Daryna Hoch: "We believe that Moscow's ultimate purpose may be Kiev"

In the last programme of "De cara al mundo" we had the participation of the Ukrainian Daryna Hoch, student of International Relations at the University of Kiev and participant of the European Youth Parliament, who told us how the war between Russia and Ukraine is being experienced in Kiev. The Ukrainian student took advantage of the framework that the Onda Madrid programme offered her to ask for a greater response from the international community towards Russia. On the other hand, Hoch also spoke about the terror she feels in Ukraine and how a patriotic feeling has been awakened among Ukrainians who are willing to fight against the Russian regime to defend their country until the end.

How are you at the moment?

Right now we are at home and we are safe, but we are afraid of what might happen in the next few days. 

Is there any kind of activity near your house?

We hear the sirens, but it is not near our house, in Kiev there is a lot of noise of missiles and attacks, the news we are receiving is not good, but we think we can continue to hold on in our home.

You are not planning to flee your home?

Right now we are not very clear about the plan to follow, the truth is that the train stations are full of people trying to flee the city, without tickets we cannot leave Kiev and that is what worries us, we are still waiting and if the situation worsens we will have no choice but to flee Kiev.

Do you know if the Ukrainian armed forces will try to resist the Russian invasion?

Our army today is strong, we have gained more troops in recent years, we have the military support of other European countries, we Ukrainians believe in them, but we must do something if our lives are in danger. 

Did you think Putin would dare to invade?

Personally I would never have imagined that this would happen, Ukraine had the support of European countries, only a tiny percentage of people could believe that the situation would end this way, it is terrible.

Do you have enough food and medicine to be able to resist in case there is fighting near your home?

Right now we have everything, and our house has a basement where we can take shelter in case the conflict moves to the vicinity of our house.

What do your parents and your siblings think, what do you talk about with each other?

We spend all day reading the news, watching everything that is happening, we can't do anything else. When we talk about the different scenarios that could happen, we have friends in other cities that are under attack from Russia right now and we are worried about everyone, our family, our friends, our colleagues, etc. We think that Moscow's final aim could be Kiev. We believe that Moscow's ultimate purpose may be Kiev and this terrifies us. 

Putin wants to set up a regime in Ukraine that will follow his guidelines, will there be Ukrainians who will go along with this?

There are now many patriots who are going to fight against the Russian regime and I believe that we will win. Ukraine is our country, it is our land and we have to defend our loved ones, they have nothing to do with Ukraine and they have nothing to do here.

Where did you learn to speak Spanish so well?

Thank you very much, although my Spanish can still improve, I studied at the institute of international translations in Kiev and at the university we had subjects in Spanish. 

I think that the international community should put pressure on Russia by imposing tougher sanctions, there are methods of pressure that can still be used against Russia. On the other hand, I would ask the civilian population to continue to take to the streets to protest against what we Ukrainians are suffering, to call on their governments to provide us with military and humanitarian support, to talk about what is happening in Ukraine and to explain it to all those who do not know what is happening.

From Madrid we send you all our support, as a media outlet we are committed to continue reporting what is happening in Ukraine, we will continue to denounce this situation so that this international political pressure makes Putin desist from the madness he has got himself into, give up his weapons and return to the diplomatic path.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity you have given me to be a loudspeaker for Ukrainians.