As bombs fall in Kyiv, Pinay traveller casts her lot with besieged Ukrainians

As Russian forces close in on Kyiv, a Filipina travel vlogger is among those holed up in the Ukrainan capital and has volunteered to help defend the city. University of the Philippines Diliman graduate Krysten Boado, 25, says she will not have a combat role as she has no military training, but will be involved in the preparation and distribution of supplies to frontline combatants.

Known online by her vlogger name, “Krysten Kaladkarin,” Boado began travelling soon after graduation in 2017, and has been to nearly a dozen countries over five years. But when Ukraine allowed her entry over a year ago at the height of the pandemic, when many countries had closed their borders to Filipinos, she fell in love with Ukraine and got a job teaching children in an alternative school where part of the curriculum was field trips exploring caves. Many of those children have since evacuated.

When I asked her in an interview why she hasn’t evacuated, Boado replied, “Hindi ko rin naman kino-close 'yung opportunity to evacuate…. If ever 'yung mapulbos nga 'yung mga nearby, talagang lumapit na sila rito, wala na kaming choice but to leave.” (I’m not closing the opportunity to evacuate. If nearby places are bombed, we will have no choice but to leave.)

She says she has been “adopted” by a Ukrainian family with 22-year-old twin daughters whom she considers her sisters. The entire family is still intact but they’ve been making evacuation plans. But for now, they are among the many Ukrainians who have chosen to stay to fight or support the fighters, and are heartened by the gallantry they’ve witnessed.

“Naniniwala na ako na may chance na magkaroon ng victory ang Ukraine kasi napaka-resilient ng forces namin. We're outmanned and outgunned, pero we're on the winning side actually. And ang pinakamagandang nakikita ko sa Ukraine is 'yung power ng people,” she says in the interview, while wearing a traditional Ukrainian blouse called a vyshyvanka.

(“I believe Ukraine has a chance to win because our forces are so resilient… The best thing I’ve seen in Ukraine is the power of the people.”)

She spoke to me last week for my podcast from an apartment in an undisclosed part of Kyiv, which has received heavy bombardment in the last two days. She had emerged from an underground bomb shelter because it did not have wifi. But she assured me she was not in any danger at that moment, but bombs were falling about five kilometers away.

“We're a bit lucky na during this interview and during sa classes ko po this morning (that she teaches), wala kaming sirens so far. And napakaganda ng sky namin actually, very blue and walang airplanes flying overhead so medyo tahimik po tayo ngayon,” she said. (“We’re a bit lucky during this interview and during my classes this morning because there were no sirens. The sky is beautiful, it’s very blue and no airplanes flying overhead so it’s fairly quiet now.”)

She added that the tech-savvy Ukrainans had devised apps that warn of Russian attacks in real time so civilians can seek shelter.

Despite being on the edge of possible catastrophe, Boado was calm and even cheerful during the interview, confident that victory would eventually be theirs, even if some professional analysts have a more pessimistic view. “I’m not one to get hysterical,” she shrugged, not after all that she’s been through in her travels.

A solo traveller who hitchhiked throughout Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe before ending up in Ukraine, Boado is seen in her videos with gruff but smiling truck drivers who pack liquor in the back seat, as well as with a grandmother at a grape vineyard who embraced her on camera. There’s a video of her teaching her young students how to make yema, the Filipino dessert, and herself learning how to paint pysanka, the Ukrainian Easter eggs.

But her birthday video in the Carpathian Mountains posted last November showed her crying. “Today I turn 25, but before that, everything was falling apart,” she began. Then she narrated the series of visa rejections that made her fear her journey would soon end and she would have no choice but to return to the Philippines. She lost her phone which contained her ATM card. And before that she underwent emergency surgery to remove a large cyst in Kyrgyzstan.

And all that was before the Russian invasion of February 24 that could end much, much more than her journey.

Remarkably, she looked happier and even healthier in our interview than in her birthday video when she spoke of the challenges she faced on the road.

She’s an only child and she said her family back home in Manila was worried sick; her mother calls her every day. But she has cast her lot with a besieged people, partly because she says Ukrainians remind her of Filipinos.

“It's just something you feel at home because it's like home. The fighting spirit of these people is like the fighting spirit of our country now. It's something that I really admire,” she said. “'Yung kindness nila, 'yung katatagan nila, 'yung welcomeness nila sa mga tao actually. Hindi nila deserve 'yung nangyayari ngayon dito.” (“Their kindness, their determination, their welcomeness. They don’t deserve what’s happening to them now.”) —JST, GMA News