Living in a Warzone: On the Ground in Ukraine

[00:00:00] I loved your quote. When you were talking with the Anderson Cooper, you said I cannot fight with a weapon. Unfortunately, I don’t have this experience. I fight with whatever I can with information. Tell us how you’re fighting. Well, it took me several days to actually accept what was going on. Again. I was mentally prepared, but still it was a shock first and second day I cried.

I reaped I can pay me. I hike. I read like, I, I have never worked in my entire life, you know, after that, that by day three, I guess I came to the. The emotion was like, if you worry, it’s not even anger. It was like, like fewer to what is going on to these beasts who did this to us by day four. It was Sunday.

I was like, oh, I can’t just sit home, read through [00:01:00] the news. And you know, And do nothing. Welcome to onward. Live a live stream, focused on encouraging you to create a life you love living. Now let’s go beyond success to significance in clear on our, why is crucial. It requires doing the inner work, finding ourselves, getting to know ourselves, embracing our inner child.

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Let’s move on. Together. I’m Emily Harmon. I’m interviewing. [00:02:00] Alex. And we are talking about being on the war on the ground and Ukraine, and you might think, well, what does that have to do with creating a life you love living now? I mean, my podcast is on the, it is all about that. And I wanted to say, I said earlier, you guys didn’t hear me because I’m microphone that, you know, I worked for the department of the Navy for 34 years and I retired in may of 2019 and I was an officer and a civilian.

And when I retired. Wanted to figure out what do I want to do? And one of the things I did is I started a podcast, which is, was the AMR podcast all about facing adversity and moving forward because I pushed forward all my life, push, push, push, and then it was facing adversity moving forward in discovering yourself along ourselves, along the way, because really we learn about ourselves.

I’m sure Alex has learned a ton about himself as, uh, you know, in the situation that he’s facing right now and all of his. Friends and country men and women. [00:03:00] And then I changed it to create a life you love living now. And why would I be talking about creating a life you love living now with Alex, who’s in a war zone.

And my point is creating a life you love. Living is different for everybody. And it doesn’t mean like make a bunch of money and go on vacation and just do whatever you want. To me. It’s like understanding myself and being in the moment. And my brother sent me a video of you, Alex being interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN.

And I’m like, I got to interview this guy. I want to help spread the word. I want to help you raise funds for what you’re doing. I want people to be able to ask you questions and be able to. You know, get the word out about what’s going on. And I also want people to understand how the heck are you living a life you’re loving [00:04:00] living while you’re there.

And what made me think of that is watching you and your wife on your Twitter video singing happy birthday on March 10th. To your one month old son and you were smiling and you were full of joy. So welcome Alex. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. I’m touched Molly, but your introduction. Well, I don’t know what to say to you.

You lead it and direct it and ask a question that probably. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. So people can hear us. Now, if you have any questions for me or Alex, please, please post them. So Alex, I would just love it. If you could just tell us where you are and what it’s like to be, where you are right now. Oh, I’m I’m in the heart of Ukraine, basically in the middle of Ukraine.

It’s. It’s site more or less. It’s safe here. It’s [00:05:00] 200, 120 miles south of QI around two hours drive to key that we evacuated from . I don’t know guys how much you follow what is happening, but European is now. That’s a frontline there. That’s where I, I actually w where I was in the, on the first day of, of what we advocated, we are safe here.

Again, more or less, nothing is safe here in the entire country, but we don’t have our home. We don’t have. The new house that we were building, we’re actually building a new house, close to the military base where the Russians were supposed to land in the first place. It’s 15 kilometers north, west of O’Keeffe.

And the, my new house was in, in, in the construction, like one mile away from that, eh, airport, which is completely destroyed. So, I don’t know what happened to my house now. I don’t have my [00:06:00] apartment. I don’t have my house. I have, I don’t have most of my belongings that I have myself. I have my wife, my kid, some of the belongings I have both gets.

Yeah. We have two pets and well, at this point I am in the phase of like full acceptance of what happened and just like Emily said, I. Trying to find some, I don’t know if joy is the right word, but something like this, a joy in being right now and here, and the understanding that we do not know what will happen tomorrow, because we don’t know even what will happen tonight because the.

Can happen any day, any, any moment era deck can be can happen at any moment. We now live about two miles away from, uh, is the CDN in. You can find it on Google maps. [00:07:00] So the another airport is two miles away from me. And this guy is actually, no, I wouldn’t say the guys. Those are the beasts. These beasts actually bomb every airport in, in the, in the.

Just not to allow our airplanes to, to, to, you know, to fly. So also jackass is the center of chemical in, and with the view of the recent news of chemical attacks, this is, this could be a risk, but again, we know the risk, how we evaluated the risk we leave. Now, we don’t know what will happen tonight, tomorrow.

