THIS INSIDE UKRAINE STORY IS FROM Mariupol.

* All images and answers in the feature were provided by the WOW Woman, unless otherwise specified.

INSIDE UKRAINE SERIES: A SNAPSHOT, A DAY-IN-THE-LIFE, A GLIMPSE OF WHAT IT’S LIKE TO LIVE, RESIST, SURVIVE AND PERSEVERE IN A NATION UNDER ATTACK. GLORY TO THE UKRAINIAN WOW WOMEN, FOR SUPPORTING THEIR COUNTRY AND BRINGING UKRAINE CLOSER TO VICTORY.

Some of the toughest Ukrainians are from Mariupol, the south-eastern Ukrainian city on the coast of the Sea of Azov. The trouble is, out of 500,000 residents, approximately 120,000 have remained alive in the city; the rest have been killed or forced to flee by the relentless, cruel and indiscriminate russian bombing campaigns of spring 2022. Russians invaded and occupied Mariupol after a fearless siege of one of the last Ukrainian military holdouts in the, now infamous, Azovstal metallurgical plant. As such, an illegal full-scale territorial invasion on and occupation of a neighboring country began, on our watch, in Europe, in 2022.

For those who are not well-versed in a modern day warfare or occupation of another country, the brutality involved is not far off the Genghis Khan-style barbarism: brute-force intermixed with the digital-age information control tactics. As russians pillage through Ukraine, their modi operandi seem to be: cruelty, cowardice and maleficence. Ukrainians living in the russia-occupied Mariupol are systematically forced to obtain russian network sim cards, switch currencies and withdraw worthless russian rubles, pose for photos for the red enemy passports (required to obtain said sim cards and any sort of job in the occupied cities) and consume nonstop russian propaganda on the only channels available to the residents. Ukrainian road signs, billboards and restaurant menus have been forcefully changed to the language of the occupier.

Ukrainian businesses owners were forced to look down the barrel of a gun and threatened to re-register their businesses as russian; for example, russian soldiers arrived at the offices of local internet service providers and CEOs were just ordered to give up control of their networks. “They came to them and put guns to their head and just said, ‘Do this,’” said Maxim Smelyanets, who owns an internet provider that operates in the Mariupol area and is based in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. “They did that step by step for each company” and kept going, taking over granaries, food production facilities, manufacturing workshops, markets, pharmacy chains, and shopping malls. Suddenly thousands of new businesses started popping on the russian registry of companies in the fall of 2022, from Mariupol, Melitopol, and other russia-occupied regions. The psychopathic thing is, russians don’t bother hiding this.

This is how russian propaganda channel, RIA News, spins the hostile takeover of Ukrainian businesses by russian thugs: “After the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the work of a number of Ukrainian factories in the region was suspended, as the owners of the production facilities left the region. The new regional authorities have taken over control of more than 400 enterprises imposing external management, in order to save job placeholders and one day soon restart the production”. I see couple of nuanced omissions:

• “Owners of the facilities left the region” is code for “they fled as we were invading and killing them and their families”.

• When they write “save job placeholders for future start of production”, I’d like to know, for whom exactly? Is it for the residents whose homes russians destroyed, who have nothing to return to?Or for those workers who were protecting their homeland and were killed defending against the russian aggressor? Both are equally likely.

• “External management” is open admission of criminality, boasting about illegal takeovers of Ukrainian enterprises by the foreign agents.

A year and half later, full-scale invasion by the russians is still ongoing. But the life for the remaining Ukrainians living in Mariupol remains devastatingly tough and in-limbo. It’s painful to see the images of the city now, read personal accounts and scroll through the updated google maps of the entire torched territory of the once-bustling modern city. Russians showed the rest of the world what a true russia-brought “liberation” means; they bombed Mariupol so viciously, that over 90% of the city's residential buildings were reported damaged or completely destroyed by the invaders.

One image will stay with me forever because it carries the full weight of the russia-brought terror; it depicts the aftermath of a bombed maternity hospital ward in Mariupol. The building and the residents inside (women and their unborn children) were deliberately targeted by the russian federation, in violation of international humanitarian law. They had committed a war crime and it was captured by the Ukrainian photographer Evgeniy Maloletka below.

