By David Fleet
Editor
It was day 25 of the war, and Anna Sorochynska friends and family are scattered in different cities with guns in hands.
“I am doing fine, but the internet is still horrible,” said Sorochynska, a volunteer defending the Ukraine..
“My unit and I are planning to move somewhere closer to the frontline to help the effort more efficiently, but we are still waiting for our transport. Almost all of my friends, including my husband, are heroically defending Kyiv. The situation there is tough, but under control.”
Sorochynska a native of Vinnytsia, a community of about 400,000 located in west-central Ukraine—was a student at Goodrich High School during the 2015-16 school year as part of the Future Leaders Exchange, or FLEX program. The U.S. State Department-sponsored scholarship program is for students from the countries of the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine. Sorochynska stayed with the Brehl family of Goodrich. The Citizen newspaper has kept in contact with Sorochynska as tensions between Russia and Ukraine intensified.
Now, following the Feb. 24 Russian invasion, Sorochynska has rejoined the Ukraine militia.While communications are limited and often sporadic given the nature of the war, Sorochynska reported from an undisclosed location due to security reasons. She has been restationed to guard infrastructure objects and says the Western media actually does a great job in informing the world about the war and the heroic acts of the defenders of Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and other cities.

“As for the comfort – we are actually feeling amazing,” she said. “The volunteers help a lot, food is being delivered from cafés, the  civilians bring a lot of food and equipment too, but of course it is Kyiv. In some places the soldiers have to live in more severe conditions as it is dangerous to deliver stuff to these places.”
“It was a little cold at night, but now the weather is lovely,” she said.
According to CNN and other news sources, about 15 percent of the soldiers fighting Russia are women. However, some like Sorochynska, are not officially members of the military, but were trained prior to the war. From the summer of 2018 through winter 2019 she served in the Eastern Ukraine as a volunteer militia.
“I am actually very lucky to have my unit, as they treat me as their sister, no more no less,” she said. “There are some skeptics who believe that war is not a place for women, but of course any one from my unit would defend me in case somebody would try to send me away. Nevertheless, in my first war, I had to prove my worth quite often and work very hard to earn the place at the frontline, but afterwards my commanders actually admitted that I did a good job.”
Today the fact that Sorochynska has previous combat experience allows her to avoid any unnecessary questions, she added.
“Of course, there are some things that I physically can’t do or don’t have to do , such as carrying heavy stuff (sandbags for instance), but that’s about it.It is always harder for women to prove their worth, but those who are ready to work hard, will eventually achieve their goals. If there is blatant sexism, one can always switch units, as these outdated beliefs are fading. At least two of my female friends are now defending Kyiv.”
Personally, Sorochynska would like the world to know how tough the situation currently is in the city of Mariupol.
“Since the separatists were kicked out of the city in 2014, it has been one of the major and most prosperous cities in the Donbass region,” she said. “Now it is encircled, but its defenders are courageously protecting the city, therefore Russia aims to destroy the city completely disregarding any civilian losses.”
The mayor of Mariupol actually said that around 80-90 percent of buildings in the city are destroyed, she added. The Russians shell schools, hospitals, kindergartens, theatres, claiming that these are bases of the Armed Forces, which is not true. Moreover there has been information that Russia forces the civilians to evacuate to Russian territory instead of Ukraine, which is in fact deportation.
“If Mariupol falls, it will be the biggest tragedy of this war. I personally have several friends fighting for Mariupol and I cannot even contact them,” she said. “The only thing left is to pray for their lives.”