Apr 12 2024 3 mins 19
April 12th 2024
Yuriy shares the importance of carrying Ukrainian flags with him wherever he goes, spreading hope and unity in the midst of chaos and destruction.
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TRANSCRIPT: (Apple Podcasts & Podbean app users can enjoy accurate closed captions)
It's April 12,
Friends, I'm very grateful to you for your help. You can't even imagine how important it is. Thanks to you, I have opportunity sometimes to forget about our constant horror, to distract myself from the war. Without your help, I could not buy books for my daughter, which she needs for studying, set aside money for a trip to see my parents, whom I still dream of seeing alive, support my family, and not fall into complete despair. All this is possible because of you. If I could, I would hug each and everyone of you tightly.
I want to tell you about one thing that I always carry with me. Of course, I always have my gear, combat boots, body armor and weapons. And also a first aid kit, power banks, and e-reader. But that's not all. I always carry a Ukrainian flag with me. It's always in my bag. And not just one. I try to have several. From time to time, I replenish my supply of flags, which quickly run out.
They run out because I give them away. I give them to soldiers who have moved to new positions, leaving their flags behind at the old ones. I give them to civilians in liberated territories where the Russians have destroyed everything even remotely connected to Ukraine. I once gave a flag to an old woman in a liberated village. When the Russians came, she took down her flag, which had been flying over her house, wrapped it in a plastic bag and buried it somewhere in her garden. She didn't want the occupiers to destroy it. And then she forgot where she buried it, so she took mine, but she promised to give it back to me as soon as she found hers. She's a wonderful person. I hope she's doing well.
Children in frontline cities also eagerly take the flags. They wave them when convoys of military vehicles pass by their cities on their way to the front, when helicopters fly over their homes, when funeral processions with a coffin or those killed by occupiers, pass through where streets. Maybe some over flags are distributed are now flying over the cemeteries. I've already told you about the tradition of placing flags over the graves of fallen soldiers. So our flags are important both for living and for the dead.
That's why they run out so quickly and need to be bought again. Such a simple flag- blue on top and yellow on the bottom- but it contains so much meaning, so much sense. Now, it's a true symbol of a free world, of freedom itself, and I'm happy and proud to give my flags to people. For me, it's an honor to be one who can share such an important symbol. By the way, I share this honor with you. Because I replenish my stock of flags thanks to your help too. So, thank you once again.