And that’s good. Are you staying at a hotel or where are you staying? That’s our friend’s apartment. They just gave it away to us free. Of course. And that, you know, we came here without even a baby’s carriage because we just bought a new baby carriage, but it didn’t let it didn’t, it was too big for the car for the vehicle.

So I left it there. So we came here without it, and our neighbors just gave us another [00:08:00] one. I have a boy, they gave me a red carriage, but I don’t care, you know, whatever. I just need a baby carriage to go out and, you know, walking into. That’s good. You can see, I’m not really like, I don’t care this t-shirt I don’t care.

I leave. This is, this is, this is the best that can happen to me at the moment. So Jennifer is asking, how old is your son and how is he? Oh, good. At this point, it’s like a five weeks. It was born two weeks before the war started. So on the first day of war, it was exactly two weeks. And everyone who has had babies like this and knew that no, that, that the first month, so very sleep the nights it’s hard to sleep at night.

So I woke up on the first day of fall. I woke up at night because he cried and I just wanted to check my, the news. It was 4:00 AM in the [00:09:00] morning and I was shocked. And you heard the airplanes flying over us. If the jet flights, the jet flight, the jets, and the Nissan piles and the helicopters. And because the airport, this airport was something like four miles away from us for miles.

Wow. Do you hear any of that going on right now where you are? Well, it’s peaceful. It’s only entire air defense, whatever it’s called anti air defense alarms that we are supposed to go to a bomb shelters, but you know what? We don’t even care. We don’t go anywhere. You know, people who live in Chicago are more or less, they haven’t seen what.

Because the places where we stayed for the first two weeks, it’s like, you would hear, like,

at some point you get used to that. You don’t care. It’s okay. [00:10:00] It’s like a normal, it’s a more, it’s a, it’s a normal that it happens when I came to again, the, the city, uh, I evacuated my family from, I went there to evacuate another family. On the sixth day of war, it was Wednesday. And I came there and it was like, it was you could I, when I first heard, I was like, and then I looked at other people who go already got used to that.

And they said, okay, we heard, we hear it from the very morning. It’s it’s it’s okay for us already. We got used to that. Wow. People, people get used to such. Because to me that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not scared, actually. I’m not scared. I’m not scared because, well, I’m a smart guy. I knew the threat is coming.

I knew I saw the clouds, the black clouds coming our [00:11:00] way with the thunderstorm lightning, never thing, but probably I saw it more than anybody or most of Ukrainian. Well, and it was publicly president Biden months ago. Heaps publicly said that Kremlin’s plan is to get Keith Kremlin’s plan is to, to sweep away the current authorities and place their own ones.

British intelligence said they specifically named the people who Kremlin wants to put here. So it was like publicly known. But nobody believed it. I didn’t do it as well. I saw the clouds, but I was like, okay. Some there’s so much light, dark cheetahs. So I was mentally prepared by the way, the night before the war started, we sat down with my wife at the dinner and I said, okay, let’s now it’s, it’s peaceful.

It’s come. But let’s [00:12:00] discuss when will be the point when we consciously decide. That we got to leave this place. You guys just think about it, have a dinner, a regular dinner. You sit down with your family and you discuss those things. What would be the point? What should happen? That you get your most necessary belongings and you’ll leave the home thinking that you may properly you, but pretend there is a chance that you will never get back to this.

That was good. It was not an emotional decision for us. When the, on Thursday, when the war started, we were already mentally prepared on Thursday night. We again, discussed it and on the Friday, actually next day, we already do that. And most of people didn’t on the sixth day, I evacuated one 10 million from European.

I helped them out on the seventh day. Of the war. I tried to evacuate another family, [00:13:00] but I wasn’t let in the Ukrainian army stops me. And they said, no way, you will not go then into the two European to the, to the city to go and pick up another family to evacuate. And lots of people didn’t do that and they suffered and, and there’s still.

Quite a lot of people who are, who are suffering there because they didn’t consciously decide on that. So I loved your quote. When you were talking with Anderson Cooper, you said I cannot fight with a weapon. Unfortunately, I don’t have this experience. I fight with whatever I can with information. Tell us how you’re fighting.

Well, it took me several days to actually accept what was going on. Again. I was mentally prepared, but still it wasn’t. First and second day I cried. I reaped I can pave it. I replied, I, [00:14:00] I have never worked in my entire life. You know, after that, that by day three, I guess I came to the. The emotion was like, if you worry, it’s not even anger.

It was like, like fewer to what is going on to these beasts who did this to us by day four. It was Sunday. I was like, oh, I can’t just sit home, read through the news and you know, and do nothing. I actually was an active participant. If you guys know about our boats revolutions in 2004 and 2014. So I was like, I need to be there.

I need to do something. Or when I discussed it with my wife, she was like, no way, no way. She started crying. She’s like, you have to baby, you have me, you have to take care of us. You have to defend [00:15:00] us. Okay, I’m not going to take your weapon first. I don’t have the military experience and the second, well, yeah, this is a risk.

