Workers’ Liberty
Around International Women’s Day, Workers’ Liberty organised a speaker tour of socialist feminists Brie and Olenka to speak about their life and work in Ukraine. They spoke to meetings in London, Liverpool, Sheffield, Nottingham and Brighton. They also met with women trade unionists at the Women’s TUC and with MPs in Parliament.
Brie spoke to Solidarity.
I didn’t want to leave Kyiv, but I relocated to another neighbourhood as I used to live close to the Ministry of Defence. The area without military facilities where I moved to was eventually shelled by the Russians, although there is little talk about it. I was worried that the shelling would lead to power cuts, so I had to trek up to the seventh floor on foot. It was hard both for me and my elderly dog. We could constantly hear explosions as the air defence system was operational. It was a huge source of stress for us. I would only go outside for two or three minutes to walk the dog near the house while my brother held the door.
During air raids, we sought refuge in shelters, and I am grateful to those who allowed us in and reacted normally to a person with a large dog. After I left Kyiv, the kindergarten where we usually took shelter came under fire.My mum and I decided to leave the city when we finally managed to fill up the car. We were at the petrol station when the air raid alarm went off, and we had to wait for it to reopen. Suddenly, we heard a loud explosion and felt a shock wave from a shell that hit somewhere nearby. It was terrifying not being able to see anything and not knowing if the next shell would hit us. I turned to my mum and told her I couldn’t live here anymore, and the next day we left Kyiv.
The road was very difficult and took about 30 hours. On the way, in Vinnytsia, strangers kindly offered us a place to stay and also treated the dog very well. Later we reached the Lviv region and settled in Stryi. Life there was calm, almost nothing happened. We were lucky to find a place to live that didn’t cost much. I did not know if I would have a job, it was not clear what would happen next. After living in Stryi for seven months, I returned to Kyiv in October.
The war has reduced activism. FemSolution and I are going to try to revive the community. On 8 March, in collaboration with the Feminist Lodge, we’re organising a charity event where feminist musicians of various genres will perform. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the 93rd Brigade, where our comrades are serving. They are currently on a mission in the Bakhmut direction; they need to repair vehicles and are in great need of drones.
It’s strange to hear discussions suggesting that anti-militarism necessitates withholding armed assistance from Ukraine. While, as someone with anti-militarist sentiments, I generally support the notion that there should be no weapons in principle, we cannot advocate for this while Russians are killing our military and civilians.
I am also frustrated by the topic of negotiations. There are often Western opinions that Ukrainians simply do not want to sit down and talk. I believe that this format of resolving the situation is currently impossible. There were negotiations at the beginning of the full-scale offensive, but during these negotiations, Russia was shelling our cities, so what kind of negotiations are we talking about?
We need weapons to defend our people, the civilian population. If you want us all to be killed, then yes, we don’t need weapons for that. Ukraine is now fighting for the war to end, and we have no other way but to deter Russian aggression.