Frag Out! Magazine

What you're doing now: is it service, addic- tion, or a craving for an adrenaline rush? Everyone has a different set of motives, even if we consider this to be a form of addic- tion to intense emotions and adrenaline, one should remember that a loss of life may be an actual consequence of such activity. There are many motives and factors that may cause you to diametrally change your life. But we volunteer to do that, we do not get a remuneration of any sort, so our careers and bank accounts suffer here. Our families also suffer, since the loved ones are perfectly aware of the fact you're risking your life. One may say that if no sense of mission, the will- ingness to do some good were a part of it, the adrenaline seeking, or sensation seeking alone would be insufficient motivating fac- tors, to decide to leave to help Ukraine. In my case, I am continuing the work that I started in 2014 - and I want to help my colleagues, friends, and people that I have known since 2014 when the war actually began. Are you worried about the future, or are your actions done in the "here and now" mode? You know what, we are thinking forward. We are aware that sooner or later we may experi- ence what we see here, in one form or anoth- er. We are constantly taken care of by a group of psychologists (we have a team of psy- chologists of ours at the foundation) - there are people there who watch us, before leaving, and after coming back, so that the emotions that we accumulate in some way can be vent- ed safely. We are aware of the consequences of what we see and experience here. Take the matter of health for instance – over there, we are constantly on the move, in different, often extreme weather and hygienic conditions, not to mention the plausible loss of leg or arm, or even life. We are at war - a war that we know well from history, from TV, but the things hap- pening here are real, and we are actually a part of all that. Briefly speaking, yes, we are aware of what may happen in the future. But when you have work to do, tunnel vision is engaged, we are task-driven, focused on what can be done on-site, to escape the given situation. We do not think about the long-term conse- quences of our presence there. The motivation that drives you is deeply rooted in beliefs, or defense of some values, or does it have roots planted in your family background? When I first went to Ukraine in 2014, I went there within the framework of activities un- dertaken by one of the international organiza- tions, to see how the Poles handle themselves in Mariupol. There, between 2014 and 2015 I also met the members of what was the Azov battalion at the time. I saw how those people operate and, you know. When in Poland I have usually been listening to right-wing sources, and on site I saw that those sources often reproduce the Russian propaganda. And the world is neither black nor white - it is full of gray tones. Back then, at Azov, the personnel varied, but my final conclusion was that they are ordinary men, simply defending their terri- tory, standing their ground. The Russian prop- aganda, meanwhile, pictured them as nazis who also ate babies. It occurred to me back then, that if I do not go there, do not witness it all, I will not have a full picture of what is hap- pening there, what the truth is. This is one side of my motivation. Another one was the fact that the Grad strike hit Mariupol at the time, killing 30 persons - and I just could not have been standing there without any action, being helpless. Seeing what was happening there, I wanted to counter, I wanted to become a dam for those atrocious events there. And this is when I got myself involved in the provision of medical support in Ukraine - first as a trainer, with limited knowledge at the time, and then as a paramedic, at the frontline. We came with the equipment and basic medical training for the Ukrainians, and they told us: „Alright, lis- ten, we're gonna check whether what you taught us works". And in early 2015 I landed near the Donetsk airport, when the „Cyborgs" were still defending the area, and it is still go- ing on now. 77 www.fragoutmag.com INTERVIEW

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