An engineer who, ironically, has been developing infrared sights for warheads of military missiles all his life at the Arsenal plant – now for eight years in a row, but already in the rear – is helping the Ukrainian army, according to TSN .

In the hands of 82-year-old Vladimir Tsvilodub, a blank for military burdens for the wounded is in the hands of edging the fabric under the stretcher – twenty minutes, turnkey – a couple of hours. For eight years now, since the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine, Volodymyr Tsvilodub has been sewing continuously on his old typewriter.

Vladimir Tsvilodub learned to sew a long time ago. He is a tourist, leads groups near the mountain and sewed tents and sleeping bags for himself. And although he worked for the defense industry all his life, he never thought that in his old age he would help the army. “It’s fear, it’s fear, it could never have come that this would happen,” the man says.

Vladimir Tsvilodub recalls that today’s Kyiv is very similar to the one when it was occupied by the Nazis in the forties. Not crowded, and on the streets hedgehogs and sandbags. His mother and three sons returned from Warsaw to Kyiv 19 days before the city was occupied. The father was a military man. “Father was in the rear, German near Warsaw, Hitler and Stalin divided Europe and the Soviet troops received the territory where the border passed in the west, 120 km from Warsaw, this was already the border with Germany,” says Vladimir Tsvilodub.

Seven weeks of the road to Kyiv under the bombing. Even the parents did not recognize Vladimir Tsvilodub’s mother. “Grandma says: some beggar woman came there with three kids, it’s surprising a little that they are dressed like our grandchildren … She turned gray and haggard for seven weeks under shelling every day, every hour. There was nothing to eat and there was nothing to drink, the front line is moving and it is moving, now in front, then behind, how many people died, the fear of God, ”says the man.

During the German occupation, although Vladimir Tsvidodub was a small child, he says he clearly remembers some moments, such as when the invaders came to their home – they were looking for those who give signals to Soviet aircraft. And also how the Nazis are looking for and burning books in the houses of Kiev. The Russian army, in fact, does the same with people and books in Ukraine.

And Alexander Mikhailov, a friend and neighbor of Vladimir Tsvilodub, also sews for a long time, his mother once taught. And now at the typewriter every day for seven hours in a row. “Everyone should do everything they can to win, if they didn’t take me there in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, I work here and I feel that this is a great need,” says Alexander.

Volodymyr Tsvilodub has already united twenty volunteers around him. Everyone has their own responsibilities. Finished products – stretchers for fighters and scouts and trunks for personal belongings of fighters – will be taken to the East, where the most hellish battles for Ukraine are now. “At first we copied the usual medical stretchers of the rescuers, but they didn’t stand it, that is, they are suitable for normal conditions, but not for combat ones, due to the fact that transportation takes place by dragging, more people are needed … they made 6 handles, reinforced, dragged on stones, sand, rubble, bushes – they improved,” says colleague Vladimir Mayevsky.

Only since March, Vladimir Tsvilodub, together with his team, has sent off two and a half thousand stretchers for the wounded, they are disposable – sewing new ones is cheaper than sterilizing them. While sewing, the man constantly recalls his engineering youth. There were weapons, he says, but there was no life – human life was not valued. Russia continues to live by these traditions.

“They are so zombified for 20 years of propaganda, they perceive… well, people are dying, so what,” says the volunteer.

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