Crunching over broken glass and rubble in army boots, rifle in hand, office manager Anya is another volunteer Witch. Now 52, she finds the military training empowering.
“Under occupation, I felt the utter pointlessness of my existence. I could neither help anyone else, nor defend myself. I wanted to learn how to use weapons, so I could be some use.”
There’s a lot of backchat with the trainers: the women are enjoying themselves. But later that night, at their base in the woods, one of them opens up even more and shares a chilling story.
When Bucha was taken over, Russian forces began going house to house. They raped and they murdered. Then one day, a rumour spread that the occupiers were coming to kill the children.
“For the decision I took that day, I will never forgive the Russians,” this woman confides.
I won’t share the details of what she told me – the extreme decision she took – only that the soldiers never came and she never had to act on it. But this woman has been haunted by that moment ever since, and by guilt.
The first time she felt relief was when she began learning to defend herself, her family and her country.
“Coming here really helped,” she tells me quietly. “Because I won’t ever sit like a victim again and be so very afraid.”
