For Maria Syvous, every Ukrainian Independence Day is a double holiday. Syvous was born on the same day that Ukraine declared independence in 1991 and turns 23 with her country.
On Aug. 24 her birthday wish will be for peace in her country.
A native of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, several months ago Syvous moved to Lviv, the western Ukrainian city, and she doesn’t believe there is any enmity between the two parts of the country.
“I never understood people who believe that eastern and western parts of Ukraine are at odds. Ukraine is a unified country; many people just don’t get it,” she says.
She feels sorry that Ukrainian servicemen now have to fight for Ukraine’s unity. Her husband has been one of them for five months. A serviceman of the 80th airborne brigade, he was fighting in restive Luhansk Oblast against Russia-backed insurgents.
“We got married on March 1 this year. And the very same day my husband was called up to the local military commissariat. In a week he was deployed to the east,” Syvous says.
It was hard for the young woman, but after almost five restless months her husband Andriy Syvous, 22, came home to Lviv, unharmed.
Ukrainians born on Aug. 24, 1991 – there were 54 of them in Kyiv alone – have lived through big changes. They faced monetary reform in 1996 and emerging of the national currency – hryvnia, the Orange Revolution in 2004, the Great Recession in 2008, the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution and the war that followed in Ukraine’s east.
They are familiar with the feeling of concern for the country. Now, against all odds, they have growing optimism about its future.
“Our country will stay strong and live in prosperity. I hope that all the wives of the servicemen will see their husbands home one day,” Syvous says.
Iryna Sesyuk from Lutsk shares that wish. Sesyuk was also born on the day when Ukraine became independent.
“I have only one wish for my birthday – I guess it’s the same one that all of our citizens have now. I want all those murders and destruction to come to an end. And I believe all our boys will come back home (from the east) safe,” Sesyuk explains.
Sesyuk says the only bonus of having her birthday on Independence Day is that her friends always have a day off, so she never lacks company for celebration. There is just one inconvenience in her situation: every year before the holiday she is approached by journalists looking to interview her. There is more media attention every year.
“As long as it happens only once a year – I’m comfortable with it,” Sesyuk says. She assures she never wanted her birthday to be on a different day.
Like many among the post-Soviet generation of Ukrainians, those born on Independence Day say they strongly identify themselves with Ukraine.
Experts say that a patriotic wave is rolling across the nation. About 86 percent of Ukrainians consider themselves patriots of their country, according to the latest sociological research conducted by Rating Sociological Group in 2014 compared to 81 percent last year.
Another one of the first Ukrainians born in the independent country, Yuriy Petrov from Sambir city in Lviv Oblast, looks forward for the war to end.
“We can do everything, but we need to be united, because then we are the greatest power,” Petrov explains. “Ukraine is a sovereign and mature state. It’s 23 years old. That’s a lot,” he says.
Petrov along with Syvous and Sesyuk is proud to be born on the same day with Independent Ukraine.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]
