They probably barely remember anything about the Orange Revolution. Back then, they were either too young or had not even been born yet. The Revolution of Dignity was mostly seen on television; some learnt about it from their parents’ stories, and only a few were fortunate enough to be present on the revolutionary Maidan and witness everything that was happening with their own eyes. When Russians attacked in February 2022, without hesitation, they joined the Armed Forces to defend Ukraine simply because they could not imagine doing it differently. When the enemy comes to your house to destroy your entire world, you know intuitively the enemy must be killed. This generation is completely different from their parents and grandparents. They are the children of free Ukraine who have never known slavery. They have grown up, and they feel responsibility for their future. They want to shape it.
The young heroes mentioned in this article currently serve in the ranks of the 112th separate brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kyiv. They are all absolutely different people, and yet share one trait – we can openly call them the children of freedom. The Revolution of Dignity had a significant impact on their perception of the world and life. In their stories, there are answers and guidance for those who are afraid, who doubt, who are tired, or those who have lost their hope. And they can be trusted because they represent a new type of Ukrainian. This is the generation that is worthy heirs to the centuries of struggle for freedom and independence.
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Admin
Photo: Roman Malko
Ivan Fedko, known as ‘Admin’, volunteered to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the early days of the Russian invasion alongside his friends from Plast (Ukrainian Scouting Organisation). At that time, he was only 18 years old. Having just completed his first year’s first semester at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI), Admin had no other choice but to take an academic leave. He could have chosen to continue studying peacefully like most of his former classmates did. However, this was not an option for Ivan. He says he is ready to fight as long as necessary to secure Ukraine’s integrity and independence. After the victory, Admin plans to go back to studying and eventually become a software engineer; he says he likes this field. Excelling both in academic and military careers simultaneously is unlikely to be easy.
“I’ve known I would have to fight since I was 16,” the young man says. “But I didn’t plan to dedicate my entire future to military service. I simply understood that sooner or later, it would be needed, and I would join the army. Of course, I would have liked to finish my studies first, obtain some officer rank, and then go to war, but life doesn’t always work out the way we want. Before we knew it, that war began”.
Admin says that he imagined the war a bit differently. “I thought it would become a partisan war, a war of small groups, but people mobilised massively, and now it’s a war of equals”.
Admin had no prior combat experience; he gained it as the war went on. “When we went to the Kharkiv region, I was more like an infantryman. We were lucky that, at first, we were located far away from the enemy, maybe four kilometres from the front line. I’m not going to lie – the first Russian attacks I experienced were, of course, very scary. But over time, you learn to determine where it’s coming from, what it is, and where exactly it’s going. Gradually, you calm down”.
Admin was already working in aerial reconnaissance, finding out enemy positions, and adjusting the fire of mortars and artillery near Bakhmut. He admits that he imagined his time in the army would be much harder. All these stories about the Soviet army contributed to creating scary stereotypes. “In my opinion, most people are afraid of this Soviet army; people watch those viral videos where draft officers fight young people, taking them away, and so on. But the truth is, there isn’t much of that happening in the army now”, the soldier says. Therefore, to everyone who is afraid of service and tries to avoid the draft in every possible way, the Admin advises simply trying to find the right place for themselves. “You don’t have to charge and go onto frontal attack immediately. Your help and support will always be needed both in the rear and at the front, not necessarily in the trenches. There are plenty of skills that will be appreciated in the military”.
When asked about civilian life in the rear and how many people live their normal lives, travel, or go to bars, Admin says it doesn’t bother him at all. “It’s good that civilians are able to live a normal life. Let the country develop. When I’m on rotation, I myself like to come out all dressed up (wearing white socks and a beautiful white T-shirt) and go out somewhere to have fun. I get tired of this uniform, especially during the summer. You must wear long pants and tight shirts so that the drones don’t notice you. So it’s great that the country keeps living; that’s very good”.
