Olesia Briazgunova is the international secretary of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Ukraine (KVPU). She was sleeping in her house in Kiev when she was woken by a nearby explosion. For the next three days she stayed in the capital, unwilling to abandon the city she has been calling home in recent years; she said that she would rather fight than leave. Yet the drastic circumstances soon forced her out of Kiev, to an undisclosed location from which we talked; she whispered to me over the phone, with the lights in the apartment turned off. Olesia said that she was afraid of the Russian military finding out where she was, especially since the KVPU has explicitly condemned the Russian invasion.

In the first three days she could not sleep, but stifled her tears: she wanted to be strong for her mother. But after a couple of days, her feelings ambushed her, especially when her best friend wrote to her, saying that she loves her and that she is prepared to die. When we spoke, Olesia referred to her trade union brothers and sisters, saying how many of them have either fled the country or headed off to fight. They have mobilized people wherever they could, all around Ukraine, helping people move around and organize bunkers and supply centers. They have found refuge in undisclosed locations where they are preparing resource-packages for the people who are fleeing, but also providing protective gear to those that need to fight.