come tomorrow with a wave of a Putin’s wand.

The album also contains a bunch of letters from children, school graduates from different cities of Ukraine. Looking at them, I start shivering a little, being about to cry. Children from Poltava write letters to their agemates in Donetsk and in Russia, children from Donetsk write their letters to Lviv and Zhytomyr. Each letter is the reflection of the multifaceted country.

I read about the torn into pieces Ukraine and I feel its pieces bleeding. I have not cried about Ukraine long since, all the tears somehow dried up during the Maidan period. But it breaks my siege …

Kyiv, the Boryspil Airport. I give the album to a Moscow volunteer, who has been living in Kyiv for over six years already. Her contribution to the peace and security is not less than that of Ukrainian volunteers. She asks whether The Journey… is worth reading. Of course, it is!

… Viktoria is a little-known person for me. However, such people make the earth rotate, so peace is approaching faster.

Photos taken from facebook page of Viktoria Ivleva