March 15th 2026

Yuriy recalls buying an olive military backpack in early 2022 despite friends insisting the Ukraine war would end soon, and now—after wearing through three and needing a fourth—he reflects bitterly on how long the war has lasted. He marks the time by his daughter turning 21 and laments missing key moments of her growing up, wishing her a life with more peace.

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TRANSCRIPT: (Apple Podcasts & Podbean app users can enjoy accurate closed captions)  

It is 15th of March.

I recently found myself remembering how at the very beginning of my service in the Army, I ordered a backpack from an online store for all my military stuff. Back then, my comrades advised me to buy a black or a blue one, anything but an olive colored backpack. The logic was simple: the war would end soon and you'd be left with an obviously military backpack. Why would you need something like that in civilian life?

But at that time, early spring of 2022, the only backpacks available for sale in Ukraine were olive colored. I had no choice but to buy one, and for a while afterwards I had to listen to people around me explaining what a fool I was. The war would be over any day now, and here you are all decked out in military gear.

It's strange to remember that now. Strange and bitter at the same time. Since the beginning of a full scale war, I've already gone through free olive backpacks. The current one isn't in great shape anymore. I've had to stitch it up, replace the zippers, reinforce the straps. But anyway, it'll clearly soon join. Its two predecessors and I'll go back looking for a new one- my fourth backpack. And I'm not all sure that it'll be the last. Honestly, I'm not sure.

To understand how long ago I bought that first backpack. It's enough to say that my daughter had just turned 17 back then. When the big war began she was 16. And it is her birthday today, she's 21. She's fully grown old, but I was not next to her at some very important moments of her growing up. Not because I didn't want to be, but because I simply couldn't- because the war means I cannot control my own life.

This year, I'm not beside here either. I'm very sorry, but it's turned out this way. But there is nothing I can do to change it. I hope that next year everything will be different, but that's only hope. There is no certainty about it and there it can't be.

21 is a wonderful age. You are already an adult, but your whole life is still ahead of you. On her birthday, I definitely wish my daughter that her life contains more peace. Everything else has long since faded into the background.

February 20th 2026

Yuriy reflects on Ukraine’s Day of Remembrance of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred, honoring protesters killed during the February 2014 shootings in Kyiv and describing them as the first victims of the Russian-Ukrainian war, driven by Kremlin pressure on Yanukovych’s regime and propaganda portraying protesters as Nazis and criminals. Recounting what he witnessed during the confrontation, he frames the uprising as a pivotal victory for Ukraine’s freedom—comparable to foundational historical turning points—and vows that despite the ongoing, exhausting war and terror, Ukraine will not return to dictatorship or surrender.

Send Yuriy your letter of support fightingtherussianbeast@gmail.com

Yuriy’s Podbean Patron sign-up to give once or regularly: https://patron.podbean.com/yuriy

Buy Yuriy a coffee here: https://bmc.link/yuriymat

Subscribe to his substack: https://yuriymatsarsky.substack.com/

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TRANSCRIPT: (Apple Podcasts & Podbean app users can enjoy accurate closed captions) 

It is February 20.

Today is one of the most important commemorative days in Ukraine's history- the day of Remembrance of Heroes of Heavenly Hundred. This day owners was who killed 12 years ago in February 2014, during the shooting of protesters who were opposing the corrupt gangster-like regime of President Yanukovych. Many of us did not realize it at that time, but the, the, the first victims of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Even if the bullets that killed dozens of people in central Kyiv were fired by Ukrainian police, it was done in the interest of the Russian authorities under their pressure and above all for their sake. The Kremlin needed not only to keep Ukraine within its sphere of influence, but also to keep Ukrainians in subjugation, denying them the ability to choose their own future.

What is why Russia pushed the dim-witted pitiful Yanukovych to use firearms against peaceful protestors; that is why it urgently sent it advisors to Kyiv who directed the actions of the security forces and what is why it unleashed a frenzied propaganda campaign to discredit the protestors, portraying them all as Nazis and criminals. Incidentally, this is how Russian media now portray all Ukrainians.

