From Colorado Springs to Ukraine — glimpses of war: ‘I feel I’m doing something right’
Valentin Bordun is one of the 2,000 Ptaha volunteers who have greeted the 500,000 refugees who have traveled through the Lviv railroad station since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
Christian Murdock, The Gazette
Editor’s note: Almost two years into the war, Gazette Photo Editor Christian Murdock has traveled to Ukraine to capture the struggle of a generation. For the next couple of weeks, his images and stories aim to better connect us to the plight of a people not so far away.
LVIV, Ukraine • Valentyn Bordun was focusing on finishing medical school when the Russians invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The 24-year-old had one final exam left.
Meanwhile, the Lviv railroad station was overflowing with refugees escaping the war in eastern Ukraine. More than 60,000 refugees traveled through the station every day in the early months.
A visitor walks past the hundreds of gravesites for fallen Ukrainian soldiers at the Field of Mars burial grounds last week at the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine. The New York Times estimated in November the death toll at 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers since 2022. The burial grounds were an open grass lawn before the recent fighting.
photos by Christian Murdock, The Gazette
A visitor walks past the hundreds of gravesites for fallen Ukrainian soldiers at the Field of Mars burial grounds last week at the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine. The New York Times estimated in November the death toll at 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers since 2022. The burial grounds were an open grass lawn before the recent fighting.
“In the first couple days, I saw lots of people scared, trying to get help, money,” Bordun said Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, from the railroad station. “I asked myself what can I do? How can I be useful?”
WATCH: A conversation in Ukraine with Christian Murdock and Yana Malyk
Bordun and 15 other students from the Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University decided to volunteer at the station.
The nonprofit Ptaha “Bird of Ukraine” was born. Within four months, the list of volunteers had grown from 16 to 2,000. Some came from as far away as Colorado, Bordun said. They provide medical help and crisis counseling, food and diapers along with assistance to refugees needing to replace lost documents.
“People were depressed,” Bordun said. “They didn’t have a house, had to leave their pets behind. Everyone was fighting to survive.”
One of the survivor’s stories still haunts him.
Bordun found a 9-year-old girl waiting in the train station with her 16-year-old brother. She was crying and wouldn’t speak to anyone. After two days of silence, he approached her again. She began to tell Bordun of her first memories of war. She was in a park near their Kyiv home. She was with her mother, friends and other children. She and her friends were playing in the playground when a rocket hit, decapitating one of her close friends.
Visitors stand at the gravesite of fallen soldier at the Field of Mars.
Christian Murdock, The Gazette
Visitors stand at the gravesite of fallen soldier at the Field of Mars.
Visitors decorate the gravesite of a loved one at the Field of Mars last week at the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine.
photos by Christian Murdock, The Gazette
Visitors decorate the gravesite of a loved one at the Field of Mars last week at the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine.
“She was hysterically crying,” Bordun said. “The eyes of child seeing those pictures are too hard.”
Their mother had put them on the train in Kyiv to escape the war. Their father was joining the Ukrainian army and her mother had to stay behind. They planned to meet their grandmother in Poland.
Bordun said he doesn’t know if the children made it to Poland or found their grandmother.
“I feel I’m doing something right,” Bordun said. “Feel empty when I can’t do anything. I get the inner strength from other people.”
The war has changed him.
“When I compare myself to me before the war and now, I’m two different people,” Bordun said.
“Before I wanted to make money. Now I just want to be helpful. Now I just ask myself ‘what can I do to help other?’”
He added: “I’ll volunteer until the end of the war. It’s a lifestyle and it’s a family.”