We catch Marcin Wyrwał, TvoiLokona’s war correspondent, in central Ukraine on his way to the east, where he will report on the next events of the war. In an interview with Medonet, the journalist talks about the situations he experienced after the outbreak of the war, everyday life in a country marked by attacks and the rules of survival in the field.
- The war found Marcin Wyrwał in Kiev. The journalist tells how he was left without food, clothes, basic cosmetics and the possibility to buy them. Sometimes he had to use women’s products
- There is a strict selection in field hospitals. People with severe pain have to wait because serious injuries are a priority
- People with PTSD are swarming around, war is a huge psychological burden. Many of Marcin’s companions are already dead
- More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.
Joanna Rokicka, Medonet: You were in Kiev when the war broke out in Ukraine. What was your life like under such conditions?
Marcin Wyrwal, Tvoi war correspondent: When the war started, I knew it was going to be more muck. At that time, I was staying at the Ukraina hotel, which is the main hotel on Majdan.
Sometimes you find the problems happen in places where you don’t expect them at all. My biggest hygiene-related one occurred at the beginning, i.e. on the second day of the war. It was about having any clean things. On February 7th, I only went to Kiev for a week, so I took things for a few days, I had a small supply of clothes. The war broke out when the third week of my stay began and it turned out that I could not go back. Too much was happening.
At the hotel I took my laundry to the washing machine and was told they would be washed the next day. When I went down to get them, no one was there except the sad gunmen who told me to collapse because the hotel would be one of the targets of the bomb attacks. I replied, “Okay, but where is my laundry?” The gentlemen didn’t know, there were no receptionists and there was a situation like ‘We don’t have your coat and what are you going to do to us?’ So I went elsewhere.
I was left with almost nothing, literally two or three T-shirts. All the stores were closed by now, of course, there is no buying. You could only buy anything after three weeks, and it was rather work-type trousers.
You didn’t have clothes, and how did you deal with your hygiene at that time?
Hygiene is very different. The reality was that there was utter chaos and paralysis in the city. In such places you run out of toothpaste and deodorant slowly. You start saving these products. It was in Kiev and then I went to Donbas. This is where 90 percent. of the population are men. You don’t have deodorant, so you go to the supermarket, quite big, the only one I know in the whole Donbas. I go to the cosmetics shelf and it turns out that everything is only for women, there are no products for men, so I buy a women’s one.
Man has a problem with maintaining hygiene. In Kramatorsk, for example, there is no hot water. If you don’t like cold bathing, you have a problem. There will also be no heating during the heating season, the mayor of Słowiańska has already announced it. It seems to you that when you hug an individual, this is where the real problems begin. But that’s not true. Everyone in the military is prepared for such things.
For example, in Barwenkowo, a small town close to the front, where you can hear explosions all the time either outside the city or in the city itself. I already imagined that there would be nothing there, except maybe cold water. When I got to the place where I was supposed to live, it turned out that I was allocated a room, even with a bathroom and shower. The problem was that the bathroom didn’t have half the ceiling because a bomb had fallen there. But apart from that, you normally bathe in warm water. The soldiers care a lot about it and now, when it is summer, they take showers – they put a reservoir on the top, it heats up during the day and then you can bathe in the evening.
When preparing materials for TvoiLokona, you move around Ukraine. Where do you sleep and how do you eat?
It all depends on where I am. If I am in Kiev, my life is just like in Warsaw. There are no problems with that. However, when the war started, there were also serious supply difficulties there, and the hotels were closed. We were dealing with absurd situations.
In Kiev, 90 percent. shops were closed. Once we realized what was happening, we stocked up packaged food. We started walking around, asking where we could find something. You can settle down in every city, you just need to have the right number of contacts.
It turned out that literally 500 meters from us there is a shop that operates at Aleja Zwycięstwa. We went there and it turned out that before the war it was a shop for wealthier people in Kiev. You can call it a delicatessen that is really good. The situation was that some fresh produce could not be obtained. I couldn’t get bread, but there were live fish in the aquarium or exotic fruits of all kinds. I could buy fruit that I didn’t even know the name of, but I couldn’t buy bread. Such are the absurdities of war.
War has broken out, everything is closed, you are abroad. How did you do?
Everything can be done if you have the right number of friends. Immediate prohibition was introduced, but if you know different people, you won’t spend even a day without alcohol. This was the case in Kiev, but it was an extraordinary situation. Then my friend and I went to Kharkiv quite quickly and it was even worse there in terms of nutrition. Complete paddock.
In the first days of the war, when you entered the store, there were only packed things, nothing fresh. We just walked around the shop but weren’t able to buy anything for breakfast. Finally we took the chips and crisps.
We were extremely lucky. When we were driving, we were very depressed, that there was no food, that we did not think, I suddenly say: “Wait, maybe we’ll ask someone?”. A woman was walking with a dog, in this huge city one person is walking down the street, so we stop and ask: “Excuse me, ma’am, there was a bakery here?”. We have patches with the Polish flag, she comes up and says: «Jesus! You are Polish! I love you! I am the owner, turn it and drive up to this house! ».
We turned, drove up. This lady took us to a huge block. There was no indication that a bakery was located there. She opened a door, we walked in and suddenly we found ourselves in a pub with a bakery and everything else! They made us hot rolls, we got wine. Such cases also happen. There are such things in the middle of nothing. But in general, food was very bad in big cities at the beginning of the war.
How is it now?
Now is different. Even in Kramatorsk, although it is a smaller city, you can find food, although it is not outstanding, but nobody there is starving. There is no such possibility that someone has no money and is starving. There is even one pub where you can eat something warm and drink a coffee.
