“Finding myself in Kyiv now, I smell blood and diesel from time to time. These triggers will always be there,” says Alina Viatkina, a paramedic for the volunteer Hospitallers Medical Battalion. “But you can’t lose control for three days every time. You are learning how to calm yourself: OK, this is the smell of blood. But you’re in Kyiv. There is no blood here.”
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Fighters of Ukrainian volunteers Donbas battalion take a break as they take part in military drills not far southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, on April 1, 2015.
