2023-09-01 20:00:55
These images are emblematic of the terror that Russia inflicts on millions of Ukrainian children every day.
The first of September is traditionally school enrollment day in Ukraine. The same goes for little Alex, who has been looking forward to this day like a snow king for weeks. Buy school books, try out pens and try on the best clothes the day before.
Everything might have been so beautiful.
If it weren’t for Russia’s brutal war, which dictator Vladimir Putin has been waging over his neighboring country for the past 18 months.
Because Alex’s father Mark defends his country. For months he has been fighting at the front in Donetsk and is taking part in the Ukrainian counter-offensive. But not in the past nine days, when Papa Mark had a longer vacation from the front for the first time this year.
Little Alex was already dressing up for his big day on Thursday
Photo: Private
“I was so happy that he might accompany Alex to the first day of school on his last day at home,” says his mother Alina to BILD. It was “a happy coincidence that he was still there today,” says Alina.
But it’s all too much for Alex, who has just turned six and already understands that his father is risking his life for him, his mother and his country.
Shortly before mum and dad have to go to school in the morning, Alex bursts into tears, clutches his dad and doesn’t want to let him go. He knows that his father has to take the train right following the school enrollment ceremony. He has to be back with his unit at 3 p.m.
Dad Mark holds his son in his arms while Alex cries bitterly
Photo: Private
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Dad has to go back to war. Alex is devastated. “There’s been a war since he was four. He used to just not want to talk regarding it, now he understands it better and is very sad,” says mother Alina.
His mother grabs her phone, wanting to capture the heartbreaking scene, and snaps a blurry snapshot. She tweeted, partly desperate, partly angry: “Morning of September 1st. 1st Class. It was supposed to be a public holiday, but dad is going back to work… The boy is crying and shouting, ‘Dad isn’t coming back!’ Damn war! I hate it!”
Later in the day she tells BILD: “It’s just tragic. Alex needs his father. Like any child. But he doesn’t have him.” When asked when she and her son will see her husband and father once more, Alina just shrugs and squeezes with tears in her eyes: “We don’t know.”
Putin’s war haunts the family
The family has been haunted by Putin’s war for eight years. She lived in Horlivka until 2015, when Russia’s pseudo-separatists invaded and brought the region under Kremlin control.
At that time she fled to Kramatorsk, 60 kilometers away, and lived there until spring 2022, but Putin’s hunger for land in the West was not yet satisfied.
On February 24, 2022, the Russian army continued to advance, bombarding Kramatorsk with everything they had. Alina and her family had to flee once more. This time in the extreme west of Ukraine. It was clear to her husband that he had to defend his homeland. Mark volunteered for the army.
Alex proudly stands in front of his new school. From now on he goes to the first grade
Photo: Private
Months later, the eastern front stabilized and the family returned there. Today Alina and Alex live in the Dnipro region, regarding 100 kilometers north of the front. Father Mark keeps fighting. “As long as it has to be,” says Alina defiantly.
Alina is a teacher and works in the same school that her son Alex is now attending. She says to BILD: “After his first day of school, Alex had to sit in my fourth grade and wait until I finished at around 3:00 p.m. and we might go home together.”
Without dad! Because he was already at war once more…
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