My shelter is covering myself with a blanket to protect against shrapnel

КА: Katya Alexander

ЮС: Yuriy Stepanets

КА: Hello, Yuriy, hello!

ЮС: Good evening.

КА: Thank you for agreeing to talk with me again.

ЮС: Yes, no problem.

КА: How are you doing, how is it in Mykolaiv?

ЮС: Well, I'm alive, healthy, I was in a wheelchair before the war too. Overall, it's quiet, quiet for now.

КА: Quiet today for now?

ЮС: Yes, relatively quiet, seems like everything's normal.

КА: I sat over our transcript when I was choosing one small piece, and I realized that I'd like to tell more about you. I want to ask about some things in more detail, and that's why we're calling each other now.

ЮС: I'm telling you, I'm up for any fuss, except stairs, so absolutely no problem.

КА: Yes, Yuriy, if there are any questions you don't want to answer – that's normal. Just tell me about it, and we'll skip some question, it's not a problem.

ЮС: Agreed.

КА: We indirectly touched on the story last time that you moved from apartment to apartment because of your situation already during the full-scale war. Can you tell me, when the full-scale war started, where were you in Mykolaiv – in a house, in an apartment, on which floor?

ЮС: I can tell you in general, if you want, in vivid detail about that day. It happened like this, that I met the war with loud knocks on my door. They started knocking on my door, we were with my girlfriend, we were renting an apartment with my girlfriend, living together. She says: "Yura, they're knocking there," – and I say: "I understand perfectly well, but you understand that I can't get up and go find out what and who." I heard a voice, it was my neighbor's voice, he was knocking. Yulia says that it might be the neighbor, call him on the phone. I'm like, well, you know, what's the first thought that can come to mind when your neighbor knocks at five in the morning? Probably he's drunk. It's logical simply, probably, somewhere around logical. I called him and said: "Dima, what, actually, is happening?" – he says: "War." I, of course, can now allow myself to joke this way, that I say that before this I thought that he was drunk. After my call he says that it's war, and I think: "Probably drunk." But now we allow ourselves to joke this way, but at that moment we were in shock. He says: "Open the window – you'll hear explosions." Indeed, war. Naturally, what was said on television in advance: they say, prepare emergency suitcases – we all together closed our eyes to this, because it's unthinkable in general to allow in your head options that there really could be war. However it was, but it didn't concern us the way it concerned people who lived in the east of our country. Therefore we didn't allow such options of a full-scale invasion when they start bombing the whole country. We started gathering on the go, jumped up from bed: what, where, how, calling close ones. Gathered something there. Capital misunderstanding – immediately head into telegram channels: news, you study all this, what, how. Naturally, at this moment they immediately turned off the elevators in the morning. I initially went down with the help of neighbors, stood at the entrance to the building, observed for some more time. Someone from the building was already leaving, packing things. I saw my neighbors who were walking with children as if nothing happened. This calmed me at that moment. This is really the factor that influenced me very strongly, namely that day, which helped me collect my thoughts and make somewhat different decisions than those made by people who left. I stood. Father went to the supermarket, I asked him to take some essential products there, that is, water, some minimal food. You know, before your eyes is a big question mark: what, how next? And this question was before everyone, a question mark before everyone. Naturally, because of this question mark there was later crushing at supermarkets, at gas stations and so on. In general, father bought all this, I went up again to the fourth floor, again asked the neighbor who woke me up with this not entirely pleasant phrase "War." I sat at home, and we understood that we needed to pack things and move from the fourth floor at least somewhere lower. We didn't know what would happen in an hour, in a minute, in a day, in two, in a month. But in my case to be lower, let's say, closer to the ground, as Klitschko said: "Need to prepare for the ground," – so I started preparing for the ground, to be closer to it. We moved to friends on the first floor. On the first floor in the house where my girlfriend lived. There they gave us a little room, and there I lived for some time, and this was beneficial to me not only in case of evacuation, but also as help in volunteering, because we started volunteering and it was easier for me. I had to deal with four steps, rather than [going down from] the fourth floor. I lived on the first floor at friends', then understood that... I wasn't waiting for some phrase from friends like: "Yur, we here, of course, lived very well as a family until the moment you came." Although the guys still say that I didn't stress them out at all, but, on the contrary, relieved the situation. My friends are a guy and a girl, and the girl was constantly shaking, and I'm so unshakeable, tried to entertain all the time. Rather, an entertainment-distraction program, let's call it that. And then I already understood that I needed to move from them. I moved to my girlfriend's, in the same building, in another entrance, on the second floor. This was such a moment of training, physical preparation of my friends, because we volunteered very actively then, and naturally: "Guys, need to go down, need to go up, go down again and go up again." Perhaps it was hard for me to watch how my girlfriend sleeps not with me, but in the corridor on a mattress, because she was very afraid. Naturally, misunderstanding where it will hit. There was one day when they shelled Mykolaiv with cluster shells, a cluster shell hit the building – cut the walls, a fragment hit the window.

