Kyiv volunteer Stefania Paul/Photo from the volunteer's archive
Stefania is a Kyiv-based volunteer helping victims of Russian aggression in places that few people pay attention to. When the capital of Ukraine was under siege by the Russians, she helped people who actually lived in bomb shelters with food.
The girl took help to the Kiev pre-trial detention center, and when the Russians were kicked out of the Kyiv region, she supported people in tiny villages around Bucha and Irpin, which did not reach the help of large volunteer organizations. Subsequently, Stefania realized that she was needed in other cities – still under fire from the invaders, and turned her attention to requests from there. About the horrors of war volunteer Stefania Paul spoke exclusively to Channel 24.
What is known about Stefania Paul
The first thing that strikes in this girl is how she is bright and energetic. What is most striking is that she knows how to concentrate on the fact that life goes on. This concentration is so powerful that the ashes of the conflagrations of war practically do not settle on Stephanie.
Stefania does not like to cooperate with large volunteer organizations, does not accept PR for helping others, and does not support those who indiscriminately collect humanitarian aid for themselves. She has the greatest respect for communities that can organize themselves and formulate a list of the specific needs of people in settlements affected by Russian aggression.
Do you know the song “Stefania” by Kalush Orchestra? She waved me very hard. Because any person I introduce myself to: “Hello, I'm Stefania, I'm a volunteer” begins: “Oh, this is a song about you!”. And they start singing it. This already leads to a loss of momentum, – Stefania Paul laughs. bucha-i-irpen-otdyhajut-volonter-rasskazala-o-samom-zhutkom-meste-iz-za-vojny-6eb8ca0.jpg” alt=”Bucha and Irpen are 'resting', – the volunteer spoke about the creepiest place in -for wars” />
Stefania Paul from Kiev began to help people from the first days of the full-scale invasion of Russia/Photo from the archive of Stefania Paul . She herself noticed that it is thanks to this that she can work as efficiently as possible.
I have nothing to lose, because I don’t have children, a husband, anything super important. I have no understanding of fear. I do not know why. It’s easier for me to see it personally, live, than to look through 100,500 photographs and draw some conclusions from this. Plus – there is a wild desire to help people, but not at the expense of someone else. I can't put someone else in my place. If I decide that I want to go somewhere, to help someone, then I do it on my own. I take responsibility for the people I'm leaving with. That's it, she stressed.
About volunteering
A few months ago, the girl could not imagine herself as a volunteer. She was a stylist, a model, and joked that when the war starts, she will be the first rat to escape from this ship.
“Before the war, I was a simple dude who went in for sports, traveled a lot. I there are about 30-35 countries like that. But to Russia, to Belarus, I have never been drawn to those countries, and I am very proud of it, “Stefania admitted.
The start of full-scale aggression changed a lot in the girl's life. Including the attitude towards the military/Photo from the archive of Stefania Paul
I never liked the military. I always considered them people who were not intelligent enough to keep in touch with them. Now I take back all my words. The military are very cool guys, they just have a slightly different life, different views on everything,” she added.
Her volunteering began with the fact that the girl, at her own expense, bought food for lonely Kyiv grandparents. Then she joined one of the Kyiv restaurants, which began to work to feed the defenders of the capital from the ranks of the Armed Forces and the terrorist defense. By chance, I just went there to warm up and drink coffee.
“I have nothing to do with restaurants, except when I went there to eat. But then the stars converged so that I got into the restaurant movement. We started cooking. At first it was 80 servings a day. Then the volume of work began to increase, and in Volume by the restaurant reached 1,500 servings a day, my friends from Europe miraculously appeared, who began to donate simply unrealistic amounts of money to us, with these funds we began to promote this business. deliveries of medicines and food,” Stefania said.
The girl focused her main volunteer efforts on responding to specific requests for help /Photo from Stefania Paul's archive
Then she began to pay more attention to such assistance and established cooperation with the capital's pharmacies. At this time, they began to liberate the Kyiv region. Therefore, Stefania took the medicines to Bucha, Irpen and their environs.
About the liberated cities
In the first four days, the girl managed to bring medicines, food, hygiene products and animal feed to Bucha, Irpen, Gostomel, Vorzel, Borodianka, Makarov, Rakovka, Andreevka.
The driver and I have our own top list of the toughest places we've been to. Now in the Kyiv region, the village of Andreevka is the most terrible. Compared to the destruction that took place there, Bucha and Irpen are resting. The village simply does not exist. The Russians lived there, and when they fled from there, they left a lot of ammunition behind. Practically in every yard there is ammunition, there are trenches, there are various inscriptions that the Russians left. – said the volunteer.
She added that the Russians simply drove people out, shot them on a farm near the village and simply lived in houses, used the things of Ukrainians.
This is how the village of Andreevka looked right after the Ukrainian defenders drove the Russian occupiers out of there/Photo provided by one of the servicemen of the 10th OGSHBr
These words are also confirmed by servicemen from the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, who entered the Kyiv region after their dismissal. According to them, in terms of the degree of destruction and damage caused, the situation in the village of Andreevka is worse than in Bucha and Irpin, where the war crimes committed by the Russians were widely publicized.
