Boris Blue Eyes

You can seize a city, block roads, put up your flags. But it is impossible to make people love the enemy. Seventeen buses — towards Ukraine. And only four — towards Russia. These are the numbers they use to describe the evacuation of people from occupied Oleshky in Kherson region. Imagine people leaving their homes. Where they lived for decades, where they planted trees, raised children, built their future. Someone took their documents and a small bag. Someone — their elderly mother by the hand. And someone looked back at their own house for the last time, not knowing if they would see it again. And in the midst of this pain, they had to decide where to go. Seventeen buses chose the road to Ukraine. Because Ukraine is not just a territory on a map for these people. It is their native land, their own language, familiar faces, the feeling that you are among your own. And I am not going to condemn those who went in a different direction. We do not know what circumstances forced them to make such a decision. Perhaps their relatives stayed there. Perhaps there was simply no other way. But I am struck by something else. No matter how much they try to convince Ukrainians that their land is now foreign, no matter how hard they try to erase Ukrainian from their lives, the heart still remembers where its home is. Because the Motherland is not chosen by those who are stronger today. It is loved even when it costs a lot to do so. I believe that the day will come when the residents of Oleshok will no longer have to take evacuation buses. When they can simply return home, open their gates, enter their own yards, and never again stand before such a terrible choice. And until then, I want to say to everyone who was forced to leave their native home: may the road lead you to safety, and later — back, to your native threshold. Because the right path for a Ukrainian is the one that leads to a free life on their own land. (Alla Vasylyshyn / FB)