КА: Your building?

ЮС: Yes, yes. It flew into the yard, flew nearby into the building. Into my neighborhood where I directly lived before we started renting an apartment with my girlfriend, it also hit. Just on this day, this was around 7 in the morning, and at 9 we agreed with father to go, take humanitarian aid to Novyi Buh through Bashtanka, just where all these shellings were, when there were already destructions in Bashtanka. My girlfriend's mother and sister with nephew went to Poland, naturally, they insisted that she also go. I also asked. I said that I can't, at minimum, watch her suffering. Naturally, she's suffering now no less from just the information she receives, because often in the news it's distorted, to some extent. It's factually true that there's shelling, really, it's loud in the city, but when you're not in the city and you read this, what's the first thought that comes to your head? "This is probably somewhere near my people." And, at minimum, you worry about your close ones and always have to be on alert, ask how they are, what they are and so on. With her departure to Poland I returned to my home, it's a kilometer and a half from her house. Returned to my neighborhood and now on the 8th floor. Such a cardiogram turned out: 4, 1, 2, 8. I immediately asked the housing and utilities department to turn on elevators not according to schedule, because there were cases when I left home at 8 in the morning, and even now this happens, and returned at 9 in the evening, although there are specific schedules for elevator operation. I said that we volunteer with our friends, we constantly travel somewhere, constantly back and forth, and I can't be sure that I'll return by the time the elevator will still work. Therefore they met me halfway, turned on the elevators.

КА: And what kind of elevator operation schedule in general?

ЮС: There was a moment when there was a schedule so that people could have the opportunity to go get water themselves, shop at the store, because this is quite a global problem with elevators not only for people in wheelchairs. Just understand, in Mykolaiv there are very many high-rises, and when there was a water problem, when there simply wasn't any, but people somehow had to get it. You can get it this way: you take a bottle and go somewhere to fill it. And this is movement, and movement for elderly people, people who suffer from some respiratory diseases, this is a test. Therefore a decision was made that elevators should still work.

КА: No, I didn't quite understand why they turned them off at all?

ЮС: They turned them off, this is all a forced measure, because when there could be shelling, someone could get stuck in an elevator. And that's it, and the person wouldn't get out.

КА: That is, this still works, but you agreed in your building?

ЮС: No, no, elevators already work throughout all Mykolaiv. This was in the first months.

КА: I see. That is, now everything in the city...

ЮС: Everything works. Where there's a homeowners' association [editor's note: OSBB - association of co-owners of apartment buildings], the chairman makes a decision, having consulted with residents, that let's, they say, turn off in case, God forbid, it hits. There will be problems with electricity, so that no one gets stuck, so that no one has to be pulled out. Let's say, shelling in the evening time. Who will be able to get this person out? If it's peacetime, emergency service will be able to come and help. But when shelling is conducted, and in the evening there's curfew, then where, how? The person is locked up, but we don't understand how long the shelling is, in what place. These are safety measures that people, some agree with, some don't, but this is already such.

КА: And at that moment when you moved to the 8th floor, this was approximately when? Spring, summer?

ЮС: Look, this was 4 months ago, this was May. Not May, this was April.

КА: Given that, obviously, this is not the most convenient and safe solution for you, why did you decide to stay on such a high floor, how did you come to this?

ЮС: I decided to stay not on a high floor, I decided to stay in my home. Probably, this is a bigger priority than floor height. I preferred to be home, at my home.

КА: And before this that apartment on the 4th, you were renting that, but this apartment is yours?