I was in central Kyiv throughout all the days of a bloody confrontation. Before my eyes people were being killed, people who walked toward machine guns trying to protect themselves from them with makeshift wooden shields. Wood against a machine gun steel. And we would won. The vast apparatus of killing and coercion, lavishly, greased with Russian money and fueled by hatred of freedom broke against people in hockey helmets whose most dangerous weapons were Molotov of cocktails. The regime of a stupid sadist Yanukovych built on corruption and intimidation on handouts from Moscow and total lies collapsed. It was a great victory. Yes, in many ways it was symbolic, only the beginning of a confrontation, but continues to this day- but it was an immensely important symbol.

For me The Day of Remembrance of The heroes of the Heavenly Hundred stands alongside the signing of a Declaration of Independence or the adoption of Magna Carta. Yes, those events were not unambiguous instant victories; much more blood was shed and much pain endured afterward. But we became turning points after which a return to dictatorship was no longer imaginable. Well, at least until recently.

Back then, 12 years ago, we all changed Ukraine chose freedom, from which our deranged neighbor so desperately refuses to let us go, but we will not return to the Gulag, we will not surrender. It is very hard and cold, now physically and psychologically exhausting. Yet the path to freedom that began in February 2014 will be carried through to the end. We are living in terrible times. More horrifying than one could invent, but freedom will prevail. It must; it simply has to prevail.

January 21st 2026

Yuriy opens up about his prolonged absence and the challenges faced due to personal struggles with depression and caution in communication. He provides an insightful look into the difficulties Ukraine is currently facing, including severe winter conditions, escalating attacks on civilians and infrastructure, and the pervasive impact of the ongoing war on future plans. Yuriy shares a poignant narrative about the harsh realities of living in war-torn Ukraine and the need for global support and understanding.

Send Yuriy your letter of support fightingtherussianbeast@gmail.com

Yuriy’s Podbean Patron sign-up to give once or regularly: https://patron.podbean.com/yuriy

Buy Yuriy a coffee here: https://bmc.link/yuriymat

Subscribe to his substack: https://yuriymatsarsky.substack.com/

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TRANSCRIPT: (Apple Podcasts & Podbean app users can enjoy accurate closed captions)   

This is January 21st.

I've been absent from here for quite a long time. This is connected, first of all with depression, which from time to time catches up with me and turns me into a person who's simply unable to write a conscious, coherent text. And secondly, is connected with caution. I really don't want to say something that could damage relations between Ukraine and the United States, something that officials in America, if they hear it might perceive as an insult and begin to put even more pressure on Ukraine.

These are very hard times right now, probably the hardest of all the years of the full scale war. We don't know what to expect from our, until very recently, main ally, and at the same time, this is very coldest winter in years. It is very cold and Russia is constantly trying to make advantage of it. Every day the occupiers bomb heat and power plants living millions of Ukrainians without heat and electricity. This happened in previous years as well, but now everything is much worse because of a prolonged severe frost and the large number of missiles and drones the Russians have stockpiled. The number of civilians killed by this scum grows every day.

No one hopes for a quick end of the war anymore. All plans for this year are connected only with the war. The son of my friends who will turn 25 in November, the age of conscription into the active army, is already looking for a unit for himself already now, almost a year in advance. He wants to find one where he can be as effective as possible.

As it turns out, it is very difficult to live in a world where for years your future is tied only to war attempts to plan something to dream about something are absolutely futile. You begin to live in short stretches of time to make it to the next week, to wait until it gets warm, even just to make it to evening.

When you live in this mode and at the same time, know exactly who has imposed this mode on you, it is very painful to watch how somewhere in the world this maniac and murderer is still considered a respectable person, is invited places, is consulted about something- damn, I'm about to slip and to things I shouldn't.

So just know this: we are holding on despite everything, and we believe that reasonable people from all over the world are with us and on our side. Thank you.