I don’t want to take this risk and go with a weapon too, because again, I’m not good at it. What I can do. So on Monday, And I discussed this with my wife and she accepted it and she said, okay, you can go. So I went to actually to key, to help people in bomb shelters. So we, we, we identified a problem that the underground stations that in the war were turned into bomb shelters.

They actually, they were not prepared. They didn’t have basic stuff. They didn’t have key parts to boil water. They didn’t have tea, they didn’t have anything for, for the people to stay that. So me and my friend who actually experienced it, he had stayed in the bomb shelter overnight. [00:16:00] He said, Alex there’s it’s it’s it’s it’s.

We have to do something. So we just got our own money. We went to a supermarket, we bought sugar tea, some teapots, we brought to it one Metro station. So we gradually started doing that. And this is two weeks that we are, that we have been doing it. Now we have a team of like 10 people and we cover 26 underground stations and we really organized it well in a really structured way.

Then prepare to whatever hard times can be. So this is one thing that I started doing. And then I thought, well, I speak English. I I’ve been working with, uh, foreigners for the, for my entire professional life for 20 plus years. So why don’t I just speak to the world and tell not because you guys know you, you can Google, you can see news and all of this, but this is the feeling of.

[00:17:00] What it is like to be in the war that I want to share with you. This is something that you got to know, and the world has to know because you will tell others. And this is how we will also, the more we speak about this, the more we share, share this, the faster, the, this hell we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll stop.

We’ll end. So on your Twitter, you show different videos. You’ve you just posted about day 18, you showed different videos about the kinds of things that you and your friends are doing your to, to help. And it’s, it’s simple, it’s seemingly simple things like things you wouldn’t think of. You showed, you talked about how the children in the bunkers are getting bit by mosquitoes, which is counterintuitive because it’s freezing cold outside.

So tell us about that. Oh, well, this is what we are. Well, when we started, I thought, okay, there must be lots of humanitarian help [00:18:00] aid coming our way. And there is of course, but it really takes a lot of time. I don’t even know whether there’s any senior key now or there is, but judging from what the underground stations get.

I can probably, it goes mainly to the. To those confide and everybody in most volunteers actually work in that direction, but, but we actually identify the problem with the underground stations that just, just to give you an example, every underground station has their own staff. They have a hat cleaning.

Ladies police work in there, something like 40 people per every Metro station. So 26 metros, sorry, underground stations are about 1000. These people came to work on February 23rd and they are still there without leaving for 21 days. And they [00:19:00] will stay until whatever is needed. This is like they are military people it’s in their rules.

If it’s, if something like this happens, they have to stay. Without leading. Some of them are already with entire families staying underground in the stations, taking care of the stations, taking care of the people or refugees who are in the shelters. And so, uh, I called one of them and I asked her, where do you sleep?

She’s like, well, actually I have the room for them. Like the director’s room, the director’s office. Yeah. And I sleep on the floor. She sleeps on the floor for 20 something days. And who knows how long? Yeah. On the hard floor. Yeah. And that’s how we gradually started with mosquitoes. Somebody wrote to me, I need some things to, to fight [00:20:00] with.

I’m like, I call her why. And she’s like, because the kids get bit by mosquitoes it’s to the community is high in the underground. And what else? And there’s lots of requests like this that are not taking care of by humanitarian aid because they just bring some diapers in huge amounts, food, whatever water.

So we just take those problems and solve them. That’s awesome that you’re doing that, that you’re taking that initiative. What are, how are people passing the time down there? Especially when they had children, you know, they’ve got little kids. What are you T what are they telling their kids? How are they passing the time?

Keeping their children entertained? Oh, that’s a, that’s a good question. I. Well, we, we, we actually to address this problem, we actually bought also some simple paper, you [00:21:00] know, like lots of it and some pencils and pains just in order for the kids to, you know, to entertain themselves. And by the way, those remote, most there’s mostly vulnerable people like kids, elderly people, those people who need special attention.

Because they typically come to the bombshell and shelters and they stay there, not just for the time of the alarm, but just for the, for all the time. So they also stay for four days then. Yeah. And we try to, you know, to arrange some lunches and by the way, the volunteer movement is really huge here. And it’s a good.

You know, I started my career in USP score, by the way. So volunteer organization I’m, you know, there’s volunteer spirit that, and by the way, Ukraine was an ease number, two posts for USP score, you know, [00:22:00] Wow. So because, and, and, and us peace Corps volunteers helped a lot to actually spread this volunteer spirit around the country, which is not the case with Russia because Russia closed the score for the country about 10 years ago.

So they shut down peace Corps in the entire. So this volunteer there is strong. And for example, with the lunches, you know what one of the girls comes to me and said, we have 400 lunches, do you need? I said, yeah, let’s deliver them to the undergrounds. I said, what, what should I pay? She said nothing. I said, okay, can, can we help to deliver them?