Civilian cars in the vicinity of Andreevka were shot and rolled heavy equipment of the Russians. In each of them there were people who wanted to evacuate from the war /Photo provided by one of the servicemen of the 10th OGSHB
In Andreevka, I was very struck by my grandmother, who was sitting on a bench near her yard. Near it stood 6 boxes with whole ammunition. And you know, this is such a surreal picture when a grandmother is sitting, and ammunition is next to her, and she explained in such a simple, very accessible language: “Even if the Russians remained here, I still would not go anywhere, because this is my home” , Stefania remarked.
The same grandmother, near whose house the occupiers left unexploded ordnance /Photo from Stefania Paul's archive
She also drew attention to the inscriptions left on the walls of houses by the Russian invaders.
< em>“In fact, they weren’t particularly smart and quick-witted. They took and polluted other people’s houses with their inscriptions. They also painted the cars that they shot. They have no brains, no conscience, nothing,” she added.
At the same time, Stefania considers such a general inability to maintain order where they live to be a fairly accurate description of the Russian occupiers.< /p>
My friends in Bucha have an apartment. Russians also lived in their apartment. The funny thing is that a friend, upon returning home, stated to me: “The toughest thing is that they went to the toilet past the toilet bowl.” Well, damn, how can people shoot accurately if they can't, sorry, shit? Both funny and sad. This just describes these people well,” the volunteer said.
About the Russian occupiers
At the same time, in many actions of the Russian occupiers, the girl sees a solid theater of the absurd.
For example, in Irpen, when you see where the Russians were shooting, what they were shooting at. There is an Alley of Glory for ATO participants. They shot photographs on it. When I first saw this shot fence with photographs, I had one question: do they really have no brains? Around the war, they are almost surrounded, and they spend cartridges nowhere. We went in a blitzkrieg, but you are fighting with photographs. Damn, are you serious? – Stefania was indignant.
Another funny situation that caused the opinion “Full Surprise” occurred in Bucha, where the girl was allocated a room for a warehouse.
“This is such a solid room, more like a row of stalls. First there is a pub, then a fish shop, and then an empty room. They did not touch the empty room – now our warehouse is there. There are whole windows, doors. The fish shop is also a virgin. There is a broken window in the pub, and there is no beer, no bottles. They took everything out of there. When I first saw it, I said: “How stupid can you be to get beer, but not to get fish?”. You do everything on an empty stomach anyway “, – said the volunteer.
At the same time, she emphasized that in all her stories there is neither disdain for the Russian army, nor neglect.
The military cannot be despised, they cannot be ridiculed. But I treat the Moscow army more not as an army, but as a horde of ignorant people. In Russia, they say that they have a successful life there and everything is great. But when elementary people do not know how to use the toilet without missing, it says that their gray liquid component is not very large. That is why you should be afraid of them, – said the girl.
“Not only did they kill civilians, they killed dogs – it's very mean, if a person can still somehow answer you, what the hell can you do poor creature that is afraid? Therefore, they should be wary of from the point of view that they are really poorly educated soulless scum who absolutely destroy everything after themselves,” she added.
Despite the fact that the girl is well aware of the horror and grief she has to face during her volunteer activities, everything she sees does not distort her cheerfulness. She has the strength to see around not only grief, but also all the elements of tragicomedy that are always present in the war. . What happened happened – and you need to act according to the situation and close questions as they arise, she clarified.
The main rule of Stephanie's work is that you can't cry in front of her /Photo courtesy of Stefania Paul
Since the beginning of volunteering, Stefania Paul has formulated the main rule of work – you can’t cry in front of her. “In response to help, it’s better for me to say:“ Thank you! We will win, we are great. “Because grieving forever is a stupid idea,” the girl explained.
When she brought food to the elderly, who took food with tears in their eyes, she immediately warned directly: “If you continue to cry – I'll leave”.
“In response, you won’t believe it, they stopped crying. People calm down, in fact. If I help with sour faces, people will accept them, cry back, suffer. We always monkey each other. But if I come with a smile for all 32 teeth, when my veneers shine instead of a flashlight, it encourages people,” the volunteer said.
She says that she always selects the appropriate team. Everyone jokes and maintains a positive attitude, including the military, accompanying her in the hottest spots.
When volunteers help with a smile, they energize other people. In addition to humanitarian aid, medicines, food and some basic necessities, volunteers also bring people faith in life, an understanding that there is a future. Understanding that we are not in the ass. We do not live in North Korea, where we must walk only with sour mines and grieve. We have a wonderful country! We have excellent soldiers, we have support, – the woman from Kiev emphasized.
One of the most striking illustrations, in her opinion, is communication with people. When, for example, Stefania brought help to Bucha, which had just been liberated from the invaders, the locals offered to drink coffee brewed on a fire on one of the streets of the broken city.
“We talked with smiles. I handed the dude a block of cigarettes there, and he told how during the fighting they peeled and smoked the bark. But he spoke about this not with sadness in his eyes, but as a comparison: “Imagine, once upon a time in the war they smoked shag, and now in 2022 we smoke tree bark “. It all depends on the people. When you arrived, talked to one person, to another, told where you are from, people understand that life has not ended,” Stefania Paul summed up.
