Vadym Smola, a farmer from the village of Zhurzhyntsi in Cherkasy region, remembers clearly his own experience even before the war: His house burned down. “My heart was breaking,” he says. – “I could not find myself for a long time”. Friends helped him rebuild his house.

So when the man saw the first consequences of the shelling near Katiuzhanka – destroyed houses, broken roads – he decided to act: he started slaughtering pigs, collecting food and bringing it to the places where there was an acute shortage of food. Later, he joined the Land of the Free volunteer centre in Lysianka.  Today, Vadym continues to volunteer, helping as much as he can, but his main dream remains the same: “For the war to end. When there is peace, everything will be rebuilt.”