Vitaliy has been living in Spain for 15 years with his parents and sister, but the rest of his family is in Ukraine.
When he woke up on the morning of Thursday 24 February, the first news of the invasion came via a WhatsApp message from a friend. His first reaction was to pray a Rosary to the Virgin Mary. Although he had been worried for days about the escalating tension, the news came as a shock, it all happened so fast, "from one day to the next the statusof life had changed radically," says Vitaliy.
Vitaliy's family has stayed in their homes, most of them are in western Ukraine, but he also has family in northern Crimea, in Kyiv, in Odessa... in the last few days the statushas been intensifying and some relatives are planning to come to Spain.
Vitaliy was last in Ukraine four years ago, at his cousin's wedding. They used to return in the summer to reconnect with their family. For Vitaliy, Ukraine is his roots and, until recently, a safe place and a home. In summer, he remembers, Ukraine is beautiful with its vast wheat fields, a place that gives him feelings he has nowhere else. For him, life is different there, everything is simpler and, above all, he says excitedly, "it is a place where some of the people I love the most are".
Vitaliy encourages three things: material support, whatever you can in terms of money and goods; spiritual support, by praying; and emotional support, by being attentive, supporting those who suffer and not forgetting or trivialising the conflict. "The war has been a shock, but you have to be brave and magnanimous," Vitaliy concludes with a smile.