Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / How a Ukrainian banker gave up her dream life in New York for the bloody battlefields of Ukraine

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How a Ukrainian banker gave up her dream life in New York for the bloody battlefields of Ukraine · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Next, so the world how the war in Ukraine took
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  Speaker 1: one woman from Wall Street to the front line. When
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  Speaker 1: Russia invaded, Victoria Hounchruk left New York and returned to Ukraine,
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  Speaker 1: becoming a medic treaty not just her countrymen, but wounded
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  Speaker 1: Russians too. I spoke to her earlier and began by
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  Speaker 1: asking why she decided to risk everything four years ago.
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  Speaker 2: I wasn't in Ukraine. I was in the United States.
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  Speaker 2: I was just starting a very promising career in investment
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  Speaker 2: banking in Wall Street and live in the American dream.
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  Speaker 2: Everything was quite good in my life. But then Russia
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  Speaker 2: attacked my country. My mom, my dad, and sister. They
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  Speaker 2: all joined the resistance as soon as they could. So
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  Speaker 2: they said, we're not going to go anywhere, We're not
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  Speaker 2: going to back here. We're going to stay at home,
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  Speaker 2: and we're going to fight for our home, our town.
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  Speaker 2: And I was very admirable. That inspired me a lot,
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  Speaker 2: and after a couple of months helping from far away,
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  Speaker 2: I said, well, I cannot also stand back.
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  Speaker 3: I cannot watch.
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  Speaker 2: Russia, the biggest country in the world, right attacking my country,
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  Speaker 2: going against everything that I believed in, everything that grew
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  Speaker 2: up with my culture, my language, just anything that made
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  Speaker 2: me me, you know. So for me, were started when
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  Speaker 2: I realized that everything that I knew before today, before
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  Speaker 2: twenty fourth of February twenty twenty two, is not going
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  Speaker 2: to be the same way. So for me, it was
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  Speaker 2: a very easy decision. And they'll look back. A lot
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  Speaker 2: of people think it was a difficult decision to leave
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  Speaker 2: a good career, good life and go back to Ukraine
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  Speaker 2: and go to the front lines. But looking back, for
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  Speaker 2: my integrity, I think that is the easiest decision ever made,
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  Speaker 2: is to go back to Ukraine.
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  Speaker 1: Did your parents or did anyone from your family say, listen.
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  Speaker 3: Just stay in the United States. This is not your war.
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  Speaker 3: You're there, you're safe. Let us do what we need
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  Speaker 3: to do, but you don't have to come back.
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  Speaker 2: Lots of people said that My mom included a lot
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  Speaker 2: of my friends from the US not very supportive in
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  Speaker 2: what I was doing because they witnessed me, you know,
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  Speaker 2: jump in the hopes getting into the career that I had,
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  Speaker 2: and they thought it was a really bad decision to
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  Speaker 2: give it up and for something they didn't quite understand.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, if you were old to say this
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  Speaker 2: is not our war.
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  Speaker 3: This is not my war.
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  Speaker 2: I think Russia would be pushing through the rest of
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  Speaker 2: Europe at this point.
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  Speaker 1: And then you say you got the support of your sister,
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  Speaker 1: you went back, and then how did you join the
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  Speaker 1: battalion that you did, And then how did you end
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  Speaker 1: up as a medic on the front lines, not just
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  Speaker 1: treating Ukrainians but also treating Russian prisoners of war as
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  Speaker 1: well well.
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  Speaker 2: The first as soon as I came back to Ukraine,
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  Speaker 2: the first I went to the front, I was actually
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  Speaker 2: with an English volunteer, Eddie Eddie Dorsaid, who unfortune lost
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  Speaker 2: his arm and leg a couple of months ago in Pokro.
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  Speaker 2: You might have heard about him, but he was the
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  Speaker 2: first one who took me to Bahmud at that point
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  Speaker 2: with a humanitarian run, and I met people there that
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  Speaker 2: were part of a battalion that I later joined. I
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  Speaker 2: had a couple of days of training, and then the
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  Speaker 2: next day I was in the way to Zaputtisha region.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's incredibly dangerous. No, to not have any
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  Speaker 1: previous training or experience a few days and then to
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  Speaker 1: be out there on.
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  Speaker 3: The front lines of Zapparishin.
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  Speaker 2: I was afraid of blood and needles before full scale invasion.
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  Speaker 2: But at that point I just realized it's something that
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  Speaker 2: needs to be done, and it's something you know, the
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  Speaker 2: people throughout the history and people I think a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people here in the UK can relate to that.
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  Speaker 1: And then tell me, you know, you're as I said,
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  Speaker 1: you're treating not just Ukrainians, You've treated thousands of people, the.
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  Speaker 3: Russian prisoners of all.
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  Speaker 1: What was going through your mind when you were doing that?
