Women from a Kyiv suburb traumatized by a 2022 massacre by Russian troops joined a volunteer air defense unit to take down Russia's drones — and deal with their fears.
Tetiana and Olena, members of the female air defense unit known as the"Combat Witches of Bucha," assemble a Maxim machine gun during training in the Kyiv region, Ukraine
On a Saturday afternoon, they shoot at targets in a muddy range. Valentyna grins after she nails a shot."Feels good," she says,"especially after what we've been through." When the Russians invaded, his two oldest daughters lived with their partners. He and Tetiana lived with her daughter and his youngest, who were still teenagers. As Russian troops came closer to Irpin, Ukraine's government evacuated residents. Tetiana hurriedly packed suitcases for herself and the girls. Her husband rushed to embrace them one last time.Tetiana and their young daughters took an evacuation train to western Ukraine.
"Our kids hung out, we talked, and soon we realized we were cut from the same cloth," Valentyna says.When Russian troops occupied Bucha and surrounding villages at the end of February 2022, the women were caught off guard.Inna and Valentyna, both 51, are close friends whose hometown was briefly occupied early in the war and joined the anti-drone mobile air defense unit they call the Combat Witches of Bucha to learn how to defend themselves.
Her youngest son was 8 years old at the time. She panicked about where to hide him. She managed to send a message to Inna. Tetiana calls the Combat Witches of Bucha her second family. While chatting at a café in Irpin, her phone buzzes repeatedly with messages from the other witches.Tetiana says they meet at cafes and restaurants, go to movies and vacation together. When one woman has a problem, the others —"my sisters," she calls them — will always have her back.The name of the air defense unit comes from a badge belonging to one of the women that shows a witch with weapons.
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