February 25th 2025

Yuriy reflects on three years of relentless warfare on the Ukrainian front lines, sharing his raw emotions and the harsh realities of a soldier's life. Amidst despair and international betrayal, he finds hope in the unwavering support from ordinary people around the world.

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TRANSCRIPT: (Apple Podcasts & Podbean app users can enjoy accurate closed captions)  

It is February 25th. 

Today marks three years and one day since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the largest war on the European continent since World War II. And exactly three years since I became a soldier.  

What has changed over these years? Everything and nothing at the same time. I've received several awards, but not a single promotion- I remain a private. I'm not chasing a career, just as I didn't in my past,  peaceful life. We have a saying 'a clean shoulder board means a clean conscience.' A private has nothing on his shoulder board. No stripes, no stars. 

What else? We still have the same enemy, the same thirst for victory, the same Ukraine. What has changed? Tens of thousands of countries best sons and daughters are gone- murdered by Russian invaders. Thousands more will die in the future.  We will be no deal to stop the bloodshed- Russians won't stop until they destroy us all, or until they inflict a defeat so Russian that we lose our ability to continue the war. 

And it's getting harder for us. One of our key partners, the United States, is increasingly drifting toward our enemies. Just recently at the United Nation General Assembly where Americans stood in a united front with Putin and Lukashenko, it happened so quickly. Three years ago, we began resisting one nuclear-armed state then another- North Korea joined the fight against us. Now on the diplomatic front, yet another nuclear power- the United States -is beginning to support our enemies.  

You know when you read history books, you can always find the moment of greatest crisis in any given era- the darkest hour. The battle on the Somme in World War I, the fall of France in World War II and so on. But for us, this entire war is one endless darkest hour where is no single moment of crisis. It's constant, or at least what's how it feels. 

Three years of stolen in life, three years of endless death and pain, three years of genocide. It's incredibly difficult not to despair. Truly difficult. It's hard not to lose your mind when you read the news, that our once greatest foreign ally now refuses to call Russia an aggressor or Putin a murderer, and instead shifts the blame for genocide onto its victims.

And that is why the support from ordinary people in the West is invaluable. People who continue to stand with Ukraine, even when, their governments are ready to throw themselves back into Putin's arms for a few bucks- these people are incredible. Without these people, we wouldn't have lasted this long. Never as a country nor I as a individual. Thank you, and we are not given up.