![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ebf27bbd-d753-41a8-af95-0eb1095491db.jpg.webp.webp\")
Laura Gozzi<\/strong>Europe reporter<\/p>\n
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When Russian bombs began falling on Ukraine on 24 February 2022, many who had never held a weapon before rushed to take up arms.<\/p>\n
Not long ago, Olena worked as a nightclub administrator in Prague. “It felt like everything was ahead of me – and there was plenty of time,” she says.<\/p>\n
In December 2024, she returned to Ukraine, joined the army and became a pilot.<\/p>\n
“I look at the ‘before’ photo and see myself calmer,” Olena says. “More naive. Everything became different. I became different.”<\/p>\n
While the fighting continues, she can’t imagine another life: “My place is here as long as the enemy is in my house.”<\/p>\n
Like the majority of Ukrainians, on 24 February 2022 Oleh, a publishing graduate, says was “confused, and scared”.<\/p>\n
“I am not a military man, I have never seen myself like that,” he says. But the next month, Oleh joined the army.<\/p>\n
As a soldier, he says, “you are constantly in a small room in your head, the space of which is getting smaller every time. Outside the window, others are living\u2026 while there is no handle on the door on your side to get out.”<\/p>\n