As has regularly been the case, the latest episode of Ukraine War Diaries podcast isn’t always easy listening as we hear from military volunteer Seva Koshel, who describes his changing feelings towards death.
“I was talking to my friend who is now an officer in the army. Guys from his unit, who were under his command, have been killed. My friend must go with the body to his village for the funeral.
“It’s very tough for him. It’s the first time for him. I hope it will be the first and the last time but we don’t know.
“In the previous podcast I was telling that the war has become routine, that we do what we do – and actually the same happens unfortunately with our soldiers and officers who we lose.
“First time when a guy was killed whom I knew, it was quite a shock and it was a really big drama, and now, you just know, you just understand that, ‘Okay, he’s not with us anymore’.
“I mean it’s not okay, definitely. But I just get used to that because I have quite, quite a few of them, whom I knew and who are not with us anymore.”
The latest episode also features entries from Seva’s wife Oksana, who works in overseas education and has remained in Kyiv with her husband since the start of the invasion, and Ilyas, a married father who is now back in Kyiv having initially fled to Lviv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posted on Telegram again about the attack on Zaporizhzhia.
Along with photos and video of the scene, he writes: “The world must see the truth.
“A missile attack on the civilian population of Zaporizhzhia destroyed residential and private houses, where people just slept at night, just lived, didn’t attack anyone.
“Ukraine never wanted this war.
“Ukraine did nothing to provoke it.
“We are dealing with a state that does not want peace.
“With a terrorist state.”