It is completely different in the military. The military has its own cook, they take you to dinner, and what the cook comes up with is to eat. But it’s at least energetic.
When I go completely alone, our safety specialist at Onet, Marcin Pruchniewicz, gives me a supply of iron portions – some luncheon meat, pates, everything that does not spoil and has a long shelf life. Thanks to this, whatever happens, I’m relatively safe. It just doesn’t happen, because if you have experience and connections, you will always do well there.
Did you have to use Ukrainian medical care? Is there access to specifics that we do not use in Poland?
No, I have horse health, I hardly get sick. But when I go to war, Marcin gives me a bag with funds for all health situations: as if I had a cold, as if something hurt … There are a lot of things. I’ve never used it before, but it’s all in my inventory. I have a few first aid kits with me, but these are tactical first aid kits, for example for blast or gunshot wounds.
Since I was fine, I never went to the pharmacy. However, in the first weeks of the war, there were huge queues to pharmacies. When I was driving and I saw a gigantic queue, it was known that there was a pharmacy there.
And how do you deal with health problems in the field when you are in the army?
Then it’s great because there are medics there and they will always help. I had such a case in 2015 or 2014. There was such debris there that when I walked, I didn’t see, then. That’s why you wear big black shoes, because you can stand on something that will pierce the sole. Unfortunately, I stood on a nail that had pierced my foot, and two medics almost beaten me up. There was no problem with that.
Fortunately, I never had to see a doctor. Because you know when there are any health problems, you won’t find such things there.
In Poland, after covid, it has caused cancer in people, and in Ukraine it is the same, because there are no doctors. Unless we go to a military hospital. They are located in hidden buildings. True, people in cities usually know where they are. I know exactly where the hospital is on the front line, even though it is classified military information. I can go to him, I even have a friend there. Only it is not that simple.
Medics heal civilians as needed, but it is known that you are simply massacre on the front lines. These people spend several hours at the operating table, fighting for human life. There is a strict selection out there. If you come in with acute otitis, you have to really wait, because there are dudes with no legs in front of you.
The reality of war is hard to imagine for people who have seen it with their own eyes. How are the people you meet?
When I am close to the front and I enter the hospital yard, I see them reviving a man. Everyone is relaxed because that’s the norm – one CPR after another. This is what military hospitals look like – someone will die, someone will survive. They do it completely without emotion, which shows how common it is. People just get used to every situation.
There are many cases of PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder). You don’t even realize when you’re getting into it. If the missile explodes in close proximity to you and there are 10 people, you can be sure that at least two will end up with PTSD. It just doesn’t bother me. Now, for the first time at the front, I felt better with the military than in the city, because the city was just exploding all the time. These people are getting more and more stressed.
Are you mentally burdened by the situation in Ukraine? You don’t have to deal with yourself. Seek the help of a specialist – make an appointment with a psychologist.
Exactly, people. Let’s not forget that there are people in this whole nightmare. What surprised you about the Ukrainians and their approach to these conditions?
This is not a question of Ukrainians, but of every human being. I’ve seen it in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon. You get used to it and somehow become desensitized. Such an example: Sirens wail. You are in the middle of the city and there is not a single person flying to the shelter. Normal life goes on. When someone goes to the store, it goes on. This is because there are 6-10 such alarms a day, sometimes they howl non-stop. Sometimes something will drop, sometimes it won’t. Man gets used to. If I had to go to the basement 10 times, I’d go crazy with it than with those sirens.
How does all of this affect your well-being? After what you’ve seen and experienced, are you the same person?
I got used to seeing such things a long time ago – it’s just such a job. But I think a lot of people are able to do it, even if they can’t imagine it. It’s not that bad. The worst thing is that more and more of my people are killed, the ones you used to sit with in a pub in Kiev and are now dead. Two weeks ago, someone was taking me to the front somewhere, and now I’m dead …
Lately I’ve been dealing with drones and artillery and there was a young boy there, the happiest of them. And I’m coming back, someone calls you that a bullet just fell and killed him. These are very hard matters. At home, I have a stable situation, although, without dwelling on it too much, I must say that the war had a destructive effect on my family life. But it’s the first one. Now I have set everything up somehow and I have a lot of support, so I’m holding on quite well mentally. The only thing that hurts me is that many of my friends are killed or seriously injured.
Who are the people fighting the s? The ones you meet? How are they coping with the reality of war?
These are people of all ages – from young guys who are literally in their twenties, which is my daughter’s age, to guys who are in their fifties. There is a large cross-section not only in age: there are many educated people and simple guys. I once met a man with whom I was sitting in a trench and now we write to each other. I have many such connections. In extreme situations, the kind of relationship we normally build for weeks deepens quickly.
There is a great brotherly bond there. People care a lot about each other. In one of the reports, I showed how, before the morning practice, a guy who was in the British army, a Ukrainian, said: “Listen, we are now better than the British, but let’s learn mutual respect from them”. And it really shows that they respect each other a lot. But they also just like each other, which helps them be effective in combat. First of all, these are normal people who bring some souvenirs, some missiles. I don’t know if it’s some hidden form of dealing with all these traumas.
I think if there is such a way, it is a strong interpersonal relationship. This is how people deal with extreme situations. I have seen some people once or twice in my life, but these are my friends. We see each other, we hug each other, we say: “Brother, come on, let’s have a cup of coffee”. Because there is of course full prohibition, this is not a joke. They really know that a fraction of the delay over the cup can cost you or your friend’s life.