The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
Alyona came to the 152nd Separate Jäger Brigade through recruitment. She chose the position of cook.
Her story was told on the brigade’s Facebook page.
Alyona is 25. She is from the city of Pavlohrad, now less than 100 km from the frontline. She had to grow up early, having lost her mother seven years ago. Her family became her grandmother, brother, and sister.
“This was not an emotional decision made in the heat of news from the internet or TV. It was an internal, deliberate decision. The front is approaching. My hometown is getting closer to it. There is no time to wait for someone else to save the country”, — she says.
Alyona can talk for hours about spices, the correct dough consistency, and how broth should “sound” when it reaches readiness. For some this is trivial, but for her it is a creative process.
“I love experimenting, combining simple ingredients so that a dish ‘comes alive’. It’s important that the boys and girls enjoy the food, not just that it’s filling or greasy, as it sometimes is”, — she says.
Whenever she has a free moment, she looks for new recipes, recalls her grandmother’s secrets, and thinks about how to improve familiar dishes. Even in field conditions she manages to add something personal — the very detail that makes everyone say: “Oh, that’s Alyona’s”.
“Recently I cooked pilaf. I haven’t been thanked like that in a long time,” she laughs. “They say I cook like a mom”.
In the unit, they affectionately call her “Dotsya” (“Daughter”) because she is the youngest there.
“She is our Dotsya. Not because she’s small or weak. On the contrary. It’s just that when she first came here, she was so serious, composed, but her eyes… You look and you understand: I have a child just like her at home. Alyona is here, with us. You want to protect her. Not because she can’t handle it, but because she’s ours”, — says her comrade-in-arms, Karyi.