ЮС: This is rented, yes, we still communicate with the landlady to this day. Such a story turned out that we moved into it February 1st and, not having lived even a month, were forced to leave. We got the landlady's cat as a gift, because the landlords were doing renovation in their house, they asked, they say: "Maybe the cat can live with you? Because we're doing renovation." Naturally, the cat stayed with us, we just got used to each other, and in the last weeks he asked to sleep together with us. We still take care of him. We agreed with my girlfriend that that's it, this cat is ours.

КА: And he stayed with you when she left?

ЮС: Yes, of course.

КА: Every day you have to go down from the 8th floor and go up to the 8th floor. Do you do this independently or with help from friends, relatives, neighbors?

ЮС: In the entrance, that is, to the elevator, I have 7 steps. Sometimes it's friends, sometimes mom comes out, you know, like catching a ride: "Young man, can you help?". The young man sometimes doesn't understand what help the woman, quite young, is asking for: "I have a son in a wheelchair, can you help?". "Ah, okay, good." Somehow it happens like this.

КА: Your situation quite significantly complicates some safe space, that is, during shelling, as far as I remember our previous conversation, you don't go out into the corridor because it's hard for you, it's quite long, and you haven't gone down to bomb shelters. How is this for you given that shelling happens every day in Mykolaiv?

ЮС: In principle, I answered this question for you last time, it seems. Somehow I've gotten used to this already. I'm telling you that I don't have many options, if not to say that there are none at all. When there was massive shelling of Mykolaiv, about 40 hits, despite the fact that muscles below my chest don't work, but some muscle worked, and it motivated me for some moment to go out into the corridor. I still sat it out, then again got myself together. From the logic of things, you understand, we live in a frontline city. If this is a non-frontline city and air raid alarm is activated there, then there's a probability that a rocket could fly there that shoots at quite long distances. But when your city is frontline, here can fly what air raid alarm doesn't activate for, because it flies very-very-very fast. 2-3 minutes, and it's already here. As practice shows, rockets fly here, explode, and then for any case they turn on air raid alarm for us. Because radar systems, they can't catch a shell that flies... If even artillery shells fly here, to our city. We can't understand when, at what time we can feel safe, because sometimes it hits when there's no air raid alarm. When there is one, through awareness, understanding how all this works, how the whole war functions... It's clear that you can't be safe anywhere, roughly speaking. Naturally, there's some statistical data, where more hits, where fewer hits, but again this is such a roulette when you don't know what and how. We really now live in a world when, you know, before the real estate market was very strongly influenced when it was written in the ad that there's a shopping center, school, kindergarten nearby – now this also influences price, but there's one "but"...

КА: So that there's a basement nearby.

ЮС: What?

КА: Well, so that there's a basement nearby is now more important than a shopping center.

ЮС: Yes, as practice shows, on the contrary it hits shopping centers, schools, kindergartens. Now it's better when you're going to rent out an apartment, not to write it once extra. I even noticed that in Odesa before you could rent an apartment more expensively by writing that the windows face the sea. Now it's the opposite – windows to the courtyard.

КА: What horror. Here they are, the realities of war, of course.

ЮС: Yes, yes.

КА: Now, after half a year, it's clear that you've already somewhat adapted to what happens every day in Mykolaiv. But initially, given the awareness that you're less mobile than your friends or relatives, how did you feel about yourself?

ЮС: I felt quite calm due to the fact that I always counted on my close ones, friends who were near me, who were ready to help me at any second of time, even ready in curfew, if anything. Simply many people [know] me in Mykolaiv, due to the fact that I performed somewhere, performed on "League of Laughter," in "Make the Comic Laugh," through deputy work they somehow knew me. In case friends came to me even in curfew, they could tell the police, show some photo of me. People would be sure. But thank God, we didn't have to do this, so I felt, in principle, like before the war. Physical support was needed. They gave me physical – I gave them moral. We balanced the scales.

КА: Quite a legitimate mutual exchange, it seems to me.

ЮС: Yes. Somewhere around that.

КА: They were always nearby and didn't let you feel alone at this moment or somehow constrained?

