They didn’t choose his name. It was their neighbors who baptized them as the ‘White Angels’. The reason is that they are almost the first and sometimes the only ones who manage to reach the most critical points in vehicles of that same color. They began to operate as a special team at the end of 2022. Their mission is to carry out evacuations and distribute humanitarian aid in places where the laws of men no longer govern due to the imposition of war. Places without electricity, without water, without gas and without the possibility of getting food or medicine for the sick. The young police officers are all from Donetsk, one of the Ukrainian regions that has known war for more than a decade. And the majority are not older than thirty. All of them exude a concrete and lucid patriotism, attached to the land where they were born and for which they are willing to die. They are aware of all the risk they face every time they go to the front lines and their families wait for them worriedly. But they continue forward for their people.Related News Standard analysis Yes Are we getting closer to the end of hostilities in Ukraine? Pedro Pitarch Both NATO and the EU will find it very difficult to escape the general perception that an unappealable defeat for kyiv would be a brutal failure for both organizations Nastia, Valeria, Dima or Max know all the nooks and crannies that connect the free villages of Donetsk . They are used to bumpy roads and enemy drones hovering around, waiting to attack any civilian or military target. They have already suffered those impacts firsthand. Sometimes they travel with systems that help keep these lethal flying devices away, “although this time it is not the case,” says Valeria, a paramedic. None of them imagined when they decided to join the Police Force that they would end up being part of the legendary police unit that has managed to save more than 10,000 lives so far. On the way to the meeting point, Max and Nastia, aged 22 and 25, remember the fateful day when the full-scale war began while ‘Painting it, Black’ by the Rolling Stones plays in the background. At a crossroads, Max, at the wheel, points out: “Bajmut, or what’s left of it, is in that direction.” He lived the beginning of the war there, Nastia, on the other hand, was in the tragic Mariupol. The two colleagues are from Kramatorks and studied together at the Police Academy in the port city now occupied by Russia. Nastia managed to get out of the Russian encirclement. «On the way we had to pass through enemy checkpoints. They checked tattoos. There were DNR and LNR troops [las autoproclamadas y no reconocidas República Popular de Donetsk y de Lugansk]there were also Chechens and Buryats. It was not a pleasant experience,” summarizes the police who long for the annihilated beauty of Mariupol. The team meets to finish preparations and begin the trip. This time they will bring drinking water and medicine to the small village of Zakitne on the Siversk front. Before reaching the point agreed upon with Natalia, a volunteer from Sloviansk, the entire team puts on their helmets to once again travel a path lined with ruins. There are few houses left intact in the areas near the front. One of the most important and complex tasks of these police officers is to convince people to be transferred to safe places. The explosions reverberate while the few neighbors who still cling to their homes come to fill jugs of water, get some bread or medicine. All residents are pensioners and for the moment they prefer to stay, defying all risks. Police units in Donetsk and the regions bordering the front line deal with the immediate consequences of the war and are at greater risk than officers working in rear areas. “There are colleagues of ours who are fighting on the front,” highlights Valeria. Helping civilians, moving them to safer places, helping with the tasks of supplying light and food, and other supplies. This is how the ‘White Angels’ act MIRIAM GONZÁLEZ The small village of Zakitne does not have the important ‘Invincibility Points’ deployed throughout the national territory. These are heated spaces where you can access electricity and humanitarian supplies. The help provided by the ‘White Angels’ is vital for this reason. In nearby Siversk, there is one of these points. There are also some inhabitants who still survive who do not decide to go to less dangerous areas. Oleksander is not considering leaving his city for the moment. «We have held out for almost three years and the Russians have not entered. We trust that they are not going to do it. I have a car, if something happens we can leave,” he tells ABC during a visit to this city in mid-December. The “worst” evacuations kyiv forces, outnumbered, try to keep the Russians out of the town. But the enemies do not cease their attempts to break the Ukrainian defenses. The city of Siversk is now a mirage of what it once was. Their disfigured houses barely stand. The small gardens that surround them no longer have anyone to take care of them. The bombings are constant and entering and leaving this area always entails risks. Olga, another Siversk resident, also refuses to evacuate. At 76 years old, he doesn’t want to leave the stray dogs he cares for. Or at least that’s the excuse he uses. His house was bombed and he moved to another one that was also destroyed. The cold is relentless in this place that she calls “her home.” One of the most important and difficult jobs of the ‘White Angels’ is, precisely, convincing people to be transferred to safer places. “The worst evacuations are those in which we cannot bring people in,” says Valeria. «We try to explain to these people that material things, like a house, are of no use if life is lost. We must understand that many of our elders feel intimidated by big cities. Most only know their town and the small adjacent towns. “We cannot force anyone to leave,” says the paramedic. Another important issue is the economy, adds Nastia. Many of these people “have very small pensions and at those ages it is very difficult for them to start again somewhere else.” And despite all the resistance, these police officers have earned the trust of civilians. Over the past two years, they have carried out hundreds of successful evacuations of entire families and children thanks to their closeness and professionalism. More than 12,000 dead civilians The ‘White Angels’ accumulate in their retinas vivid images of the horror unleashed by the Kremlin precisely in the regions where the majority of people still speak Russian. «They kill people, they kill children. It is the most painful thing,” Valeria points out. The UN has recorded a total of 12,340 civilians killed since the start of the large-scale war in 2022. The injured number more than 27,000 people. The work of the agents is essential so that these numbers do not grow. You are willing to fight for your neighbors despite the cost it also entails for your personal life. In all this time they have not been able to enjoy official holidays. They only have a few days off from time to time and admit that war fatigue weighs on them. Despite this, none of the brave police officers have considered abandoning their posts for even a second. «My breaks are the moments when we are not bombed, Valeria jokes. The third anniversary of the war is approaching at a difficult time for Ukraine on the front and in the face of the uncertainty of Donald Trump’s second term. Discussions about the transfer of territories in exchange for a truce are intensifying in the allied capitals. But in Donetsk, where everything is more concrete and immediate, those “occupied territories” represent home, memories, pain and lives that were given in defense of the Homeland. A land in check that has endured the blood of the defenders and that these police officers do not want to hand over to the enemy. His only blunt response to these debates is: “We trust the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” Valeria says it firmly.
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