The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
In 2022, Yevhen became “Teacher of the Year” in Sievierodonetsk, and just a few months later he traded his textbook for a military uniform and joined the ranks of the State Border Guard Service.
His story was published on the website of the SBGS.
On February 24, 2022, Yevhen’s city was immediately half-encircled. He managed to put his family on an evacuation train.
“You send your family away and don’t know when you’ll hug them again. But you understand: first you need to do your job”, — he recalled.
The man with the callsign “Chicha” had a reserve contract in the Territorial Defense, so after evacuating his family, he immediately went to the territorial enlistment center. There he learned that he would serve as a border guard.
Since April 2022, the fighter served in the Kherson Border Detachment. He previously knew little about border service — only from history and stories told by acquaintances who had been fighting since 2014. At the positions, disputes arose, including about history. The teacher’s habit of explaining things did not disappear.
“At school you can persuade students. Here everyone has their own experience behind their back. Sometimes we argued until we were hoarse, and then went on missions together — and all questions ended. Survival is luck plus experience. You put on a bulletproof vest — you added a chance. You checked the position, prepared — another plus”, — the fighter said.
He is convinced: if you add those percentages every day, you have a better chance of coming back alive.
Four years in the Defense Forces changed the border guard’s perspective on everything — even on the science he taught all his life. The former teacher admitted that history textbooks always lacked the main thing: people. Textbooks teach memorizing dates and operations, but behind them stand someone’s fates. Every piece of land is paid for with someone’s life.
Once Yevhen taught history from textbooks. Now he is convinced: real history is not dates but a person’s choice. His choice is to be where it is hardest in order to preserve our language and our land.
The SBGS noted that for Yevhen victory means to endure. To endure so that tomorrow his former students can live in their own country and be free.