ЮС: Yes, this played a colossal role for me in what I do to this day. The war started, I understood that I should be useful for the city, for society in those conditions in which I found myself. At the beginning of the war I created a telegram channel that helped people, and helps to this day, understand how people can get help, how they can provide it, to whom to provide it and so on. Such a communication channel where you could help both the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and Territorial Defense, and refugees, and donors and so on. From the first week of the war I understood that I should be online. I understood that my friends are nearby. I wanted, besides all online, to also do offline help: wrote letters to funds, received humanitarian aid, then with friends in one car, in my car we delivered it. Unfortunately, I have a truck, but due to the fact that my father is a furniture maker, and here in Mykolaiv furniture isn't particularly needed by anyone today, so he now... We talked with him and made a decision, I say: "Dad, you have your life, I have my life. No one will be offended by anything if you leave the city." This shouldn't be some stumbling block that dad left, abandoned me. I immediately told him, he insisted, of course: "Yur, leave the city, it's not safe," – I say: "Dad, I don't want to, I want to stay here. You, if you want, leave. No one will look sideways later." Therefore I first had a car, then was left without a car, good thing friends had some transport. Now very few friends, unfortunately, remained in the city. Somehow we still manage, nothing, we don't give up.

КА: That is, you made this telegram chat where people, residents of Mykolaiv, could write what they need or who needs help, right?

ЮС: Yes. Initially there was information about aid collection points. It's clear that there wasn't such a wide network of volunteer points. Now volunteers can receive humanitarian aid from outside somewhere from some donors, conditionally speaking, funds and so on. But in the first days we simply had capital queues of cars to the emergency medical service [editor's note: BSMP - emergency medical service], this is ambulance service. There people brought everything they had at home: things, medications – everything. To aid collection points they also brought everything that could only be gathered at home. Volunteers who were there tell me: "Yura, we need this, this and this from the list." I dropped this list, wrote the address where to bring it, wrote the contact phone of the person who's ready to receive it. Then people who needed this also left requests, said: "We need this." Then we gathered all volunteers, all points by addresses, and I, so as not to write an announcement for each person, said: "You can get this help here, here, here, by neighborhoods." That's how it all worked. And then they wrote a request, let's say conditionally, Armed Forces, they say: "We need this, this, this, there, there." That's it, I dropped the announcement, let's say, people who saw this announcement, they understand, we have this, we're ready to help, bring it.

КА: And this chat still functions?

ЮС: Yes.

КА: And how many people subscribed to it?

ЮС: There were about 10 thousand at some point, then it became fewer. I generally dream that there would be as few people there as possible. This would give me a signal that, thank God, no one needs help. And that's it, I'm calm. And now there are about 7 thousand people there.

КА: Besides online support, since you're quite a media personality, especially in Mykolaiv, do requests come to you, you send them there and coordinate this, and you with friends transport humanitarian aid to other cities? These are two vectors of your volunteer activity?

ЮС: I don't try to stop at something one, I don't want to put my volunteering on rails, as if it's work. I just at some moment can help, I will definitely help. I managed to get humanitarian aid, conditionally speaking, some products, something for the military – I will definitely pass this on. Familiar military contacted me, they say: "Yur, we need this and that." I also collected for thermal scopes, passed them on, held a raffle. I raffled a painting "Good evening, we're from Ukraine," the last stamp that was, collected for a thermal scope, passed it to the guys literally a week ago. Today I was at one of the points where guys make periscopes, for the military very many useful things. They say: "Yur, we need support, to give a little publicity to our work, so that we can do more. Because requests don't become fewer, but offers, due to financial moments, are minimized. Therefore we need to give a little publicity so they help us. We don't even need money. If someone has material from which this is made, and they give it to us – we'd be happy in general." The day before yesterday we transported baby food and hygiene products for people with disabilities. Tomorrow we need to send diapers to the oblast. In short, every day I find something to occupy myself with. This is like I had a joke on twitter, it sounds as follows: "Why do you do volunteering? Don't you have anything else to do?" – and the answer: "Well, that's why I do it." This is a very distracting factor, because very many people who due to war were left without work, they go crazy, I'll say directly. When you don't know what to occupy yourself with, you really get lost and go into depression. But when there's something to do, this always keeps you afloat. When you're engaged in a socially important mission, this encourages you even more. Therefore many chose the path of volunteering for themselves, at minimum, to simply not sit at home and, at maximum, to be useful to society and bring Ukraine closer to victory.

КА: Besides work, you also serve as a deputy and you also have work...

ЮС: Everything in a row.