She said, no, we will do the logistics. I’m like, okay, how can we help you? She’s like, no, no. And this is Ukrainian way. You know, if any, anyone of you have been to Ukraine, you will see that you offer Ukrainian something. They like. You have to offer three times, three times. Yeah. So I offered her. I want to help [00:23:00] you.

You are cooking some food. You are delivering. I want to help you. She’s like, oh, well, if you could some, if you could buy some rice and the pins and cans. Okay. So several hours later, she receives that’s funny. Yeah. When I was, I was holding up this and then what you hear what I was saying? I was saying, I founded the onward movement, which is all about helping people create a life that they love living.

And we developed the manifesto and one of the things in the mask manifested. We asked for help. And we help others because asking for help is, is really challenging sometimes. But then look at all the people who want to. And then the other thing is that we create space for others. We hear you. We’re not alone, we’re connected.

And I think a lot of people are feeling that with Ukraine, we are definitely connected and that the onward movement makes a positive impact in our communities and all over the world. And the other day I was at spinning class and I was. I I think about this all the time. I think, what can I do? How can I [00:24:00] help?

And I know that there’s a lot of people that are, are thinking that themselves, you know, I live in the United States, what can I do to help out? And we can donate. But then sometimes I get concerned, you know, donating to the red cross or other organizations is good. And in fact, let’s see restream, which is what we’re using to broadcast this podcast.

This show was invented in UK. Restraints vented in Ukraine. And they have a little blog there where they have a list of how you can support a bunch of places that you can donate to support. So, and then you have your go fund me, which the earlier today I was checking in. I’m like, oh, it’s not working. So why don’t you explain what happened there?

I actually have no idea because I have, since I worked for USP score, I have a bunch of volunteer. Eh, in every state of the United States and my good friends in California and in San Francisco, they offered to help me. And I said, can you guys just, you know, sort it out, collect the money because it’s easier for me to [00:25:00] receive the entire sum than through, to deal with little amounts.

And so what they did, they. I don’t even know what this co-found me is. So they did this, they collect the amounts and it’s, you can see who would donate sexually. And of course we were thankful to everyone, but then they send to me and then I distribute it to whatever needs. Yeah, but, but there is some technical issue with it and it will be sorted out.

So, so you had to answer some questions because people are concerned about fraud. So maybe, maybe the go fund me, people were, but you know, we’re gonna work on getting that back up and this link and if it changes, I’ll, I’ll share that as well. And then the other thing that you’re doing is you’re sharing in your Facebook.

That people can join. You’re sharing how you’re using that money. You’ve got pictures, you’ve got videos showing how that money’s being used. And like you said, when, you know, when you, we donate to these big organizations, it takes so long for the funding to get to where it [00:26:00] needs and you’re getting it right to where people need it right away.

If you guys want to donate fine. If we, well, we have enough funding at this moment. I think something like five of $6,000 on the way, which is good for several days for us. But just to give you another example, how we S we, we got a call from a blind man. Well, from a man who said he is blind, is he doesn’t have any help.

Can we help us? So one of my, my guys in the volunteer group called me and said, Alex, what should we do? Okay, go buy some food, you know, basic food, potatoes, bread, whatever, go to, to his place. And by the way, he, he said, this guy said that he is going to pay. So the guys asked me whether they need to take money from him or not.

I said, go look at it. And if you identify that, you know, the guy is [00:27:00] in a good condition and he can pay that can pay it, just help him with delivery. So the guys went to his place and, and send me a video. And I look at my, on my telephone and the video, and immediately after several seconds, I just go like, don’t take the money from here because this is.

This is a poor guy, 73 year old guy, blind. He’s sitting on his bed, you know, really listened costume with trembling, hands, taking out his passport is saying I’m a cook in the past, but I’m I’m blind. And I cannot get fruit now because I, they used to be some delivery before the war, but nobody, nobody is doing it now.

And he called several volunteer organizations. And obviously they, these organizations are busy with the army, so nobody wanted to deliver food to him. So we bought something [00:28:00] like what, $40 or $50. And it’s fine. So we helped this specific person who I know who we, you know, it’s the money went specifically to this guy.

Well, I mean, what you’re pointing out is that just by helping one person, you’re helping the effort. And so when we’re thinking about what we can do, sometimes we look at what’s this big thing I could do. I can’t donate a million. What could I do? And sometimes it’s just that little thing and it’s spreading love in your neighborhoods, spreading love in your communities, helping out people in your communities is ways that you can help.

So Harry to Prato says, this shows the world of water needs to be enabled to prevent the illness we see, and you’re living through shamefully. We might see this now best of luck we are praying for you. And melody says, I use my writing to share what’s going on to help. Thank you. Hoping to help. Thank you, melody.

