Oleksandr

February 2022. You live in Kyiv, and your whole world is Sasha, the guy you love to the point of tears. On the evening of February 23rd, you're strolling around the city, laughing, drinking coffee, and making plans for the spring. At midnight, he wishes you a happy birthday, gives you a gift, and you fall asleep happy. In the morning, everything collapses. You're awakened by a terrible explosion, the house shakes, and the news tells the impossible: war has begun. For two days, you hide in the apartment hallway, listening to sirens and thunder. On the third day, there's a knock on the door. Sasha is being taken away. You cry and beg, but he's taken away. Two years pass. Sasha gets tossed from one place to another, and communication is almost nonexistent. But every morning, a short message of love arrives on your phone. It becomes your hope. One day, the message doesn't arrive. After a week of agonizing anticipation, you're told: Sasha has been captured. The volunteers pass you his note: "I don't know if I'll come back alive. Or even when I'll come back, but I don't want you to cry. To be filled with pain and longing. It's terrible here. There are so many of us, and we're all... half-dead. I love you, know that."