A Ukrainian volunteer said her country can only depend on itself following President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump’s clash in the White House.
Dariia Voloshyna, from Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine said she was very proud of how Mr Zelensky stood up for Ukrainians during the fractious meeting and was shocked to hear vice president JD Vance call the Ukrainian leader “disrespectful”.
During the heated exchange in the Oval office on Friday, Mr Trump also accused Mr Zelensky of “gambling with World War Three” and told him that he should be “thankful” to the US.
Ms Voloshyna, 25, said she was shaking while watching the exchange and could not believe what she was hearing.
“I’m still very shocked right now, and re-watching it this morning was very emotional for me,” Ms Voloshyna told the PA news agency from Lviv.
“I’m shaking because I couldn’t imagine this is all true, and this is what the president of America and vice president, were saying to our president.
“I am very proud Zelensky is our president, and that he stands for his people, for us, for Ukrainians, and he handled it very well.”
Ms Voloshyna said that before Mr Trump became US president again Ukrainians were expecting big changes after he promised to end the war in 24 hours.
“However we soon understood that we should only depend on ourselves, on our nation, and we cannot influence the situation,” she said.
“Every person in Ukraine distracts and pays attention to this for at least some hours, but then we shift back to our reality, and we do the work here.”
Dariia Voloshyna surveying damage to buildings in the Saltivka district in Kharkiv (Dariia Voloshyna/PA)
Ms Voloshyna was finishing her masters degree at Kharkiv National University when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“We experienced horrible, horrible days when there were Russian jets bombing us from the air and explosions were every day,” she said.
“In the second week of the full scale invasion, my university was bombed.”
Ms Voloshyna managed to get a visa to work in Canada, shortly after the fighting started but went home in June 2022 after just three months in Toronto.
“I was feeling more safe and useful in Ukraine even though at the time it was still very dangerous in Kharkiv, there were always bombs, and my parents were there,” she said.
“They didn’t want to leave the city, and being far away from them was making me more anxious, because there is a time difference.
“When you are away, you feel that the situation is worse than when you are next to them.”
Dariia Voloshyna with her family before the full scale invasion (Dariia Voloshyna/PA)
Ms Voloshyna, who moved to Lviv in western Ukraine a year ago, now splits her time between volunteering and working remotely as a web designer.
She has also used her skills in web development to set up VolunteeringUkraine, an information portal about volunteering in Ukraine.
Ms Voloshyna says that, unfortunately, Ukrainians have become used to war.
“We got used to the bombing. It’s horrible to say, but that’s true. We pay less attention to air alerts and bombings, but this shouldn’t be okay,” she said.
“We don’t have holidays in Ukraine, in the full scale, we don’t have a weekend.
“We don’t stop, we don’t pause.”
She added that living in a war zone has helped her to appreciate the smaller things in life.
“We started to appreciate small things in life more, because you understand that your life is constantly in danger, and you don’t know what can happen tomorrow.”
To learn more about Dariaa Voloshyna’s work you can visit her website: https://www.volunteeringukraine.com