КА: You continue to work and continue to perform the functions of a deputy, right?

ЮС: Well yes. But now because the city council doesn't function to the extent it did before, because the session literally recently passed online and there the issues on the agenda weren't particularly important. One of them was important – about renaming the street from "Moskovskaya" to "Mariupolskaya." But in general the work of a deputy today is somewhat distorted. The main function of a deputy, besides responding to citizens' appeals, was attending sessions. Now, to gather in the city council, in the, thank God, still intact building of the city council, this will be checking two points: first – is air defense working, second – is finding out how many more deputies remained in Mykolaiv.

КА: A very cruel joke.

ЮС: Cruel, yes, but such is life. I, as they say, work in the style "Both laughter and sin."

КА: Yes, it seems to me this very much supports you. And supports people around you. We talked about this last time, I want to dive into this topic again. You hold yourself with great humor and with great positive attitude inside the full-scale war and daily shelling of Mykolaiv. What gives you these forces, where do you get such a flow of positive attitude?

ЮС: The trauma tempered me very strongly. When I got the trauma, in 2015, naturally, there was a moment when I like fingers dipped in water, went limp, but then they pulled them out and they came into shape. I understood that you need to live further, and reflect on your condition. Because life won't be the same, but it will be different. Different doesn't mean that it will be worse, it will just be different. Everything is known in comparison, there are moments that became worse. Again, optimism and pessimism – these are things, you know, like infection, it's transmitted. Therefore I don't try with all my might to transmit pessimism to people, there's enough of it around from escalating situations, from human panic-mongering. Therefore I try to joke away all this panic-mongering, also joke away facts and in general present the whole situation as it is, but just a little bit... It's clear that I don't have any moral or any other right to joke about human grief, this is absolutely logical. But what concerns me directly, what I encounter, I consider that I have the right to this, because I lived through this. I generally consider that human humor has a place to be precisely when you went through this. But when you try to suck out of your finger a humorous story from what you didn't manage to live through, then probably this will be dishonest in relation to people who will read either this joke or this story. Probably this helps me, because I know how to cry, but I don't know how to show these tears.

КА: That is, it's important for you that your humor, your positive attitude, that it's transmitted to people, but your experiences remain with you inside when you stay with yourself?

ЮС: Yes. Absolutely right.

КА: It seems to me that it became clear quite long ago that in Mykolaiv it's very unsafe, that daily shelling doesn't subside, but only increases. Why did you decide to stay there?

ЮС: I don't know. I love my home, my city too much. After 6 months there are already some thoughts about moving. These thoughts visit me not so much because I'm afraid of something, as much as being now at home with mom. All this worries her, "worries" – this is still very modestly said. Because, really, she's a woman and she's afraid of all this. And, you know, there's a moment of volunteer rotation. It should be present, because in these 6 months I feel that, possibly, to some extent both physically and morally I'm tired. I understand that I can apply my forces somewhere else, not being in Mykolaiv at the same time. We'll see, I can't say with one hundred percent certainty that this will happen in the near time, that I'll move, but everything's possible. For now I stay here and try each day to somehow be a little useful.

КА: This is very understandable. It seems to me that you did very much for Mykolaiv and no one dares judge you if you want to leave.

ЮС: Regarding some judging – these are things that people allow themselves to do when they're simply bored. Because people, when they're bored, they invent anything at all in order to quench this boredom with some conflict situations. Why are we in general entitled to judge a person for the fact that he left or didn't leave? Given that he didn't hold any special important position that required staying here. Why do our people allow themselves to say about someone that "here you left, but here we stayed"? Or say similar things that "you couldn't take it." Well, listen, what difference does it make to you? We're still striving for a democratic and civilized society where you need first of all to mind your own business. If you mind your own business, then let this nose lead you where it considers necessary. I simply encountered situations not infrequently when someone, sacrificing themselves, stays here, having absolute right, possibilities and options to leave from here. I remember, it seems we talked about this, that there are such people who accuse someone of not wanting to suffer here and expose their psyche to daily torments. Someone left, took out children, took out family. Listen, deal with yourselves. Because many, you know, say: "We stayed here and we daily endure these explosions." Listen, I stayed here – I never once told anyone that we're being bombed, but you're not being bombed there, or something else. I stayed here because this is my choice, because I want to be useful here. If someone stayed here simply to hear these sounds and then accuse someone that somewhere they're not heard. Can this situation be called adequate? I doubt it very much. Yes, war is really terrible, and in any wars that were in our world, there were frontline cities and there were rear cities. And rear cities had the opportunity to live a little differently than a frontline city. Unfortunately, we can't take a puzzle piece on the map of Mykolaiv and move it further away and put some other city. This is, at minimum, impossible, and, at maximum, I don't know if this would be fair in relation to other cities. I wouldn't mind if under all kinds of bombs, explosions and shelling ended up cities that are directly guilty of this. All of Russia, which shells Mykolaiv, let them gather everyone here and let them endure all this and suffer. That would be fair. But in relation to other cities, it happened like this, that Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Nikopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, someone is in occupation. Such geography, it happened like this. I think that everyone is sure that we'll win sooner or later. Everyone who today applies at least minimal forces to bringing our victory closer, this is already good. I spoke out, excuse me.

