Just over a month ago, Roman Shulyar was leading a busy life as a partner at a law firm in Kyiv.
He is a transaction lawyer and was largely concerned with everyday tasks; finance projects, mergers and acquisitions, billable hours, and financial KPIs.
But on 24 February, his life was turned upside down when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Photo: LinkedIn: Roman Shulyar
Roman Shulyar tells Kathryn Ryan after 15 years of practising law at major local and international firms, he was ranked among the world's top lawyers just days before the invasion.
But instead of celebrating and devoting his time to work, his livelihood came under threat.
"No-one really was thinking about the war. I would tell you, frankly, even watching all the news about Russian troops gathering along the Ukrainian border, I could hardly imagine the threat was real.
"As a lawyer, I'm always working on estimating the risks and I must confess that I was absolutely wrong. Had I had a chance to make the right guess, I would definitely send my nine-year-old daughter somewhere away from Kyiv, I would prepare better for what was ahead of us.
"But I was focusing on my work, being absolutely sure that nothing will happen because it is still difficult to imagine that in the 21st century, one country can invade another country, bombing civilians, killing civilians, I still cannot accept it."
Damaged buildings following shelling in the settlement of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region, Ukraine 2 March, 2022. Photo: Ukrainian State Emergency Service / EYEPRESS News / EyePress via AFP
Shulyar becomes emotional recalling the night his mother, who is in Western Ukraine, called him with the news that changed his ordinary life.
"I didn't have time to prepare, I spent the first day in some mess. Some clients called me, they asked me some questions, someone asked me to do some legal things, I headed to the office.
"I was watching the military trucks going through the street, I was watching the civilians all in panic, it was very sad, it was very difficult, it was very tragic.
"At some moment, I understood I cannot focus on my work anymore, I must do something that is meaningful for me, I must do something that still has some sense under the given circumstance. Because continuing practicing law that moment, it was totally senseless - doing business, making some money, it was stupid.
"The next day, I enrolled to the territorial guards, ready to take any instructions, ready to do whatever was necessary because I understood that was my only choice."
A member of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces checks cars at a checkpoint in Kyiv, on March 20, 2022. Photo: AFP / Fadel Senna
The territorial defense unit consists of those who are not trained to be soldiers, he says, but it is an armed force of the military which serves various assignments, including control of checkpoints and a defence back-up behind front-line soldiers.
"Our task is to make sure that the sabotage and reconnaissance groups will not go to the city, and in case some damage is made to the front-line, our professional soldiers, we are right behind their backs to make sure again that the Russian soldiers will not go to the city.
"There are absolutely different people in my unit, of all ages, of all professions, there are people who used to work as plumbers, as lawyers, as drivers.
"There are people of different ages, the youngest one is I think 19 years old and the oldest one is around 70 years old. There are people with some health problems, but they still perform all the assignments, they still do the same job that we are doing each day.
"There are even guys who emigrated to other countries but upon hearing what is going on here, they came back to Ukraine and they are serving now with us."
Shulyar rejects Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that his goal was to free people from supposed oppression, as "ridiculous", "tragic and preposterous". (A month into the invasion, Russia then declared its main goal was the "liberation of Donbas".)
Shulyar says in fact, there were many who admired the Russian language and culture from Ukraine, but he fears Putin and his supporters have now changed that for the worst.
Ukrainian firefighters and servicemen work next to a digger amid the rubble of the Retroville shopping mall, a day after it was shelled by Russian forces, Kyiv, on 21 March 2022. Photo: AFP
While there is fear and panic from time to time, no one has left his unit because of fear, he says.
But it's not hope for the future that pushes Shulyar, rather his sense of duty, which he remembers so clearly from one of his first days as they prepared for an attack from Russian troops.
"I think it was a very difficult moment for everyone. I was holding my gun, looking in the window where we expected the enemy, it was night, it was total dark ... and I asked myself are you ready? And I clearly realised, yes, I am because I appreciate life. I love to live. But I also know that there are things that I live for, and without those things, the life is not worth living. So, I am ready."
Going abroad to escape the situation was not an option, he says.
"I do not want to run, I feel obliged to my countrymen, I feel obliged to this city, I feel this duty to protect those people who are here, to protect this city. I always felt that I belong here, and I still do feel that, and these circumstances simply cannot change that.
"I have hope for peace, I have hope for normal life, just like before.
"Unlike our neighbours, we do not need any extra land, we do not need to teach someone how they should live, we need nothing, we just need to live our lives how we did before. We have our own problems in our country, like problems with corruption, like problems with slow reforms, etc, etc, but while we are dealing with that, and I would say we are dealing quite successfully, we do not need someone to 'help' us."
An elder woman weeps as she welcomes Territorial Defense Forces' members on 1 April, 2022 after they recovered the Nova Basan village on the eastern of Kyiv, Ukraine, from the Russian army. Photo: Narciso Contreras / Anadolu Agency via AFP
Shulyar is now on his first leave, spending time at his home in Kyiv, where the conflict has now calmed as Russian troops withdraw.
"We very much hope that we will not be left here far from where the clashes are taking place. We want to be useful; we want to be nearby where we're needed.
"We made our decision, we want our country to be free, we want the atrocities which we observed in the south of Kyiv to not repeat, because when you watch all those pictures, when you watch all those videos of places that used to be beautiful - a sound intelligent person just cannot watch those pictures, it's horrible.
"We cannot allow this to repeat and that is what we are fighting for, that is what is moving us ahead despite the fact, we're not actually soldiers. Just some two months ago, I did not know what to do with that gun and you know, I never dreamt to be a soldier."