Image source. Ukrainian photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, who took this image, was one of the very few photographers documenting events in Mariupol at that time. He said: “We came to Mariupol just one hour before the invasion. For 20 days, we lived with paramedics in the basement of the hospital, and in shelters with ordinary citizens, trying to show the fear Ukrainians were living with.”

This Inside Ukraine WOW Woman interview is with Nadiya*, a brave and defiant resident of Ukraine, who remained in Mariupol, the city and the region she loves. Nadiya’s roots lie in russia. In fact, an estimated 11 million people in russia have Ukrainian relatives. Many Ukrainian citizens are ethnic russians, and those living in the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine largely speak russian as their native language. Yet, for majority of russians, the war doesn’t exist; it remains as a “cleansing military operation on Ukrainian territory”, as advertised by V. Putin. Some russians choose to keep their head in the sand; they don’t believe that they are responsible for civilian deaths and blame Ukrainian “nazis” for initiating the war, along with the big bad NATO/West. They also believe that russia was forced into a “defensive, knee jerk” invasion. For many russians however, it’s the thirst for Ukrainian blood and suffering that keeps them cheering for the invasion; they see it as a rightful punishment for Ukrainian audacity to distance from the old Soviet world order. The war, as such, has gone beyond the front lines and into the families of many related Ukrainians and russians, as well as the diasporas of those peoples around the world; many Ukrainians found themselves “divorcing” from their russian relatives who don’t believe the words of a person from their childhood, instead believing russian state media. Nadiya has similar experience with her relatives back in russia. She has been brave in her truthful sharing of her war experiences on Instagram and her words captured my attention. She also shares all about how the propaganda fog in her birthplace clouds the brains of her family and friends.

Like so many instances of stories from the war, even a fraction of what Nadiya writes about, as she bravely reports from the occupied Mariupol, is unfathomable to us, living in relative peaceful democracies: description of the whizzing missiles (and being able to identify the various types by a mere sound), jumping under the bed, grabbing for the nearest and the dearest (a cat, a rabbit); seeing russian fighter jets overhead and being thrown to the ground by a shock wave. Then there are mundane-seeming descriptions of humanity and of the small life details during such intense terror moments that disarm me completely - description of a hallway smell during an air raid, slippery ice on the stairs as one runs from missiles, putting on make-up in the darkness of the basement, to retain some sense of normalcy; all those bits get me to my knees in an absolute grief and reiterate a desperate desire for peace for my people.

Description of russian destruction in Mariupol is upsetting, city residents living without access to medicine is unfathomable, children unable to obtain humane medical services, like visiting a dentist, is criminal. There are 100,000 remaining Ukrainians in the city.

*The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it, the saying goes. Russia hates truth-tellers, especially inside the occupied territories. Outspoken people and their relatives are tortured and beaten. Nadiya is bravely writing from inside Mariupol; out of fear for her, I have insisted on changing all personal details, leaving only her powerful words. Her diary entries are impassionate, candid, unwavering in their honesty. Upon liberation, I will return to this feature, and reveal Nadiya’s name and her beautiful face; I’m praying this moment comes soon.

“However much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing, as it were, behind your back”.Truth is on our side, and we will prevail. Glory to the Ukrainian Heroes!

- Olga Shmaidenko, Founder of WOW Woman.

Translator, Ukrainian, Survivor, Mariupol, Ukraine

source for the above.

Updated Google Earth images (above) showing complete and utter destruction of the beautiful and modern Ukrainian city on the Sea of Azov.

3. What did you study and what is your profession?

I have two completely unrelated degrees, from two different universities: I studied fermentation process engineering and the Spanish language. I later became interested in cosmetology and took courses. Before the pandemic hit, I worked as a make-up artist.

Currently, in Mariupol, I work remotely, as a translator.

4. What was your typical day like before the war and how has your role changed since the invasion of Ukraine? Can you (if possible) describe the days the invasion happened and what you did and what went through your mind and how on earth you survived?

When I first moved to Mariupol up until the full-scale invasion, I was a housewife. When my husband was doing shift work, I cooked, cleaned, played computer games and read books. When he had a day off, we usually spent time together. I had a suspicion, before the 24th of February 2022, that the war was about to start. On the 23rd my husband confirmed my fears. I didn't know what to do, so I had a video call with my friend and we simply got drunk together. I didn't hear the first explosions - I was asleep.

