About a year ago Yulia Bodarenko worked like teacherspending a lot of time correcting their students’ work, organizing lessons and evaluating their competitions.

However, the Russian invasion Ukraine disrupted this routine as the 30-year-old teacher decided to volunteer to go to the battlefield despite her lack of experience and at the risk of her life.

“I never held rifles in my hands, and before the war I had never even seen weapons up close,” he told them. The newspaper “New York Times.

The 30-year-old woman noted that she had been following the ominous news for several weeks that Russian troops were gathering on the border with Ukraine, and on February 23 decided to sign up for the reserve. The next day, the largest land war in Europe since World War II began.

As soon as the Ukrainian teacher appeared before the military, officials gave her a rifle and 120 rounds of ammunition and sent her to a unit that would fight the Russian army if it invaded the heart of Kiev.

I thought I was dying

In a recent interview, she herself recalled the intense anxiety of those early days. “I thought I was going to die,” he said.

Bodarenko learned day by day to be a soldier. Fellow volunteers showed her how to load, aim and fire a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

At the time of the terrorist attack in Kyiv, Ms. Botarenko and about 150 other volunteers, almost all men, lived in a shopping center, on duty at checkpoints in the city. She remembers that it was so cold at night that she slept in her arms with one of the other two women who were in the battalion.

After the Russian retreat from Kyiv, the fighting moved east. The Ukrainian teacher was then given the option to retire or take up a position as a clerk or cook. However, she chose to remain in the infantry, live in the barracks and prepare for subsequent campaigns.

Like other inexperienced recruits, Ms. Botarenko learned how to find booby traps, crouch to take cover from projectiles, and how to provide first aid on the battlefield.

I knew nothing about weapons and wars

At first, he was worried about her abilities, since she had never been interested in the army and did not know anything about weapons or military affairs.

However, with time and practice, her confidence grew. “It was nice when the children said: “You are doing well.”

Her brigade was stationed in a village south of Kyiv. There she herself approached one mathematic teacher who worked in a rural school.

However, after some time, the teacher had to leave the village and go to the northeast of Kharkivon the battlefield.

In the northeast, the unit was subjected to constant shelling from the Russians in the summer. The teacher helped organize logistics and supplies to keep Ukrainian forces fighting.

The new year had to come so she took a few days off.

I never thought that my daughter would take

She returned to Kyiv, where she saw her friends, sister and 4-year-old niece. Then he visited her 67 year old mother in his village in central Ukraine. In fact, as the mother admits, when Russia invaded Ukraine, she felt relieved that her daughter was not drafted into the army.

“I was glad I didn’t have a son because I didn’t have to worry about him going to war. I never imagined that my daughter would get into the rating,” he stressed.

But Bodarenko quickly had to leave again and return to the front line.

I read children’s books to the military

The backpack she carried with her contained several items that reminded her of her life as a teacher. She carried children’s books with her, which she sometimes read to her colleagues and soldiers to cheer them up.

The last one to say goodbye was her boyfriend. “This relationship shows me that even in the dark there can be light,” he added.

In the end, the teacher admitted that she had yet to fire a rifle in combat, but if her platoon was sent to the front, she now felt ready for battle. “Now I am an infantryman,” he stressed.