Thank you. And then, you know, we know this, that Russia is not letting their people know the [00:29:00] truth about what’s going on. Ukrainians have big hearts. I mean, the things that you all are doing, recognizing that for the most part, it’s not the Russian troops. They don’t know. I mean, they don’t know what they, you know, what’s going on.

I guess when they get there, they do. But you know, you, you have some, it seems to me like you guys have some compassion for what they’re going through as well, letting them call home to their moms and things like that. At least that’s what we see on the. If I can, if I react on that, really we are everybody.

And I believe many people in the audience who know Ukrainians or who have been to Ukraine, everybody who know Ukrainian. So she have been to the Ukraine can confirm that Ukrainians are a very peaceful and hospitable nation, really peaceful and hospitable. And they, the history of this is simple is that we are black soils.

We are number one, black souls in the entire world. Very rich soils. So what a typical [00:30:00] Ukrainian needs is just a piece of land. Well, they would seed, you know, some plants and be happy and we are really welcoming. Every anyone who comes to our land, we treat to Borsch to all Ukrainian dishes, seeing Ukrainian songs.

But if anybody comes to us with evil thoughts, we would fight too. And because this is all land, it feeds us. It gives us food. It gives us opportunity to welcome our friends. Anybody who comes with evil thoughts is our enemy. So this is from, and this is the entire nation is now, you know, United in this defense to an aggressive.

And even though the Russians always say, oh, we have a brother in the nation. I, now everybody in Ukraine [00:31:00] can say that it is not the fact. Most of my Russian relatives and my Russian friends have not even written a line to. Uh, any, nothing, nothing at all. On the other hand, the west, I mean the west, like Switzerland, France, Germany, Britain, great Britain, Italy, Spain, us, Canada, Mexico.

If the west wrote to me so many good things, so many warm words, support. It is. So this is our friends, the west for Ukraine is, is the friends. We are a part of that, that world. Russia is not our friend and will never be for the next decades until at some point like the Nazis, you know, they come through several generations and, you know, pay for that for what they did to us and, and, and still doing [00:32:00] so we have very, now we have.

Yeah, of course, we treat those who we capture, whatever they call it. We treat them in a standards in the military standards. But I can tell you that we now we are in the state of.

Although I understand I’m not, I’m a very peaceful person. I would never think of myself saying this publicly that I hate somebody. I hate this. This is not, this is not even the country. This is an empire of lies of deception that was built specifically by a group of peril risks that captured their own people.

And, you know, got the money and the power artificially, and now they want to progress more lens. So there’s this a beasts for us, [00:33:00] everybody who’s who is in Russia. They are just a blind, deaf and dumb individuals who. I cannot say anything could do not want to take responsibility. The responsibility is taken, but somebody else, and they have to, they have to open their eyes and it will only happen after, after this beast dies.

Yeah. You said you have relatives in Russia and yet have you talked to them? From day one, I started writing to them the first, my first message was just like what I said, we are a peaceful nation, but if enemy comes, we will fight. And then everyday I, I sent to them some pieces of what I see, not news, but what I see, this is the, the airplanes.

This is the bombing that happens. This is the suffers sub sufferings that are done [00:34:00] by this Russian, what they call the Russian war. And they, they, they re they re their response. There, there was no response from them. And at some point they just left, they just quit the chat, they just quit.

Well, I think I saw somebody or somebody messaged that this is all they are now in this isolation, in this bubble. And they just don’t know the truth. Stay in the bubble of lies. No, I don’t sorry for them. No, they don’t. So they don’t know the truth, but when you try to send them the truth, what do they not believe it?

Or they just feel like maybe they can’t respond to it or, I mean, who knows? What’s do you have an idea of what might be going on in their heads of your relatives? Yeah, th th the feedback that the, my other relatives gave me who is still in the connection. [00:35:00] They think that whatever I wrote to them is lies.

So they didn’t believe me. Although I told them, this is what I see, this is what happens around me. They didn’t believe me. That’s how they, you know, w brainwashed, here we go. That’s what bill said. There people are brainwashed. Yeah. And then some people in Russia protesting more and more every day is my hope.

Yeah, exactly. This is what the sanctions will do. The sanctions, the sanctions will increase the anxiety, the social anxiety to the point when the people start actually doing something.

Wow. So what’s your, you’re going to continue with this GoFundMe campaign. I want to put this up here. So the, I, I, we believe the links can start [00:36:00] working soon after some questions are asked with answered for GoFundMe. They’re just trying to make sure there’s no fraud and that it’s use it the right way.

And then you also post videos of what. Doing in this Facebook group, if people want to join the group and you also share them on your Twitter every day, seems like you’ve been going live with a video, just walking around the towns. It’s in the town where you’re living, at least from the posts you made today or late last night or whatever you said.

