“All the people are really, really united like never before,” said Nastya Arnaby, a DJ who now spends her days cooking meals for hospitals and the military
DALLAS — The heartbreaking images from Ukraine are becoming increasingly harder to see as Russian aggression continues.
The war has lasted more than a week at this point, and ground fighting has stepped up along with the bombings.
In a video now being circulated around the globe, soldiers are seen escorting people one by one across a badly damaged damaged bridge in Irpin, just outside Kyiv.
A soldier can be heard telling a child “You are OK now. We will find your mom.”
“The whole message is unbearable,” said Margarita Gaysn, who has heard countless tragic stories along these lines over the last several days. “[There were] people looking to adopt newborn twins because their mother and father were killed. They were just born.”
Many Ukrainians have traded in their everyday jobs for new work on the frontlines of the humanitarian crisis. Many others have traded in their jobs for work on the frontlines of war.
“[These are] people who are singers, bloggers, and who are TV hosts,” said Nastya Arnaby, a DJ herself.
Mere weeks ago, Olia Cybulska was a well-known Ukrainian pop singer. Her friend Margarita Gaysn worked as a manager and TV host. But that all feels many lifetimes ago now.
“They are shooting people, killing people — just random people,” said Gaysn.
Gaysn and Cybulska are currently hunkered down in western Ukraine. Nastya Arnaby is staying in an underground bar in Kyiv, and can hear the bombs constantly.
“With all this happening, then you hear the blow ups, it gets me back to reality,” said Arnaby.
Arnaby, known professionally as DJ Arnaby, has been helping cook for the military and nearby hospitals. She has been starting her shifts at 8 a.m. for the past several days and working late. She and the staff at the bar she’s staying in have been cooking foods like bread, stew, buckwheat soup, compote and other foods high in fiber and protein.
“All the people are really, really united like never before,” Arnaby said.
They’re also tired. Cybulska told WFAA that, while the war has been going on for just over a week, it already feels like a lot longer. She and her friends have been sharing images with western media to put the truth out there about what is happening on the ground. It’s mentally exhausting, but important work.
Said Cybulska: “Thanks for letting us speak with all the world so they will hear us and stop this dirty game.”
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