This is the story of how a poet, the mother of two daughters, Maryna Tseluyko, became a volunteer for the Azov Regiment. Her story starts before the war began when Maryna would attend training sessions organized by the regiment. She wanted to defend Ukraine. However, health issues wouldn’t allow her to go to war, so she became a volunteer in the war kitchen.
Before the war, Maryna used to write poems and work in a bakery, creating honey gingerbreads for Ukrainians. She’s also the mother of two wonderful daughters who provide her with inspiration every day.
Maryna has been a patriot for a long time and fought on behalf of the Ukrainian language to make her Russian-language friends accept Ukrainian. She began to write “poetic chats” in conversational Ukrainian.
“The war is hell for me. Now we all feel it. I’m a believer. I have felt God from an early age. I know that the heavens ‘present’ a war to people when people don’t realize what is truly valuable on this earth. The war is given to people so they can realize that the most valuable thing is life,” the volunteer explains.
Even before the full-scale invasion began, Maryna attended Saturday training courses organized by Azov for people who wanted to defend their home city. At the training, she was told: “If you wake up and learn that war has begun, all those who have been training here can gather their backpacks and come here.”
So, it was no accident that the poet made the move from holding a pen to holding a weapon. And neither was it a surprise to her, as Maryna underlines. “A month before the war, I saw an oracular dream: “The Virgin Mary covered Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral with a red cloth. I understood then that war was inevitable, and there would be a lot of blood and losses.”
Waking up on Feb. 24 and hearing that the invasion had started, she initially bought food items for her elder daughter and mother, who decided to stay in Kyiv and sent her younger daughter to the Carpathian Mountains until the bombing of Kyiv stops. So I got my backpack sorted and ran to Azov.”
“They didn’t want to take me, said that they took men and asked me to leave a phone number. I was afraid they wouldn’t call me because the phone connection would disappear. I told them I had trained not for nothing and would not be going anywhere. They smiled and took me as a volunteer into the war kitchen.” So that’s how Maryna ended up becoming a volunteer at the Azov Regiment.
The first nights of war were very busy. Volunteers fed fighters for almost a whole day, from 6 AM till 3 AM. There were three days like that. Non-stop. Everybody came to the staff headquarters from different cities of Ukraine, and even other countries, to defend Ukraine.
The Azov Regiment accepted everybody, including newcomers who received training, and experienced fighters who had been through the war in Donbas; they were sent to liberate occupied territories from invaders.
The regiment’s war kitchen has 11 people, including six chefs, who have become volunteers, and five female volunteers. The chefs cook tasty meals for the military, and volunteers help them hand out food, wash tableware, cut, and clean up.
“Each of us gives of ourselves, so a soldier comes to the kitchen and receives food but also a sincere conversation, warmth, and the feeling of being part of a family. Of course, they became native to me because my heart engraved everybody’s face in the memory,” Maryna added.
During the war, Maryna became a friend to many soldiers. When they come back from a mission, Maryna sees a beaten eye, an injury to the leg or hand, and experiences this in a very personal way. Her close friend with the call sign “Tanchyk” was killed recently. He went to war in Donbas. He was in Bucha, he spent two days in the ground and then came back when everybody thought he’d died. But this time, he did not come back.
Maryna found out about the loss of her friend from her sworn brothers: “His sworn brother told me in the dining room while I was serving food: Were you friends with ‘Tanchyk’? He’s a 200 [dead man].” And left. I was stood there frozen for a few minutes and couldn’t realize this. Then I cried for two hours. It was as if a piece of me had been removed…”
Volunteer and poet Maryna Tseluyko with her friend “Tanchyk”, who was killed fighting for Ukraine in Donbas recently (Photo Credit: Maryna Tseluyko)
After such losses, the smiles of other fighters helped the volunteer to renew herself because the mood of volunteers has an impact on the mood of soldiers. In turn, victory depends on their mood.
“The war has shown people who they really are… I think everybody needs to dedicate their all in honor of victory and peace so we will be one whole entity!” the poet adds.
Volunteer and poet Maryna Tseluyko with kitchen chef Oleksiy (L) and Serhiy (R), who fought in Donbas and in the current full-scale war, who suffered shell shock. (Photo Credit: Maryna Tseluyko)