I mean, it just looks like people are going about living their normal lives. That’s what it looks like in the video. That’s what you were. So what is it like where, where you are. Oh, well, it, it really doesn’t feel like a war here. It’s it? It’s probably like you guys also leave you in the peaceful and everything is okay.

The only just imagine the only thing is that that is the only things that [00:37:00] are not normal is that you have the air defense. Here I have in air defense alarm, you’re supposed to go to a bomb shelter. And then probably the supermarkets are half empty. Alcohol is not, is prohibited to, to, to, to. So, which is good in the wartime.

There is no need for that. And there is no flowers, there’s no sugar, there’s no salt or it’s hard to find. In fact, so basic stuff is, is, is absent because probably people just bought a lot too much. Well, other than that in Chicago, it doesn’t feel like that. Again, I came from a war zone and we walked in the downtown today with my wife.

And then there was some like some stuff. Close to us, like, like, and we both like turned like this, you know, and nobody else did it. And we’re like, okay, this is a syndrome, you know, syndrome of [00:38:00] a person who’s been in the war and what is going on then, you know? Yeah. So the people, the people do not feel it.

And it’s hard to feel any. I understand them. I understand you guys. You, you just watch the news. It’s far away from. But another thing that another thought that I have now, I want to share with you that a couple of days ago and use hit me once I also realized the war on this total different level, because, okay.

I’ve seen my home left behind. I’ve seen the air jets. I’ve seen the entire air defense working. I I’ve seen jet flies over us. I’ve seen a, an oil base burning like 10 miles away from us. I saw the smoke. I saw those checkpoints in Kiev. I saw the warriors and lots of this. And so I like kind of, I felt the war, but [00:39:00] two, two days ago, I, I heard the story about my.

Guy, who I knew who lived close to me. And we had arguments with him. We cooperated with him and then we broke up and we didn’t even speak for the past half a year. And then I heard the story of him trying to evacuate his family from that war zone. So he had the car, he put his family in the car himself, his son and the wife, and they were driving and they were shot by.

The guy died on the spot. Right then the son was shot three times, but he was lying down on in the car. So he, he got it. He was alive and the wife was, was shot in, in the valley. And those Russians took them out of the car, by the way, they put them into another car. The car took them to a hospital to create new hospital.

So they got cured, [00:40:00] not the, but the guy. So when I heard it, it was like a total different level. So the desk is actually next to me. This is the guy I knew he’s dead, he’s dead. And you know that already thousands of people are dead in Ukraine. Around 100 kids are dead and nobody knows how many more will be will, will die until the end.

This war. The worst thing that we cannot protect ourselves from, from the sky. You guys know that the, these, these beasts, they do bombing of air texts on residential areas on the hospitals, on schools, not just military objects as the promise, just everything they, they, they, they want to bomb. They bombed in three buildings in key today.

Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know how many people died. [00:41:00] And it will continue happening, you know, ask what, what about near the shelters where you deliver, how safe is it there? Nia, the shelters or in the ship? Well, in the shelters, I mean, how safe? Oh, well it’s like a regular underground. It’s really deep in the, in the, in the ground.

So it’s one of the best, well, it’s the best bump shelters in the entire city. So it’s really safe. Yeah, but what would you have to get in there? You know, when you’re in key, I mean, so do you feel, I mean, how is it to get all the supplies down there once you get down there, maybe you’re safe, but when you’re collecting the supplies and everything, how has that, well, in key, if it’s a.

Well, when I first put the first week, I actually did it myself. I volunteer, I went to in the supermarkets and did more or less safe, probably because I’m just a brave man, because I was actually driving past the tank [00:42:00] Ukrainian tent, but it was, it’s a breach. Yeah. And I was driving on the bridge and here’s the thing.

You guys know when you are driving past a, a huge truck truck. Yeah, but it’s not just like this, it’s like 10 times more. It’s like the cost that’s traveling like this together with a bridge. So it’s like, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s. But yeah, I heard the bombing. I saw the small cause just as I said, I saw actually I saw our police getting those the English word.

So we have a special military troops who were sent by Russians to do terror, terror attacks, and police catches them and I saw one of them just in front of me. Wow. Well, yeah, but other than that, Keith is F S from, as a cat. And the, the, the Russian, the Russians have not even come close to [00:43:00] Keefe yet. It’s like 10 kilometers away and we are defending ourselves, but if they come, they will be hit at every single meal.

Yeah, you guys are getting ready for sure. So let’s see, melody says she posted a video of a Russian shoulder who thought soldier. He thought he was coming to save people. He had no idea what was truly going on, and I guess you can sympathize with that. But then it’s like, once they figure out what’s going on, if they keep going and doing what they’re doing, that.

An issue. I mean, yeah, well they, the entire nation, the entire Russian nation has been fooled around. So they are fooled. They are full with everything. Some of them don’t didn’t even know that they came to Ukraine. Here’s the story. On the first day, one of the Russian soldiers who was landed from a helicopter and the place was Talmud, the military.[00:44:00] 

You went to a supermarket, he went to a supermarket to buy cigarettes. Um, and this is a story that my neighbors in Gusto told me. So he went there, he took a, hit them and he went through to, to share and he produced Russian robot. Although in Ukraine, the currency is Ukrainian grieve. Now, for those who don’t know, so we have Ukrainian Grievant and he produced Russian rubles.

The guy had no idea he’s in a different country. He thought he was in Russia. Of course, he got caught by the security and sent to police. And then, you know, so a young guy, 20 years old or something, he didn’t, he had no idea. He was sent to Ukraine. They w they, they have been fooled around, not everyone. Of course, they’re special troops who specifically know that they go to Kiev to get the landscape and the, the highest, you know, [00:45:00] authorities of Ukrainian, you know, the, the president’s office, the, the speaker of the parliament, everybody in the highest authorities and killed.

Or make them make them signed whatever documents they want. Of course, there’s a bunch of those special troops and, and to Chan, but your chance also, but a lot of people don’t even know they have food around. Wow. Let’s see, we got another comment here from Amy. She says, this is that when you were talking about like how people hear the, hear the sounds, but just don’t just keep going on with their lives.

People become blind to accepting those things that would disrupt their everyday routine, especially if it’s much easier to pretend. Everything is fine. It’s hard. Yeah.

Well, it makes me think of it. A line that I heard yesterday. Somebody said that [00:46:00] if Google and apple made every telephone in the world, do the, you know, this bombing alarms, just to imagine you’re sitting at your, in your home in California, Texas, wherever, and then you hear this, just hear this. Then the war will end sooner.

everybody. When you, when you feel what it is like, you know, you got to coach pump shelter.

That’s a really good point. So, you know, says these stories are so important even as they break our hearts. Yes, they are. And so before we came on, I was talking to you about before we came live. I was talking to you about that video of you with singing happy birthday to your one month old son on March 10th.

And it looked to me like, I [00:47:00] mean, you were smiling and you and your wife were experiencing joy over your son. And we talked a little bit about like, how can you. Well of your life or be content in your life or live your life with all this going on around you. And you said you had been reflecting on that recently, and I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Well, I was a participant of a 2004 revolution and 2014 revolution. And for me, this is the surgery. So what we started in 2004 continues until now. So it’s 18 years. I remember those times. And then I remember this time, this is just like such a raise of a spirit of the entire nation of lots of people, such an atmosphere.

And I, again, again, I’ve experienced it already two times [00:48:00] and the. I want to invest everything I have now all my time, all my efforts, I took sabbatical from my work. I cannot work. I don’t need money. I just, I just want to invest everything in order to win this game, because this is not just a game for myself, because I want to get my home back.

It’s very pragmatically, acoustic. I want to get my home back. The only way for that is to get rid of this. Get rid of the beast on this planet. Yeah, but I also want good for my country. I want my country to be United as it was before 2014. I want Europe to rethink its values because there’s. There’s been some problems with that.

And the Mo lots of international organizations also have to change you. And it needs to change the security council of [00:49:00] UN needs to change it. If they are not working, they have to change. We are changing ourselves. We are changing the Europe and we are changing this country that attacked us. This country will be changed dramatically.

And also the entire world will change because this is what has happened in Ukraine is an epicenter of the entire world. I’m sure that after this, the world has to really think of what to do with the nuclear nuclear weapon. Yes. Finally, finally do something with, so what you’re talking about is you’re looking at all this terrible stuff that’s going on and you’re, you’re finding a gift or an opportunity.

Yeah, the gift and an opportunity that is like wake up. We need to make some changes. We can’t continue operating this way, not just Ukraine, but you know, NATO and you know, all of the Western. Countries, everybody [00:50:00] that’s, you know, we, we just can’t keep going on this way. There’s some things we need to do. We need to wake up and that’s a gift that’s coming out of this.

It’s a very expensive gift. It’s terrible that it had to happen this way, but like you said, you’re accepting what’s happened. It’s happening. You can’t change that. So how can we move forward? How can we find a gift or an opportunity? How can you. That’s what you’re focused on. Not me. I’m just going to sit in my apartment and, and, you know, I quit my job and I can’t do anything.

You’re like, where can I go to help? How can I help? And you’ve found ways and you’re gathering people to create those ways and yeah, absolutely. So Dale, yes, there are, people are afraid if they believe the truth and their fear of being targeted and peaceful protesters are being jailed. Yes. That definitely is happening.

Let’s see. Let’s see if I see any other comments here. This is the fear. If you guys watched his speech at [00:51:00] the court, that’s what he said. You guys, everybody, you’re a few feet. There is a fear everywhere. Nevada is the one who doesn’t fear and we don’t fear. Now. What, what, w what, what should we share about what death, if, if they attack well, if they, if they, if, if they did what they planned to do, if they achieved what they plan to.