КА: No, no, what are you saying. This is absolutely right and normal, and, in general, I exist for this, so that people have someone to speak out to, among other things. This is really important, don't apologize for this. I understand that this is a pain point, that people are in enormous endless stress, it doesn't matter, frontline city or rear. There's a war going on, everyone's nerves are on edge.

ЮС: I simply understand logically that it won't get easier for Mykolaiv because some rear city closes itself in apartments and will cry and suffer. It won't get better from this.

КА: Yes, people from Mykolaiv are some separate breed of heroes, I would say.

ЮС: Here people, despite everything, find opportunity to rest, and enjoy life, and get married, and get divorced, and walk, and green the city, let's say.

КА: Yes, this is very visible and this absolutely amazes. Since we touched on this a little, living life during war – what is this for you? What allows you to feel for at least 10 minutes a day simply like a person, and not a person inside war? Simply feel like an ordinary citizen.

ЮС: Living life – this can't be a set of certain instruments or certain situations that determine that this is life. Simply living life – this is adapting to the situation in which you find yourself. Probably, even in conditions of what I do, this is living life. Living life – this is making a choice that what you do, this is your life. It's clear, this is said in general terms, but I consider that if I made a choice for myself to stay here, help and do what I do, this is called "living life." If I consider it necessary to leave from here, this will also be called "living life."

КА: Probably I'll rephrase a little then. When I talked with several residents of Mykolaiv, everyone remembered quite different everyday things, a girl said: "I go, arrange a girls' Sunday for myself, go to my favorite cafe, buy flowers, so as not to feel that I'm suffering, to feel that I'm living." Maybe some everyday actions appeared for you after February 24th? Maybe you started doing something to breathe out?

ЮС: There aren't such traditional things, but not without the fact that I can allow myself to rest and distract myself a little. I can even go to Odesa once every two-three weeks. Rest, meet with friends, I can also go out for a walk here with friends. I don't have such specific traditional moments like the girl, unfortunately. But I really want my girlfriend to return. We already corresponded with her that we'll get rolls, pizza and, like in the good old days, McDonald's and turn on a film, and we'll feel very bad from overeating. And we'll return all the same to that very 4th floor where we lived 24 days, let the cat stay with us.

КА: This probably holds you too. This is such shared dreaming that can't be realized right now.

ЮС: Well, yes. To some extent, this is – living life.

КА: Making plans. And your girlfriend isn't planning to return yet, she's still very scared, yes?

ЮС: Yes, she's scared, she left from here not because she wasn't satisfied living not in our rented apartment, but from constant explosions. These explosions haven't disappeared anywhere yet, but at the same time I constantly try to tell her about how war works, how this exists. Through news portals it's somewhat distorted when someone allows themselves too loud phrases regarding destruction. Yes, they exist, but when they say: "The city was wiped off the face of the Earth," – well, this is, well you understand. The city is big, and I wouldn't want to allow myself thoughts that such is probable. They somewhat exaggerate everything happening. It doesn't make it easier for her. There are technical problems regarding war, that there are water problems and so on. All this overlays on the whole situation. It also won't work out to work calmly under such circumstances. There are factors that hold back. Parents insist that she postpone visiting Mykolaiv and stay, while there's such an opportunity, in a safer place. This is just one of the factors that could influence me to move to another city – to be together, simply distance her from everything that happens in the city.

