It's Better To Fight Tyrants WhenYou're Young - March 15th 2023

March 15th 2024

Yuriy reflects on his daughter's birthday celebration, concerns about the war, physical challenges, and the importance of fighting tyranny while young.

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TRANSCRIPT: (Podbean app users can enjoy closed captions)

  It's March 15. 

Today is my daughter's birthday. She turned 19. It's a wonderful family celebration, which I will finally be able to celebrate at home. Although, I have some concerns because I'm currently at home. I have been transferred to Kyiv to serve in the public relations department of a Territorial Defense Forces. I'm once again hosting a radio program with same one I worked on before joining the military. But now, this program is entirely dedicated to the war. And I'm also filming and editing a movie about journalists who joined the army and perished. It's very challenging psychologically, but I'm gradually getting through it.

 My anxiety is related to the fact that many of my friends are currently in the trenches in mortal danger, while I am in the relatively peaceful city of Kyiv. I understand that the war will last a long time, and what I will most likely find myself in the trenches again, right on the front lines, but I still have a sense that something is wrong with me. It's completely irrational, but it's unavoidable. 

The only thing that causes me more harm than this feeling is the pain in my back. Two years of running in the bulletproof vest with heavy backpack take their toll. It's hard for me to walk, I struggle to get out of bed in the morning, and I am forced to constantly take painkillers. I am afraid to go to the doctor- what if they find something serious? So I just endure it for now. I want to be honest with you. It's better to fight tyrants when you are 20 to 25 years old, young and strong. After 40, it's much harder. Keep that in mind and do everything to ensure that when you get older, all the tyrants around are destroyed. 

Let me tell you a bit more about the radio. It turns out that in these two years I've almost forgotten how to host programs. I forgot how to communicate with people who are not my comrades or superiors. Forgot many words that are irrelevant in the army, but are actually necessary during hosting a show. So now I'm hosting a program and I'm very nervous. I think the listeners can hear it, but I hope that with time I'll get back to normal, if I even remember what normal is.  

I'm very grateful to all of you for staying with me all this time, supporting me, helping me, and my loved ones. Thanks to you I bought my daughter a gift, a wonderful big book about the history of car racing. It's her hobby- she knows everything about Formula One and other races. She wants to write about it when she finishes university and starts working as a journalist. It's a good dream. I really hope that by when we will indeed be more interested in the results of car races than in the number of casualties from another missile strike on our cities. God willing, it'll be so.