“In five years, if the war is over, I see myself living in my family’s cottage in a beautiful natural area near Kharkiv,” Anna said. “I hate dogs.  I want a goat—they have horns and are very smart. I also want a goose. If the war isn’t over, I will continue to volunteer and aid the Ukrainian people who are victims of this war.  I will not stop until Ukraine is free.”

Anna is a 29-year-old English teacher, poet and activist living in Krakow, Poland. She speaks Ukrainian, Yiddish, English and Chinese. She was born in Kharkiv where her mother and stepfather remain with her disabled brother.  Kharkiv lies forty kilometers from the Russian border and continues to experience bombardments.  

Anna’s heritage is Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish. Her great-grandmother was an ethnic Pole who survived the Volhynia Massacre; tragically, most of her great-grandmother’s family were murdered. The Volhynia Massacre is a lesser known, dark chapter of WWII history in which the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) murdered an estimated 100,000 Polish civilians in what was then Poland and is today northwestern Ukraine. Polish militias took retaliatory actions, murdering an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 Ukrainian peasants. The history is muddy and not completely clear. Historians today believe the Nazis fomented the violence between the two Slavic ethnicities living under the horrors of German occupation.

Anna emerged from this complicated family history to attend university and work as a journalist in Ukraine. She holds certifications to teach English to non-English speakers. She is a committed feminist. Anna is also a poet who recently performed on stage in Krakow, her current adopted city. She is also a skilled seamstress.

Anna has been involved in refugee relief efforts since 2014 with Russia’s assault and illegal annexation of Crimea followed by military incursions in Luhansk and Donetsk in ever-broadening efforts to annex Ukrainian territory. Putin ignores that Ukraine is a sovereign nation. Anna has helped organize clothing donations as a volunteer. She has also taught English to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) arriving in Kharkiv from Luhansk and Donetsk.  

Anna’s desire to travel inspired her to live and teach in Asia. She was teaching in China when she learned of Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine. China’s support of Russia’s aggression prompted her to leave.  She no longer wanted to live in a country aligned with the invaders. This is how she landed in Poland where she teaches and writes.

“I understand the world is tired of this war, the ongoing cruelty, the killing,” Anna said. “I just ask people to try to put themselves in our shoes. Do you really want me to give up my home, my land and my dreams to people who kill, rape and torture my people?”

Follow Anna:  https://twitter.com/Battlecruiser_a  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCusrXRqG-O40cyjPQ-swGcQ 
Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia