The pride and pain in a teenager’s story from the front line

 KHARKIV- Teenager Gleb Sergeyevich Vnukov, was on the phone with his friend Danya when a Russian missile struck Danya’s house and the line--and his friend--both went dead. Another friend’s mother went grocery shopping leaving her daughter-- Gleb’s classmate, Misha--at home. When the mother returned the house had been destroyed by another Russian rocket, killing Misha.

 These are two anecdotes about the effects of the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine I heard as I traveled with two Lviv Insider colleagues for over 15 hours, some 620 miles, (1,000 km) across Ukraine by train to report on the effects of the war on beleaguered Kharkiv. We departed near midnight from posh and tranquil Lviv for war-torn Kharkiv, just 20 miles, (30 Km) from the front line and attacked frequently.

 With civilian plane travel nonexistent, trains and buses are the best ways to move around the country. Many people prefer buses due to the frequent Russian attacks on locomotives that have killed hundreds of railway staff. Fortunately, our trip was drone free.

 We met Gleb by chance on the train to Kharkiv. Hearing me speak English, the tall, skinny, 16-year-old Kharkiv native, asked me what I was doing in Ukraine and if he could interview me for his school paper. The conversation quickly turned to me interviewing him.

 “It’s pretty normal if you live in the situation for four and a half years. It just kind of feels normal.” Gleb said when asked about the current conditions in Kharkiv.  The missiles don’t strike every night but “every two or three nights.”

 His father, Senior Sergeant Sergey Sergeyevich Vnukov, was drafted a year ago into the National Guard. Then on Jan. 19, he was found dead after fighting in the Pokrovsk region. He was 49.

 “I was kind of ready for this," Gleb told me. "The last time I was on a call with him, he told me that this might be his final mission because it was really dangerous.” The name of his regiment was named “Lucky” (translated from Ukrainian.)

 After I offered my condolences, he responded “It’s just the way we live in Ukraine right now.” Despite these conditions Gleb is a proud resident of Kharkiv touting the free metro and the fact that he still goes to school a few days a week in person and other days online.

 While we were in Kharkiv, our air alert apps went off constantly and a local colleague warned us about riding in jeeps since the Russian drones would target them as military vehicles.

 Ballistic missiles take less than a minute to strike and there are constant threats from fiber optic drones and FPV drones hunting civilians and vehicles.

 Gleb and his mother live in a historic house in the centre. There is a mural of the popular Soviet actress, Lyudmila Gurchenko painted on the side of the building. Last May parts of a missile landed 20 M from the house and blew out the windows.  He proudly said “the city fixed it very quickly and for free.”

 He is positive about the future saying that the war will end with a freeze on the front line. He mentioned the anti-war political party, Yabloko gaining popularity in Russia. Unfortunately, a Russian court has recently banned the only liberal antiwar party from participating in this year’s parliamentary elections.

 Gleb’s older brother is currently working in Bratislava, Slovakia and he has considered joining him but limited financial resources have kept him at home with his mother.

 The song “Baba O’Riley,” by The Who, perfectly describes the life of a teenager growing up in Kharkiv during the current Russian invasion.

 Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey wrote the song as a cautionary tale about lost generations and the dangers of losing touch with reality after seeing wasted teenagers at Woodstock and Isle of Wight music festivals. If you replace drugs with drones then you have Kharkiv.

 There have been so many people affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine to write about. But as this young brave teenager tried to assure us-after telling us about the deaths of his father and friends-that this was normal in Kharkiv, I could not stop thinking about the lyrics, “Don’t cry, Don’t raise your eye, It’s only teenage wasteland.”

mlp