The twenty-nine-year-old Rom Vasil Medvědenko, together with his brother, volunteered for the Ukrainian army after seeing the footage of the massacre in Bucha. He decided to defend his homeland. At first Vasil could not believe the news about the Russian invasion, but after a few days he was sure that it was really a war. “I realized that this is a big problem for my country, where I grew up and raised my children. At first I thought that it wouldn’t last long, maybe a month, maybe it would end sooner, but when I saw the news about Bucha, I realized that it would be for a long time. It was the terrible events in Bucha that forced me to act – to voluntarily defend my native country,” he told RomaUA, a Ukrainian Roma information site that reported his story.

• Romové ve válce: Mladý voják Vasil už půl roku brání Ukrajinu před ruským agresorem. In: Romea. 17.10.2022. https://romea.cz/cz/zahranici/romove-ve-valce-mlady-vojak-vasil-uz-pul-roku-brani-ukrajinu-pred-ruskym-agresorem/