Two authors: One Ukrainian. One Russian. Both vehemently against the bloodshed.
Here is the war they never asked for, in their own words.
“MANKIND MUST PUT AN END TO WAR, BEFORE WAR PUTS AN END TO MANKIND.”
– JOHN F KENNEDY
UKRAINE
By Larysa Mudrak.
Before the war, my life was a state of bliss. All my dreams came to fruition. Sometimes I’d pinch myself, convinced that things seemed too good to be true.
A little about myself: In 1991, I graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a journalism degree. I was a presenter for Radio Liberty in Kyiv, Munich and Prague, where I interviewed Bill Clinton, Václav Havel and hundreds of other personalities. Then came television; where I worked on programmes like Vikna on the TET and ICTV channels respectively (in Ukraine). I was the editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian version of Business Week, which was published under the licence of the Financial Times, and I also worked as the CEO of the newspaper New Russian Word in New York. I was a participant in the Orange Revolution. At the invitation of Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yushchenko, I created a new press service of the democratic type–and managed it for five years.
I also graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine and worked as a representative of Ukraine in the CDMSI (Council of Europe Steering Committee on Media and Information Society). I was the first deputy chairman of the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine. I participated in the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 at the end of the Euromaidan protests.
Since 2015, I’ve been the president of the consulting company Win Win Communication and CEO of the Family Business Network (FBN) Ukraine.
My husband, Andriy Degtyarev, was the CEO of MIGNews media holdings for 20 years. Solomiya, my daughter, is 22 and attends college in New York. My son, Dmytro, graduated from the University of London and works for a venture capital company in Switzerland. At 50, I began to live my life and pursue my calling as an adviser to politicians and businesses.
This was my life before the war.
24 February
I wake up at 7.30am after a deep slumber, to see my phone has 29 missed calls from our friends and acquaintances.
