The primary went from civilian to navy life. The second fully modified languages. The third bravely helped maintain the nation shifting alongside its rail community lifeline.

Not a single Ukrainian was left untouched by the Russian invasion, which began on February 24, 2022.

Three of them spoke to AFP about what they lived by way of, and the way the warfare modified them.

Sergiy Osachuk, governor-turned-fighter

On the evening of the invasion, then-governor Sergiy Osachuk, who had been briefed about an imminent assault, slept with one eye open.

“I used to be woken up by explosions and messages on my telephone that Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine had begun.”

The governor of the western Chernivtsi area traded his good enterprise swimsuit for navy fatigues.

Osachuk grew to become lieutenant colonel of the State Border Guard Service, which in peacetime patrols Ukraine’s borders.

There, the 50-year-old coordinates work with different branches of the navy — and places himself within the line of fireside.

“In the meanwhile I am happier right here than if I might needed to keep as a governor. It is a large accountability.”

Osachuk was a Ukrainian reservist when the warfare began and annoyed that he couldn’t enroll right away.

“Within the first half of the 12 months, I organised the mobilisation… in Chernivtsi. Each day I urged individuals to affix the armed forces,” he says.

“When my time period of workplace got here to an finish on July 14, I instantly joined up. It is a large honour for me to be among the many Border Guards working to get again Ukraine’s borders.”

Osachuk says he plans to remain within the navy for so long as it takes, viewing it as his and each citizen’s responsibility to defend Ukraine till victory is gained.

Rushing by way of Bakhmut, which Russian forces have tried to seize since final 12 months, he says: “That is the place the place the destiny of each Ukraine and the free nations of the world is being determined.”

Kateryna Musienko, reconnecting by way of language

Earlier than the warfare, Odesa resident Kateryna Musienko spoke solely Russian and even seemed down on these utilizing Ukrainian or “Surzhyk” — a mixture of the 2 languages.

However “all the things modified” when the warfare began, the 24-year-old says.

In March, her grandfather was killed in a Russian assault in Odesa.

“I used to be so overwhelmed. I did not really feel grief… solely disgust and hatred for all the things Russian associated.”

“As a lot as I used to be an aggressive Russian speaker, I grew to become an aggressive Ukrainian speaker, with out compromises, and irrevocably.”

Her mother and father and boyfriend additionally transitioned to Ukrainian — and so did quite a lot of compatriots.

Musienko advocates for the destruction of monuments to Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and altering road names linked to Russia.

She has additionally created an NGO for the safety of the Ukrainian language.

“Language lives and develops solely when it lives in on a regular basis life,” she explains.

“If our kids don’t communicate Ukrainian, the language will die.”

She needs her organisation to organise “video games, debates, lectures, programs, dialog golf equipment, festivals” and hopes that there can be a “mass motion” of individuals changing to Ukrainian.

“Not by pressure, after all, however by asking questions, reasoning,” she says.

Andriy Yeryomenko, on Ukraine’s lifeline

The warfare left its mark on prepare conductor Andriy Yeryomenko.

“My beard turned gray,” jokes the 53-year-old, sitting in a prepare carriage in his blue uniform.

Coming from an extended line of railway employees, Yeryomenko remembers the primary moments of the invasion, when his crew — together with his spouse — evacuated hundreds of compatriots.

“Individuals had been afraid, they had been all in a state of shock: youngsters, canine, cats, adults, previous individuals,” he tells AFP.

“We took on anybody we may. There could be 10 or 12 individuals in compartments meant for 4.”

His prepare would cross the huge nation, typically with headlights switched off, carrying traumatised individuals to relative security.

Ukrzaliznytsia, the nationwide rail system, stored working even beneath shelling, sustaining the nation afloat.

Many Ukrainians have praised “hero” rail employees on social media.

However Yeryomenko, whose two sons are on the battlefield, sweeps that apart.

“We merely did our job,” he says, “none of us burned any tank, took down a aircraft or shot a Russian.”