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  Speaker 2: Again, it's something that we have to do, right I
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  Speaker 2: don't get to choose what I have to work with,
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  Speaker 2: and it's Ukraine or we're plowing. There's new convention. We
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  Speaker 2: have to treat brisoners of war Russians, and I just
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  Speaker 2: treat it as a part of my job. There's nothing special.
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  Speaker 2: But you get to speak with them and understand where
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  Speaker 2: they're coming from and understand that Russia is not going
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  Speaker 2: to stop where what they're doing right now. They are
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  Speaker 2: ready to go further and they are preparing for something bigger.
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  Speaker 1: I've spent the last four years traveling in and out
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  Speaker 1: of Ukraine covering the conflict across the country. Just tell
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  Speaker 1: me what it's like for you, though, to see a
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  Speaker 1: country that you clearly, love very much is part of
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  Speaker 1: who you are. To see it in the state that
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  Speaker 1: it's in. It's mixed, isn't it. From my perspective as
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  Speaker 1: an outsider going there, on the one hand, you see
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  Speaker 1: normalcy and people continuing their life, and then on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand you hear the air raid sirens and then
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  Speaker 1: you know that you know Russia has launched a series
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  Speaker 1: of air strikes on people in Kiev or elsewhere.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's difficult and definitely difficult to witness that, but
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  Speaker 2: also very proud of Ukrainians because if you look back
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  Speaker 2: at twenty two, this is because not everyone evacuated. It's
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  Speaker 2: because people have decided to send up to Russia and
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  Speaker 2: protect their land. That is the only reason why we
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  Speaker 2: still have something left out of Ukraine, right, and a
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  Speaker 2: big portion because for four years Russia has not been
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  Speaker 2: able to take any large cities, not any bigger parts
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  Speaker 2: that they have since is just twenty fourteen. So for me,
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  Speaker 2: I'm very proud of my generation as well, because a
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  Speaker 2: lot of young people like I'm twenty five, my sisters thirty,
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  Speaker 2: and we have a lot of people that are younger
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  Speaker 2: than us that have joined the army. Having no private experience,
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  Speaker 2: so have this whole civilian army type people who have
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  Speaker 2: never had any prior education in military.
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  Speaker 3: Or the army.
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  Speaker 2: They are know the theories, I don't know how to
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  Speaker 2: fight by the books, but they were able to come
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  Speaker 2: up with incredible strategy to resist the biggest like the
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  Speaker 2: second best army in.
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  Speaker 3: The world for four years.
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  Speaker 2: I'm very very proud of Ukrain's I'm very proud of
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  Speaker 2: my generation who are able to show the great nation
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  Speaker 2: we are.
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  Speaker 3: And we've also seen the advancement in technology.
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  Speaker 1: I mean it's turned into a conflict where people are
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  Speaker 1: almost learning about warfare through drones for example, of multiple
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  Speaker 1: generations now of drone warfare.
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  Speaker 2: One thing they're not going to learn is how to adapt,
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  Speaker 2: how to adapt fast. And this is what Ukraine has doning.
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  Speaker 2: Ukraine has done decentralization of research and development. We're not
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  Speaker 2: private sectors, not like big prime primes. Big companies are
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  Speaker 2: changing the way warfare is done, but the militaries themselves.
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  Speaker 2: So essentially every company or platoon, the users technology, they
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  Speaker 2: have their own research and development group that is changing
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  Speaker 2: things on the front line, sometimes by hours before.
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  Speaker 3: I let you go.
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  Speaker 1: There is one of the reasons you're here today of
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  Speaker 1: course is marking four years, but also the portrait of
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  Speaker 1: view that's been done by British war artist Max Jennison.
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  Speaker 1: Pender tell me about that portraits and I believe this too.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's multiple portraits, but essentially so Eddie, the person
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  Speaker 2: I mentioned in the beginning his classmate Max. He told me, oh,
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  Speaker 2: my classmate is coming to paint people on the frontline.
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  Speaker 2: I said, okay. He said, but maybe he can paint
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  Speaker 2: you or your sister, and I said okay. So he
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  Speaker 2: he came well three years ago, almost in twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: three to paint us. When you see some of the
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  Speaker 2: paintings on the screen and I thought I was crazy,
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  Speaker 2: But with time he showed me some pieces because he's
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  Speaker 2: also filming while painting and asking people out these stories
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  Speaker 2: and how they come to be where they are, how
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  Speaker 2: they feel about the war. And I thought, wow, that's
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  Speaker 2: actually very very powerful because it's combining art, right, painting,
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  Speaker 2: but also with histories of people and you put like
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  Speaker 2: a face on the war. So I think it's very powerful.
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  Speaker 2: It's going to be a premier of the documentary tonight
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  Speaker 2: an a paid war museum, so I'm very excited about that.
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  Speaker 3: Victoria think so much for joining us here one program.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for hearing me