This is a series of posts I’ll make about my experience in Poland and Ukraine during the Russian military invasion and attempted takeover of Ukraine in 2022. The Russians began their full invasion in February 22nd and like many people, I stayed up many days and nights straight without sleeping glued to the news, worried sick. I have many friends in Ukraine having visited about 5 times before and we were all talking about what was going on. It was very chaotic. People were fleeing, some were staying, people didn’t know if they would ever be able to return or even if their house would still be there on their eventual return.

In those days, my friend Yura -who I met in Istanbul with a group of Ukrainian acroyoga teachers some years prior- began reaching out. He had been quickly drafted and was about to begin military training in the forests near Lviv, a city in western Ukraine near the