Laura Gozzi
european reporter

When Russian bombs started falling in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, many people who had never held a weapon before took up arms in a panic.

Not long ago, Olena worked as a nightclub manager in Prague. “It felt like everything was right in front of me, and I had plenty of time,” she says.

In December 2024, she returned to Ukraine, joined the army and became a pilot.

“When I look at my ‘before’ photos, I see myself calmer,” says Olena. “I became more naive. Everything was different. I was different too.”

As the fighting continues, she cannot imagine a different life. “As long as the enemy is at home, my place is here.”

Like most Ukrainians, Ole, a publishing graduate, said on February 24, 2022, he was “confused and scared.”

“I’m not a military man. I’ve never seen myself that way,” he says. But the next month, I joined the army.

As a soldier, he says, “I’m always in a little room inside my head, and that space gets smaller every time. There are other people living outside the window…while the door on my side doesn’t have a handle to get out.”

These are just two stories of Ukrainians I spoke to, four years after they became soldiers overnight. You can read more here.