Admin is originally from the Dnipro region. His family moved to Kyiv when he was six years old. The young man says he used to speak Russian until the age of 16 but then realised that he didn’t want to associate his future with Russia.
He was inspired to switching to Ukrainian while he was at Plast. “It’s a Ukrainian community where people speak Ukrainian; they share similar views, where you develop yourself, and as an educator, you help children develop, and it’s very cool. On top of that, the experience I’ve had in Plast camps, is especially invaluable my presence on a front line now”, says Admin. “After going through the Plast experience, those front line conditions do not seem so stressful anymore: you’ve been through something similar, can prepare yourself something to eat, you can live in a dugout, and you’ll be okay out there”.
Today, a lot of Plast members are at war; it’s nearly one-third of Admin’s Plast friends. Many are volunteering and supporting the army in various ways. “My girlfriend is a Plast member; she works as a tactical medicine instructor”.
A truly pivotal moment in Admin’s life occurred during the Revolution of Dignity when Russians occupied Crimea. Then, for the first time, he realised that war with Russia was imminent. “Back then, I got it – there will be war because, as Pavlo Skoropadsky (a Ukrainian statesman and Hetman of the Ukrainian State in 1918) used to say, Ukraine without Crimea is like a person without legs. Since the annexation of Crimea, I somehow started preparing myself; I became interested in military strategies. I knew – something was definitely going happen, I just didn’t know when”.
When Maidan began, Ivan was only eleven, and he was made to stay home. Yet, his dad constantly turned on live coverage of what was happening on the streets. Sometimes, Dad would take his older sister, and they joined the Maidan rallies together, recording videos that they later showed to other family members. Admin also remembers playing the “Berkut (special police force) against the Maidan protesters” game at school. The game was to push the opponent to the other half of the school corridor.
Admin is convinced that the Revolution of Dignity significantly influenced his entire family. “Because when we lived in Dnipro, we always heard those Russian narratives. For example, that the Soviet Union single-handedly won the Second World War or that the Americans are only capable of making cool movies about how they won. Now, our family dived into learning more about Ukraine’s history; we began to read more and became interested in things we hadn’t paid attention to before”, he says.
Admin believes that in order to avoid disappointment after the war, as it often happens after revolutions, Ukrainians must work together to rebuild the country; everyone has to contribute in their own way. People are often unhappy about things in their country – for example, they rant about corruption, but they don’t think about it when they give their GP a pack of chocolates as a thank you or resort to paying someone to write their coursework. This war will undoubtedly change Ukrainian society. It already has. “It’s just such a shame though that Ukraine’s best sons and daughters are dying,” says Admin. “And then those who escaped will return and try to impose their vision of the future state”.
Tigran
Photo: Roman Malko
Despite his relatively young age, Tigran is incredibly fortunate: not only has he chosen an interesting profession, bringing him satisfaction and allowing him to travel around the world, but he also managed to get involved in Maidan during the Revolution of Dignity. Not many of his friends and peers are lucky enough to brag about it – children at the age of 13 are rarely allowed to participate in revolutions.
It all happened very accidentally. Initially, a friend with whom Tigran attended a theatre studio suggested that they go to Maidan to bring some food and supplies for protesters. They brought some potatoes and various other useful things. Later on, Tigran returned there alone because, no matter how you look at it, at that age, protests seemed genuinely interesting. Especially when the clashes with the Berkut special force on Hrushevsky Street began, and the centre of Kyiv started resembling a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie.
Obviously, the young boy did not expect to find himself caught in the epicentre of events, but the moment he appeared near the Dynamo Stadium, the Berkut forces decided to disperse protesters. The assault began suddenly; there was nowhere to run. Tigran ran into a building where the first aid station was set up, sat down, recovered, and began helping people. He was carrying food and medicines, bandaging the wounded, and directing them to a safe place. “For my 13 years of age, I was a tall teenager”, says Tigran. “No one realised I was a child. I wrapped a scarf around my face, put on a hood, and that’s it. They just told me what to do, and I followed.”