On the 24th, my husband came home and told me that from then on he was going to live at work and would not be returning home for the foreseeable future (this is due to the nature of his work). I realized that I had to leave the city immediately because I would be completely alone at home. Later on, I would regret this decision. I packed the things that seemed most important, stocked up on essentials for our rabbit and ran. A few days after I fled from the city, the evacuation corridor for civilians was closed and it would become impossible for any residents to leave due to the continual russian bombing and shelling.

I lived in a village just outside Mariupol at our relatives’ house, while my husband stayed in the city. He later joined me in the village. When we returned to the city, it was much later, after the most active fighting phase in Mariupol. Since I have a russian passport, nobody cared about me at all. Only one army guy of the so-called DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic) was surprised that a russian passport holder was living in the area; he stupidly asked me if Ukrainians harmed me, or whether I had extremists views.

My emotions upon return to Mariupol were two-fold: on one hand, we were finally home, but on the other hand, we saw with our own eyes that the city was practically leveled to the ground. I am afraid I took it better than my husband though; upon our return he refused to go out to the streets as he didn't want to see the absolute destruction. I tried to photograph what I saw, to record some things, what I could, at least.

Diary entries, June 7, June 8, June 10, 2022:

On the day of the invasion, my husband came home and told me it was going to be bad. I started writing to everyone (family back in russia) about what was happening, telling them we were under russian attack. Some were supportive, but many turned out to be crazy; unfortunately, my mother was in the latter camp (but more on that later). In general, at first, I kept communicating the truth. When the next day my husband spent 24+ hrs at work, I started to lose it. I didn't have any friends in Mariupol yet, because I was a homebody, so I couldn’t simply walk over and speak with someone. When my husband announced that he would have to stay at work 24/7, I made the decision to leave for a while, to be with his family in the countryside outside Mariupol (although, if I'd known how things would eventually turn out, I wouldn't have left). I was in shock and hysterics from explosions, so I grabbed my backpack, my documents, a makeup bag (yes, yes, I'm the crazy one who wears makeup during the war), my rabbit with his feed (although forgot the litter box) and ran to the countryside.

At first things were really quiet and calm. I corresponded with my friends, read the news and believed that everything would soon be over. Then the internet in the city started to be spotty, which really stressed me out. I was angry and sad because I knew that my husband would celebrate his 30th somewhere in the basement in Mariupol. I cursed you-know-who. A little later, the electricity in our village went out. We saved ourselves by running a generator. It wasn't too scary, yet…

…until one day, when everything changed. My rabbit was with me; during the day she peacefully lay under the chair or bed, running wild at night, as any good rabbit does. But that morning, she flew toward me, and hid under my feet. A minute later the russian shooting and shelling started. In that instant, I didn't know where it was all coming from, the walls in the house started moving. I threw the bunny in my backpack and ran with the in-laws to the cellar. The cellar was not part of the house, so we had to run under the gunfire. The only thought I remember having was "fuck, I don't want to die so stupidly".

I don't know how long we sat in the basement, listening to the horrifying sounds from above; we were shaking. It was like time had ceased to exist. It was terribly cold and damp. When the sounds stopped, I went outside and texted my husband that we were being pounded. Soon after that, cell reception disappeared.

After some time (and many sleepless nights worrying about him in Mariupol), my husband joined me in the village. We tried to survive and carry on living somehow. One day I wanted to catch some fish. We got up early and went, I even dug for worms for the first time in my life. We reached a good spot by the river, sat down and cast our fishing lines. Suddenly, as we sat there waiting, two fighter planes flew right over us, low and loud! Then they suddenly returned and two more came. I was near hysterics. We saw one of the fighter jets get hit, we saw the explosion and dark smoke, we watched it go down somewhere in the distance. We didn't catch any fish.”

(images above were taken from my time in the Ukrainian village, just outside Mariupol)

5. What would you say are your strengths and superpowers?

I guess I was lucky that I know how to "switch off" from the world; this ability allowed me to stay sane and not mentally lose it.

6. What are some concrete actions (big or small) you’ve done and continue doing to help Ukraine and Ukrainian people?

From the very first moment I got reconnected to internet, I tried to tell everyone the truth. In real life, I didn't keep quiet either. Other things that are being done, I can't tell you about yet.

