World News: War diaries from a filmmaker turned fighter in Ukraine

Sunday, March 6

Ukraine war diary: Illarion Pavliuk checks in with his family

Dispatches from Ukraine:

USA TODAY Opinion will be presenting the story of Illarion Pavliuk, is a renowned Ukrainian writer, documentary filmmaker and journalist. Through his own words, we will offer the story of how he went from father to one of the many citizens in Ukraine who have decided to fight back against the Russian invasion.

Today we offer us the fifth and sixth dispatches.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine: The story of one man's decision to fight

By Carli Pierson

Pavliuk sends me his fifth dispatch on Feb. 29th, 2022, as he is about to leave the apartment that he lived in for 15 years with his family in a suburb of Kyiv. He includes a selfie in front of what he calls "his favorite wall" a pink painted wall in front of his kitchen, plastered with artwork from his four children. He's dressed in fatigues from the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2014-2015.

He is nostalgic as he gets ready to walk out the door to train and fight with people like him who have volunteered to defend their nation to the death.

"One day a teacher in school told my son that his drawings were awful. He said that he would never draw again. We asked him to draw us, me and Svitlana (my wife). That picture got thousands of likes after I told the story on Facebook. And my son was a guest of the biggest morning show on Ukrainian TV, to tell that children's drawings are never awful!

I am moving out. Don't know when I'll see this wall again.

Today is the first day of spring and today there is a lot of snow. Under another circumstance my children would go play in the street. And, what do I see from my window. Just the town of Brovary as I used to see it. At night the town was struck by a Russian rocket but that is a little bit out of sight of my windows. But I know it was in that direction."

Illarion Pavliuk and his friend, Ivan, stand in front of Illarion's wall in his apartment outside of Kyiv. He says it is his "favorite wall" because it has all the paintings and drawings and art work of his four kids over the years.

Illarion Pavliuk

Other war diaries from Pavliuk

•	'We will never give up': A father prepares to leave his kids and fight for Ukraine
•	'If we lose Kyiv, we lose everything. We will lose the nation.'
•	Ukraine war diary – 'This is what we're fighting for': Illarion Pavliuk makes a stop

Related columns on Ukraine

•	Attack on nuclear plant was shameful. But it's not another Chernobyl.
•	Ukraine refugees fleeing Russian invasion reflect all refugees
•	Ukraine war revives my generation's fears of a nuclear armageddon
•	Let's help Ukrainians first. Then judge Europeans for past mistakes.