This is the death of the entire nation of the entire country. I do not want to leave in a country like that. Like they wanted to build here. I do not want, this is a death. I want to stop it. I’m a little citizen of this country, but there’s lots of us, millions of us. It’s not like a hundred thousand. It’s millions of.

So, and we will do that. Of course, this is a big sacrifice and lots of people die, unfortunately. Well, one of my coaches says you can [00:52:00] climb Mount Everest with baby steps and you can, you know, handle this with everybody doing their little part. Like, like what you’re doing and what others are doing. And if people donate and, you know, whatever people can do spread the story, like Melody’s been posting the story, you know, share this video.

And when you share it, tell people, start at whatever it is. Three minutes when you can actually hear Emily, because my couldn’t hear me, but yeah. So just spread the word and help people, you know, with what you’re doing posting on Twitter, just spreading the word. Is creating awareness. I definitely agree with you about if we all heard our phones going off every time, that would be helpful too.

So Amy says having a playful spirit that seeks out experience and finds agency in the midst of chaos is important. Helping people deal with their frustrations and betterness over the hyper shift, we’ve all experienced. This is where work lies. Do the work. Yeah. So [00:53:00] your. I wouldn’t with everything that’s going on, you’re doing what you can to love being alive and to contribute.

That’s what you’re doing. And I admire that in you, Alex. Yeah. In fact, I feel more alive than ever.

Wow. Wow. Well, let me just, as we wrap this up, if anyone has a last minute question that they want to pose posted in the chat and I’ll try to catch it and please take a screenshot. You know, I’m going to put this graphic up there. If you want to take a screenshot, share the show and a post, make a post about what you learned, help people learn more about what we just talked about.

Follow Alex on Twitter. Okay. He’s posting videos. They’re off often, like I said, restream was invented in [00:54:00] Ukraine and they have a link where you can go and find places that you can, that you can donate. You can contribute to, Alex’s go fund me account once we get it back up and running and I’ll be making posts about that.

But this link should continue to work. Just go fund. He’s looking into it a little bit. They just want to make sure it’s all. It’s all good. Then you can join Alex’s Facebook group. What does that say? Actually? How Kieve survive, help Kieve survive. Okay. I see that. Okay. Yeah. I hope he survive. I see that now.

All right. And so you can join that Facebook group and learn all the things that they’re doing to that he and his. Volunteers are doing to help. So let me check the chat. Oh, I don’t think we have any more questions. So Alex, any, I’m just you and I were talking about my brother, cause I met you kind of through my brother.

My mom sent a video and the video was [00:55:00] you talking to inter son Cooper. Right. And I’m like, oh, I got to interview that guy. And you know, my brother said that, you know, he was a colleague of. And then we talked about your, your, we consider you guys friends, right? You and my brother. Yeah. Yeah. John, John, John, John is one of those people who I would love to stay in touch and be friends with the he’s very, very nice person.

And I can feel it here. If he was not American, he would be a Ukrainian or maybe Hungarian. But I think, I do think that at some point they probably want to move back over, you know, back over there, but, and, you know, did you work for move one Kurt Clemens company? I was going to manage it for you. Okay for move one.

So, you know, an interesting story. I don’t know if you know this, but I grew up in my brother and I grew up in Northern Virginia and now, and Kurt and my [00:56:00] brother are the same age and Kurt live next door. I don’t know if you knew that. So that’s how I know Kurt and you know, that’s how my Curt and my brother met.

And then my brother moved to Budapest and started working with Kurt. And I’m sure that’s how he met you. He’s traveled all over. And Kurt said he couldn’t be here today, but he’s been, I know I saw he donated to your good funding and he’s been traveling around Romania, Poland. Figuring out how he can help as well.

So he got a lot of people helping you, a lot of people supporting you, and I wish you the very best I’m going to keep following you. And if you ever want to go live again with me to share a story or to talk about something, I’m here for you, we can make it happen. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I’m only again, if all, thank you for your time.

Thank you. You guys, who listened to us? Please DM DME. If this site, if this thing doesn’t work, I can give you others ways of done the donations, but, or just with any questions, but the more [00:57:00] we talk, the more we share it again, the, the, the faster, the scalpels w will stop and, and, and, uh, less, less deaths, more lives will be saved.

You know, please share it with anyone who is. Just the feeling then uses everybody watches the news, but this is the feeling, the stories, because I, we are here. We, we feel it. We, we, we kind of in this epicenter, I can, I can try to share it with you because you know, when, when I heard about Syria was just far away, you know, I knew the tanks, I heard about the lab, but it was just the abstract thing.

Now for me, it’s a specific thing, and this is what I want to. Thank you for, for joining us today. Thank you, Alex.