7. What are things you do just for you? Is it possible to stay sane in a war situation? What are some things that help you to not lose yourself?

What helped me stay sane, until the end of the internet connection, was playing the World of Warcraft, which I've played since I was 17. It helped me keep a resemblance of my normal life. Now it’s been difficult to pay for the game, but I'm looking for a way to resolve this issue.

8. Do you feel the war changed you? How? Since the start of the war, has anything surprised you about yourself (how you have handled yourself, remained strong, found inspiration in unlikely sources, etc.), about your country, about your ideas about humanity? What have been some of your epiphanies?

I don't feel like the war changed me, exactly. In fact, I believe that the war does not change people, rather it exposes their true character, revealing previously dormant traits.

I’ll note one thing: the value of life and its fragility became much more acutely realized and understood since invasion.

(photo provided by Nadiya)

9. What do you want the world to know about Ukrainians at this moment in time? About Ukrainian women?

I may sound like a broken record, but from my point of view, Ukrainians are literally stopping the world from falling into the abyss. they are doing this at the cost of their lives. Ukrainian people, women included, are out here really fighting the greatest evil. If you let this evil win, it won't stop at Ukraine, it will devour the entire democratic world.

10. Who are your WOW Women who inspire you?

Any woman who is not afraid to speak the truth in this environment, even if there are risks associated with it. Any woman fighting for Ukraine inspires me greatly.

11. What is a place or activity that makes you feel happiest?

Mariupol, even though the city is mostly destroyed and everyone in it has suffered so much. We left town for a while, but we soon realized that we don’t feel at home anywhere else. Even if we may be safer in other parts of Ukraine or abroad, Mariupol is still our home.

12. What will be the first thing you’ll do when Ukraine wins? What are your dreams for yourself and your family after the war is finished? Are you studying Ukrainian?

I can't even imagine, I'll probably cry and dance. Afterwards, I will call all those russians (some relatives included) who wished us dead and tell them that their dreams were not realized, and will never be!

I am learning Ukrainian and can understand and write quite well; my accent is still terrible though. We try not to speak russian at home, but so far, it's much easier for me to switch to English or Spanish. I hope with time, speaking Ukrainian will become easier and second nature to me.

13. Where can others find you/your work (links to website, blog, etc.)?

I will publish my real identity after Ukraine wins, because it’s too dangerous for me to reveal my true feelings while living under occupation. Russians do bad things to people who are openly against the russian regime.

14. Being inside Mariupol, what do people hope for, do you think? What do you most wish to happen to the residents of Mariupol and other occupied territories?

People, as it seems to me, are scared, and can’t wait for the liberation of the city from the occupiers. I wish for a quick de-occupation, of course, but I don't believe it will happen rapidly, as I realize how difficult of a task this is for Ukrainian army. Hoping for a quick miracle seems dangerous for my sanity.

I certainly believe that after de-occupation the city will be rebuilt and can thrive again. The main hope is for swift action by the liberators, with fewest possible Ukrainian casualties. The most ideal outcome, of course, would be withdrawal of the aggressor's troops without any hostilities, but this is highly unlikely.

15. Are you afraid? How do you cope with the fear?

On one hand - yes, it will be horrifying to have to live through hostilities again; but on the other hand - there is nothing worse than living under occupation. Truthfully speaking, I can't describe it as living - it’s a mere existence or survival and that's it. For me, it’s the realization that life can't get any worse that dispels any fears.

16. How have you adapted to living inside a russia-controlled city/area? Do you have to keep your head down? Be quiet? Not say what you mean and talk to people you don't know? How do you survive? How do you think people in the city cope with trauma? Do you think through drinking? or resisting? I'm sure so many people are angry!

We practically do not leave the house; when we do, we do not carry our phones with us. We do not communicate with anyone (I mean, with those we don’t know). We don't want to look around too much when out in public - the city has been destroyed so badly that there is simply no desire to gawk at the ruins.

On the domestic survival side, life in the city is also terrible. It is extremely difficult to find medicine or other necessities. I'm not even discussing other aspects of the everyday: elevators don't work in apartment buildings, traffic lights don't work across the city’s intersections, crime levels have increased. The city is a literal hell-on-earth for us who remained here. But we persevere.

