“We woke up on Thursday February 24 to the Russian invasion… for thirteen days all I heard was sirens, explosions, and shelling in and around Kyiv,” says Lana Nicole Niland over a feeble Messenger call that drops in and out.
Lana, a Canadian Ukrainian has lived in Ukraine for 19 years. She is a professional dancer who also runs an arts and cultural organisation, Postmark Ukraine, and is now harvesting support for Ukraine, its people and culture.
Lana Nicole Niland crossed over to the Polish border to safety, “the day before yesterday and with six dogs and three cats, “of friends and neighbours.”
The days have become numbers tallying the full-scale Russian invasion.
We have tried to set up a time for the interview for the last two weeks, Lana spoke to me as soon as she was safe in Poland.
Lana wants, “to let the world know what is going on.”
“I have lived through stages of Ukraine’s post-Soviet development from revolutions to now war.”
“What’s happening now is important not just for Ukraine, but to the world. This is a fight for dignity, freedom, independence, and a fight for a stable life. Ukrainians want stability.”
“You’ve seen the footage of Buchach and Halychyna” about an hour our of Lyiv, “there is severe fighting, one of my staff saw the building next to hers completely destroyed.”
In Kyiv where Lana lived, “people began evacuating on Thursday…there were massive queues for petrol…hours of waiting in a queue.”
“Within a few days petrol became non-existent and there is no refuelling of stations, so anyone who needs to get out of the city you have to know someone who can take you, or you’re stuck, even if you have a car.”
“The supermarket shelves soon became bare, there is no fresh meat or milk products, and it’s extremely difficult to find any dry goods, there’s nothing fresh.”
Electricity and water have been impacted on as well. Water in Ukraine is not necessarily the best in normal times, but all external water delivery has ended.
“Water bottles in stores are a thing of the past, and we were instructed to boil water, but there was discussion within my circles that this might not be a good thing.”
“I don’t want to comment with authority, but water might be somehow ‘affected’ treated… you know what I mean… chemically.”
“Women, children, and the aged are the most vulnerable,” Lana says.
She worries about Russian retribution against those left behind.
“It’s one thing to have our Ukrainian Army and the Volunteer Battalions taking up arms, but we have families who are still left in cities and are liabilities.”
She describes the horror of the Russian bombing of the maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol.
“Civilian casualties are overtaking our defence groups’ casualties.”
“There’s a constant sense of fear because you don’t know what’s going to happen next, it is different in centres further away from the physical fighting, but regardless of fear, there is a deep understanding that Ukraine is not going to fall.”
Lana says that the population is “very determined”.
“Ukrainians will fight until the very end, if it even gets to that point, before they allow Ukraine to fall, it doesn’t matter which city, whether it is Mariupol, or Halychyna, or Kyiv, there is determination and thousands of men who continue to volunteer to sign up to the volunteer battalions.”
She says that the Russians will not change their behaviour without international pressure. “It is only a continued international support system for Ukraine that may alleviate what is happening here, the Ukrainians are willing to fight, we are willing to do what is necessary, but we need help, we need tactical assistance, and we need humanitarian assistance.” On Postmark Ukraine’s Facebook page Lana posted about the “masterpieces of Ukrainian painter Mariia Primachenko” being saved by the villagers of Ivankiv, in the Kyiv region, that was bombed 23hrs ago” and occupied by Russian troops.
“They hid paintings in their homes as Russian troops set on fire a local gallery.”
This is a war on the Ukrainian people and their culture. Ukraine emerged from the Soviet era as an independent nation. By 2014 it was a pluralist, multicultural and democratic nation, and an anathema to Putin, for those very reasons. “In Lviv, sculptures from museums and churches have been hidden in bomb shelters or taken out from Ukraine.
Local governments have constructed metal and plastic protection systems to save monuments, mosaics, and essential architectural pieces from Russian bombing.”
Lana stops short of calling for NATO’s direct military engagement but wants NATO’s assistance.
“There are options which do not mean that you get a direct fight between NATO troops and the Russians.
“There are other more creative options, such as planes from different NATO member countries could be used by the Ukrainians.”
Lana Nicole Niland while in Poland is working out “logistics to make sure that everything here works” as she sets up a fund to assist the Ukrainian struggle.
The Ukrainian Patriot fund Lana is setting up will provide strategic and coordinated support for the Ukrainian resistance.
“Every day, every hour there is something different, it’s very fluid, Lana says