КА: Distance both mom and your girlfriend?

ЮС: Yes.

КА: Very understandable patterns. And she stayed in Ukraine, she didn't leave for Europe?

ЮС: No, she's with mom, sister and nephew in Poland.

КА: Do you admit the probability that you'll meet in conditional Lviv to live together? Or are you planning to leave for Poland?

ЮС: In Lviv, possibly, no, I wouldn't want to go so far from Mykolaiv. Probably, this will be Odesa, because in Odesa I spent my student life, it's more familiar to me, and plus – there are more friends there. Actually, when you come to Mykolaiv [editor's note: the speaker misspoke here, he meant Odesa], then you can feel at home, because there are very many people from Mykolaiv there. People from Mykolaiv freed people from Odesa from Odesa!

КА: I probably won't tell my sister this joke, she's from Odesa. There, in general, there are simply many alerts, it's not like in Mykolaiv. There, of course, it's calmer. ЮС: Yes, in Odesa it's a different life, absolutely different. It can't be compared. When I arrived in Odesa in the evening and saw the lighting in the evening, there were such, orgasm-like sensations. How little we need for happiness, right?

КА: Yes, for a streetlight to shine. In general, besides the problem that's connected with elevators, with entering and exiting the house, with going upstairs, what other problems, considering your condition, did you face during the war? What maybe became more complicated, what became, maybe, even impossible?

ЮС: With transport, naturally, there's a big problem. It kind of existed, if we're talking within the framework of public transport, then, naturally, there became less of it. Despite the fact that there are low-floor buses, trolleybuses, on which we, by the way, also rode and delivered aid when there was no possibility of some private, personal transport. Well, and personal transport. Father left by car, I was left without personal transport. Such problems with movement. Mobility problems didn't go anywhere. Everything existed before the war, it just stayed here. In different, possibly, scales, but they remained.

КА: And did public transport become significantly less in Mykolaiv?

ЮС: There's simply less of it. First of all, the schedule is different, because there's also curfew, and, naturally, there became less of it for one simple reason – that there became fewer people, they don't need so much of it.

КА: You now live with mom, so the problem of, let's say, going for groceries doesn't exist?

ЮС: I don't experience any difficulties. For me there was never a problem to independently leave home and go for groceries. The main thing is to get downstairs. When I roll down the street in my wheelchair, someone tries to approach me, says: "Let me help you!", – I say: "Guys, I'm not a sculpture, don't need to." When someone tries to impudently touch my wheelchair – it's the same thing as when someone drives a car, and someone tries to sit on your lap behind the wheel and says: "Let me drive you." Or take under the arm and say: "Let me walk you there." Don't need to. People should understand that, despite the fact that a person is in a wheelchair, first of all you should simply approach and ask if help is needed. If a person told you that it's not needed, you don't need to be intrusive and do disservices, jerk the wheelchair and so on. This is wrong.

КА: Yes, I, of course, can't understand this, but this human desire to help when help isn't asked for, it sometimes terribly freezes you out.

ЮС: Sometimes people because they don't know the technique, can make things even worse. I, of course, appreciate a person's impulse to be useful and help, but it's better to ask once more. So there are no problems with groceries.

КА: On one hand, yes, and on the other hand – it's an extra reason to go out of the house...

ЮС: But that's cool!

КА: Yes, that's cool, but it's quite complicated because there might not be people nearby who can help you get out.

ЮС: We'll find some.

КА: I have absolutely no doubt in you. This is absolutely exactly so. It seems very important to me that you remain in the city not because you endure, but because this is home and you want to do something useful. It seems to me this is very important, otherwise there's no point staying in a frontline city.

ЮС: I'm collecting information in order to make a very big solo stand-up concert in the future. Let's call it that.

КА: Oh, that will be very powerful.

ЮС: That's what I'll call it – "Both Laughter and Sin."

КА: I'll be waiting very much, if you still do this, send the link! I'll definitely watch, donate.

ЮС: Deal.

КА: Yuriy, thank you once again for this conversation! You're very soulful

ЮС: If anything – call.

КА: You too, if you want to talk it out – call at any moment. It's important when there's someone to talk it out to. Then we stay in touch, yes?

ЮС: Yes, while it's quiet, while nothing has flown in – we stay in touch.