Hi everybody, I hope you're doing well
So I have this friend Gela Turabelidze who is still living in Kyiv
with his family, and who was sharing his situation
by recording videos on Facebook
So I thought I would wear my journalist boots once again
and ask him a bit more details about his experience
This is how it went
How are you, man?
Yeah, we are fine!
I just heard the siren
I was on my balcony and it just went off, a minute ago
Just for everybody to know, we met in 2019
during the Polyglot Conference in Japan
Though it seems like ages ago now...
You speak about 10 languages, if I'm not mistaken
Eight!
Eight languages, and you're also running
an international language school called NovaMova
So first of all, I'd like to emphasize on the fact that
the purpose of this video is not political
On the contrary, I'd like to step away from the geopolitics
to focus more on the human side
So I don't expect you to give me a precise answer
But do you live in Kyiv's city center or more in the suburbs?
Just to give us a better idea
I live just next to the American embassy
It's not the very center but it's like a 15 minute drive from the center
from the main street, so pretty close to the center
And I would say that this area has been quiet
We can hear at distance, some canon fire
like 15 to 20 kilometres from here
We had these fights yesterday
Today has been quiet
But yesterday and the day before yesterday
there were heavy fights there
against the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian defence
And the area is like...
People living there suffered a lot
But where I live, it's still quiet
Because the Russian army is just in the outskirts
They are not in the city itself
And people are armed here
So it's not easy to drive throughout the city
because you get stopped all the time
and your passport is checked, and then we have a curfew
So we had a curfew from Saturday night until Monday morning
So it was a long curfew
And then, we're gonna have a curfew, from I guess
from 10:00 PM until 7:00 AM
Then you wake up, and you go to buy some food
And now we have huge lines of people
Because there are still many people left in the city
I would say that out of my friends, the majority has left
And I have my eldest daughter, she left
with her husband and my grandchildren
So they left and they are in Western Ukraine
There were people who could leave the city with train
And then, many of them drove
There is a big concentration of people on the Ukrainian-Polish
and Ukrainian-Slovakian boders
Because a lot of people left
And they say that refugees might be
more than 7 million people in Europe
I rely on my friends
I don't read newspapers or watch television
I just call my friends, living in these places
and ask them about the situation
And I just had a phone call with a friend of mine from Kharkiv
in Eastern Ukraine
And she said that they have been heavily shelled
for 4 or 5 days now
So they're sitting in their apartments
sleeping in the doorway
and you can hear some kind of indiscriminate shelling
of residential areas and people are quite scared
and it has been going on for 5 days already
So she told me: "we are getting used to this new normal"
Because otherwise, you'll get really upset of the situation
More on the practical aspect, you said you can still do the groceries
There are many lines there, but there is no problem
Supermarkets are still getting supplied, right?
They are getting supplied but many stores are kind of empty
And they don't get enough supplies because, you might not know
but several bridges around Kyiv were...
bombed and destroyed
They were destroyed by the Ukrainian force
So there are no deliveries from...
I'm sure they have their warehouses in stores
But I was in a store and it was like 70% or 80% empty
I couldn't buy any dairy products or things like that
There are some supermarkets with very long lines of people
and there are smaller groceries like convenient stores
where you can get something
But for your family, you have enough food and enough water
Yeah, we have enough
We bought, we went, so no problem with our family
But some people in some areas around Kyiv
they have no electricity...
And they have these very dangerous situations
I have a friend who is in front of this airport which was stormed
And he said that his house was right in the middle of the fight
So there is the Ukrainian army on one side
and the Russian army on the other side
And his house is right in between!
You said your eldest daughter left Kyiv
How many other children do you have?
I have 3 children
We spent two nights in the basement
Because the first days, we didn't know how it was going
And so we stayed in the basement
But after that, we decided to sleep at home
What about the school program, is it on hold?
Are you taking care of that?
Or are there online classes for them?
No, it's on hold
They stay at home, they play computer games
So they're not...
They're still living in that old reality
Because they haven't seen the war
So they still feel as if they were living like a month or two months ago
That was for your children, but what about you?
Are you still running your language school?
We have students online but not the real ones here in Kyiv
Because all of them left
Right, obviously
Two famous Ukrainian boxers
Vasiliy Lamachenko and Oleksandr Usyk
They are both world champions
So they are also in the army now
There might be some complexe situations and negotiations
between NATO and Russia and the United States
But what do we have to do with them?
I mean, you live your life and everything is fine
And all of a sudden, someone attacks you
And then you know, for sure, that this conflict
it's been a long lasting conflict, it's nothing new
Of course, many scholars predicted this conflict like years ago
So this is something that did not happen all of a sudden
Because all these long negotiations preceded the war
I'm not a political... I'm not a statesman
But I understand that war is something that
is a last resort, I would say
Yeah of course
And it doesn't resolve any problem, because after this war
people will be much more angry with Russia than before
Because using helicopters and aviation
you cannot kill this patriotic feeling
Were you close to your neighbours?
Do you sometimes meet them?
Just to have a little social interaction?
Yeah we have a Viber channel
And all members of our community
because we live in a compound
It's a closed territory and we have guards
But I would say that people are scared
This is the major feeling I would like to give
It's "people are scared"
People are resolute, and I'm not just talking about women
and kids, but all the people
They are scared
Yeah, I can only imagine...
So my last question would be
how can someone like me, who lives on another continent
How can we support you more than just praying
sending you messages of solidarity
or giving money to humanitarian organizations?
I don't know... Push your governments!
It's not only about sanctions...
What do we have to do with the sanctions?
I mean, we wouldn't suffer less
if the sanctions weren't enforced
I mean, it has nothing to do with us
There should be some solutions to this
I mean, sanctions are important, but there should be some...
solutions, just to calm people... to stop the war
Because the longer the war will drag on
the more victims, it will have
Of course!
Well, thank you so much for your time and for sharing your experience
Take good care of yourself and your family
And I hope to see you at the next polyglot event
We really wish you all the best and good luck in everything!
[Gela says "thank you" in Japanese]
[Bong laughs and responds in Japanese]
Take care man, see you!