Yes, I do see a lot of folks drinking alcohol, right on the street. I don’t pretend to claim that there was no public intoxication before the war, but now it has reached frightful proportions. In general, people’s ways of coping have been varied: some are apathetic and drinking, others aren’t afraid to curse at and lay into the occupier, telling russians exactly what they think of them, but many are just silently angry. One thing I know for sure: many people are waiting for the return of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and for the liberation.

Mariupol, through the eyes of Ms. Nadiya Vidvazhna. above photos were taken discreetly by Ms. Vidvazhna, while walking around various neighbourhoods of Mariupol. the photos depict what it’s like to be in a Ukrainian city under seige; they only show a fraction of the devastation russian occupation brought.

Nadiya told me that, as a general practice, whenever she goes outdoors, the cell phone stays at home. This is safety-related and to avoid a random interrogation of the phone’s contents. Russians are paranoid cowards, and for a good reason - Ukrainians (as any humans in their place would be) hate being under occupation.

Nadiya risked her life sneaking these photos while walking around the city that lacks democratic rule of law, where russian forces have zero accountability, display aggression/cruelty and suffer few repercussions for the crimes against residents like Nadiya.

17. What has been the toughest thing about realizing that you can no longer connect (emotionally and mentally) to your homeland or your family and relatives? To the russian people in general? Will you be able to one day fix that broken bond (what do you think could ever fix it?)

All my life, I’ve lived like a tumbleweed. Before marrying and moving here, I lived in Belarus for several years, enjoying being outside russia. To some extent, I feel lucky because I don’t have strong ties to my homeland. Of course, I still have a couple of friends there, but they understand the truth and believe the reality of what is going on. They have been on Ukraine's side since the beginning, from 2014.

My relatives, however, have been a huge disappointment. to me, this is beyond fixing and it's like they don't exist anymore. I will never be able to perceive them as people. My real family is here, in Ukraine.

18. How do you feel russians are different from Ukrainians (what did you learn about this difference in the past year)? Were you surprised by this difference, since we were raised to be "brothers/sisters"?

I have never perceived Ukrainians and Belarusians as being “one people” with russians. For me, they were always “other people”, from another country. Although I am an individualist in general, and cannot say that all russians are homogeneous, propaganda, unfortunately, can work wonders; in this case, disgusting and evil wonders.

I also want to note that, on average, people in russia live much poorer than in Ukraine. I think this has a certain mental impact, there exists a banal envy among russians when they think of Ukraine. Poverty is not a vice, nor is it an excuse for aggression, but in general it is hard to keep high moral ground while being forced to literally survive throughout your entire existence.

19. What do you want russians to know about what is happening in Ukraine?

It seems to me that those russians who want to know the truth, already know and understand everything. Others, who don't want to admit the evil they are carrying out, can't be persuaded by any arguments anyway. Of course, I dream of the day when they will open their eyes, but I don't believe that day will ever come.

Through it all, I insist that it is imperative to keep telling the truth, speaking up about everything that happened here in Mariupol.

To me, silence is death.

20. What is your ultimate goal for yourself Mariupol (that it will be liberated and that you will obtain a Ukrainian passport and become part of Europe? To have a future in free Ukraine? To have a family? To move to Europe? etc.)

I consider Mariupol to be the best city on earth. I would like to stay here forever and build a future, together with my husband. I would like to get a Ukrainian passport, get rid of the russian citizenship and finally cut all ties with the aggressor (even symbolic ones). I would like to travel and see other European countries (and travel to other continents as well). As for leaving Mariupol permanently, I never want to do that.

21. What do you want the world to know about Mariupol, about occupied Ukrainian territories and about Ukrainian people living in those territories? What is your message to "the outside"

Many people think that those who stayed in Mariupol, refusing to leave their homes, are russian sympathizers. This could not be further from the truth, although I cannot deny that such people unfortunately do exist. In reality, majority of the population here are normal Ukrainians who want their city back. Not everyone in Mariupol could leave their home at the start of the invasion due to various life circumstances. Also many folks returned, because after all, home is always home.

I would like for people on the outside to know that we, in Mariupol, believe in Ukraine and are desperately waiting for her return.