The Spirit of the Phoenix in Ukraine
Something remarkable happens when people stop thinking about themselves and what is expedient in the moment, and start thinking and caring about ideas. Whole generations are inspired, people find purpose, and nations are made.
Image/UNBROKEN
What makes a 25 year old mother decide to leave relative safety, take up a rifle, and join the fight? When hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing their homeland which has been engulfed in war, what convinces regular people, with hopes, aspirations, and responsibilities, to stay? And not just stay, but risk everything at the front line of battle?
Last time I was in Ukraine, I visited the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN, a unique clinic that specializes in prosthesis and rehabilitation for the wounded, notably the countless amputees who are transported fresh from the front lines of battle to the facility. I was there interviewing and photographing Ukrainian soldiers receiving treatment, many of whom were double or triple amputees and in different stages of recovery. At UNBROKEN, the prosthetics are not only fitted, but also manufactured for the wounded. Everyone there has a story, everyone’s life has been turned upside down since Russia invaded Ukraine, but, even as there is shared physical trauma from the war, there is also a shared spirit and outlook that is persistent everywhere in those fighting for Ukraine’s freedom. They are “unbroken” in their spirit as Ukrainians with the will to fight on.
As the team who runs the facility says, “Many of them have lost everything. Home. Family. Childhood. And yet… remain UNBROKEN.”
“Phoenix”
Before the full-scale war, 25 year old Anastasia Safka, nicknamed “Phoenix,” lived in Lviv with her young son, Yarema. When the full-scale Russian invasion took place, her parents tried to get her to move abroad from war torn Ukraine, but she was not persuaded.
She joined the ranks of the Armed Forces as part of the 118th brigade and fought against the Russian invaders in the Zaporizhzhia direction of Ukraine.
Image/UNBROKEN
In late November, while carrying out a combat mission, she stepped on a landmine and was badly injured by the blast, to the point that her leg could not be spared and had to be amputated.
She has been undergoing treatment at the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN, where she prepares for a prosthetic. Her young son, who has been taken care of by her parents since her enlistment, constantly visits his mother as she recovers.
Image/UNBROKEN
“I don’t want him to live in constant fear and trembling at the sound of sirens. I have to guarantee his safety and future,“ she said.
And that is why “Phoenix” says she wants to return to the fight, to defend the future of her son and her country.
Image/UNBROKEN
As a woman, she could have left when the Russian tanks rolled over the border, as it was the adult males who were told to stay to defend against the invasion. But she did stay. She stayed to defend her country, protect the future of her five year old son, and fight for the very idea of living as Ukrainians. The fight continues today because of people like her who stayed.
Anastasia’s story is not a one off; there are tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have lived this reality since February, 2022, but she is an exemplar of the generation being put to the test in Ukraine.
Ukrainians see themselves as holding back the storm from the gates of Europe, and that is reiterated by their allies in the West, notably countries like Poland and the Baltic nations who are very aware of Putin’s Soviet border-reconstruction aims.
Ukraine and its people are proving to embody the spirit of the phoenix as they rise from the ashes of the early 2000s post-Soviet chaos to become unified in purpose and identity in the face of an attacking nation that seeks to take both its land and its very existence as a people.
They remain UNBROKEN.
Thanks to the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN and Anastasia Safka for making this story public.