“Then, for the first time in my life, I saw people wounded”, confesses Tigran. “When I was leaving, I was very scared. It might have even traumatised me a little. But there and then I understood that if you want freedom, if you want stand your grounds, you must make sure your opponent acknowledges that you can fight back. That anyone who attacks you, won’t have it easy for them. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. As long as you keep demonstrating your power, the aggressor state will know that it’s not worth messing with you”.
When Tigran came back the day after, Maidan’s guards didn’t allow the boy to pass behind the barricades. When his parents found out about his adventures, they sent him away from Kyiv to the seaside in the Odesa region. It wasn’t just because they were afraid something would happen to him; Tigran had been suffering from issues with breathing, and after inhaling tear gas and smoke from burning tires, he was struggling to breathe. His family brought him to the seaside to let him recover a bit.
Nevertheless, even such a minor revolutionary experience had a massive impact on Tigran and actually came in quite handy later. For example, he says in the future, when taking the university entrance exams and answering questions about Maidan, he’ll know the answer. Tigran believes that when someone is personally involved in an event, they have the opportunity to understand it better. Being a circus artist, Tigran didn’t pay much attention to humanities during his studies; he primarily focused on his physical skills; hence, this experience was truly a gift of fate.
Tigran comes from a family of musicians and initially thought of continuing the family tradition. Later, he “decided to choose something more energetic” and settled on pantomime. He works in other genres, too – he walks on stilts, juggles, and dances. He has also worked as a theatre director and actor. Tigran says that his creativity has a wide spectrum. Since the age of 16, he has performed in Poland, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. He completed his bachelor’s degree at the Kyiv Municipal Academy of Theatre and Circus Arts as the full-scale Russian invasion began. He definitely plans to return to his artistic career once the war is over.
However, Tigran already understands that it will be a completely different kind of creativity.
“When you go to war, your emotional spectrum widens. Your worldview expands. You see a lot of scary things that you wouldn’t want to see. But it deeply affects your consciousness, and your creativity changes because of that. Your entire thinking process changes. Your whole life changes because of that. Even if you are not actively involved in combat, just by being in the army, you experience certain things that alter your perspective. And I’m absolutely certain that after the victory, my approach to my work will change. My mindset has already changed. It will just be manifested differently in the way I perform art,” Tigran explains.
Currently, Tigran is undergoing a training course in aerial reconnaissance and control of kamikaze drones. Prior to that, for about a year and a half, he served in the infantry near Kharkiv and then in Luhansk direction. He says that for most of the time, he dug trenches, bunkers, and dugouts because “the first thing infantry needs you to learn is how to work with a shovel”. He admits that he is not an expert at this. Some of his comrades could dig better. “You look at them, and they’re just like machines. Probably because they enjoy it. Well, at least in my opinion.”
Tigran joined the Armed Forces in the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion. Initially, the draft office refused to enrol him because of his lack of military experience. They’d been sending him around for a few weeks, but then, eventually, they assigned him to an unofficial engineering unit that travelled around Kyiv and built defensive structures. It wasn’t exactly what the young man wanted, so he was thrilled when a friend invited him to join the Territorial Defence Forces.
“Service in the army differs from what I’m used to professionally”, Tigran says, smiling. “It’s a completely different life. It took me a long time to get used to it. Yet, there were a lot of people around me, some of whom already had military training, and some who were just like me; they came and said, “Give me a weapon”. We supported each other the best we could. I immediately joined a good squad, They became like a family to me”.
Tigran mentions that it was after the Maidan events and Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine that he understood that this won’t end there; Russian aggression will inevitably continue, and most likely on a much larger scale. His suspicions came right when, in the spring of 2021, Russia held military drills in Belarus, and rumours began circulating about Russia’s potential hostilities towards Ukraine. “I analysed this,” says Tigran, “I even found a tactical operational map. I looked at it, and I knew – this was all a carefully planned preparation. By the next year, I was ready for a full-scale war. I realised it was just a matter of time”.
