4 vehicles, 5 thermal imagers and dream of Javelin. The story of 7-year-old Iryna Vasylieva, daughter of a fallen hero

Four cars, five thermal imagers, a drone, a Starlink, and an anti-drone rifle – all this was bought for the military by 7-year-old Iryna Vasylieva from Rivne. Her father, Oleksandr Vasyliev, was killed in thewar. Now the girl is helping one of the units of the 14th Brigade named after Prince Roman the Great, where he served. To do this, she makes and sells wreaths.

Irynka dreams of a Javelin, so she wrote to Boris Johnson to help her buy it. While the letter is on its way to the addressee, she and her mother Viktoriia are doing everything possible for the victory.

Proposal after a week

Viktoriia and Oleksandr Vasiliev were married for 7 years. It took the couple only a week to realize that they were perfect for each other.

Viktoriia is from Rivne, and Oleksandr is from Pryluky, Chernihiv Oblast. She is an economist, he is a military man. They met in 2014. Viktoriia's brother was Oleksandr's fellow soldier. In September, the man died, but Oleksandr Vasyliev was unable to attend the funeral. He decided to come to the cemetery later. During this trip, he met Viktoriia.

“A week after the visit, Sasha called me and asked if I would marry him. I said yes. My family was shocked. Many thought that we would break up before the wedding,” recalls Viktoriia Vasylieva.

Oleksandr presented the ring to his wife a week later on Independence Square in Rivne. There were portraits of fallen soldiers there. Oleksandr turned to the photo of Viktoriia's brother and said: “I will not hurt her.” That day, the lovers applied to the registry office. They got married in November and had a wedding in February.

“We lived in such harmony that it seemed as if we were still in the middle of a courtship. I didn't feel the burden of everyday life, because Sasha also cooked, made coffee, washed dishes, and took care of our daughter. We often went on dates, could go to the gas station for hot dogs in the middle of the night, talk in the kitchen until the morning, or fight with pillows. Irynka would look at this and say: ‘You're like little children’,” she says, smiling as she recounts those times.

Oleksandr and Irynka had their own adventures. According to his wife, they were inseparable. They brought home stray cats and puppies. They played Battle City. Irynka did her dad's nails and makeup and spoon-fed him. But most of all, she loved to “annoy mom” with him. For example, turning off the light when she was doing something or locking her in a room. For their pranks, both of them stood in the corner, sometimes together with the cat.

“Irynka is a gymnast. When she had her first competition, Sasha took off work and came to support her. He knew her dance by heart. When Ira got confused, he would gesture to her to do the next move,” says Viktoriia Vasylieva.

“He was the best dad in the world. He took me in his arms even when I didn't ask for it. We used to fool around together. I wanted to teach him how to do the splits. He almost succeeded. And he taught me to sing the national anthem,” thegirl says.

Oleksandr Vasyliev has been at war since 2014. When he had a rotation to the front, Irynka was very sad. She would pack her bags and tell her mom, “Let's go to my dad.” She asked so insistently that Viktoriia could not refuse. In 2020, she took her daughter to Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.

They were able to spend more time together while Oleksandr was studying at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy. Then the family moved to Lviv. Irynka would come to her father's academy, and he would take her to the kindergarten and pick her up from gymnastics.

Viktoriia used to work at a bank but quit. When Oleksandr was away from home for a long time, it was difficult to combine work and raising a child.

The couple wanted to open their own home goods store. Before the Russian invasion, they were looking for a place to do business. Viktoriia says she doesn't want to give up on her plans because it was their shared dream.

The couple also dreamed of a son and a vacation together at sea.

The last meeting

After graduating from the academy, Oleksandr Vasyliev was transferred from the 30th Mechanized Brigade to the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Prince Roman the Great. He was a senior lieutenant. He had the call sign “Sashyk”.

He prepared the family for the possibility of a full-scale war. He told them how to pack emergency suitcases and how to behave in different situations. Irynka watched all the news. She even taught her mother what to do during shelling.

“The last time I saw Sasha was on February 22. We went to a disco. In the morning, he went to the training ground. The next day he was not allowed to go home. On February 24, I was supposed to bring him cigarettes. He called and told me not to go because the war had started. The first weeks were full of fear, panic, uncertainty, and hatred,” the womansays.

Irynka had her own checkpoint. She walked around with a bat and made sure that the Russians did not pass. She sent her father a drawing of a burning Russian tank.

“My daughter was less afraid than I was. When we were on business in Lviv, she saw the missiles hit. The driver and I were scared. And she suggested that we buy nuclear weapons for Ukraine to drive the enemy out faster. She hates them,” says Viktoriia.

Irynka forbids her mother to cry

Oleksandr Vasyliev fought in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv Oblasts. He called home every day because he knew his daughter would be worried. The last conversation with his family was on the day he died, March 27.

In the afternoon, the man warned that he might not get in touch for several days. A few hours later, he was killed by shelling in the village of Blahodatne in Mykolaiv Oblast.

“Since the evening, the child has been restless. I've never seen her like this. She was shaking. I called the doctor because I didn't know what to do. The next day it was the same. Irynka kept asking me to call her dad, but he was out of reach,” recalls Viktoriia Vasylieva.

Two days later, the woman called his companion’s wife, who asked in a calm tone: “Why, have you not been told yet? Sasha died.”

The company commander confirmed the death. There were no conversations with my daughter like: “You know, your dad died...”. Irynka heard her mother crying and understood everything. She responded with tears and screaming.

Oleksandr Vasyliev was buried in a closed coffin. Viktoriia does not remember how the burial went. She only remembers storks flying in the sky. She listened to the words of support but did not hear them. She didn't care about anything.

“I still haven't accepted this loss. I kept hoping that Sasha was actually alive. After the funeral, I called him and wrote to him on Viber for another month. I looked through all the photos in the groups searching for prisoners. I can still imagine our meeting. After talking to the priest, I felt better. Irynka doesn't let me sour. She is much stronger than me,” says Viktoriia Vasylieva.

After her father's death, the girl shut down. For a month she did not want to go to school or go to gymnastics. She stayed at home all day. Once she told her mom: “Let's live as if my dad is alive, but somewhere far away.” This helped her return to her normal routine. She often dreamed about her father. They would play in her dreams. At this time, the girl always smiled.

Ira thinks about her father every day. She keeps a whole stack of her father's photos under her pillow and does not allow anyone to touch them. She visits the cemetery. Brings fresh flowers to the grave. On her birthday and Father's Day, she would come with a cake.

“Give me bags for the enemies”

Before the war, Iryna Vasylieva visited boarding schools with her mother, bringing gifts to orphans. In the first days of the Russian invasion, she wove camouflage nets with her mother at school. After her father's death, the girl decided to act on a larger scale.

One day, Iryna woke up at 5 a.m. and started waking her mother: “Get up, we're going to help the army.” At first, the girl started making cookies. She burned herself and decided that she had to come up with something else.

She is in charge of the creative part. And her mother is her “employee” as an accountant, purchaser of materials, cleaner, and tester of wreaths. Viktoriia spends five to ten thousand hryvnias a month on materials for her daughter's art. Irynka runs her social media on her own, but her mother keeps an eye on her and helps her.

The girl finds out about military needs herself. Company commander Dmytro Sanotskyi says: “If we need a thermal imager, Irynka asks how far it should reach. If it concerns a car, she specifies what kind of fuel it should run on and what kind of gearbox it should have. She says: ‘Do you need four-wheel drive? You're going to drive through the mud, carry ammunition, take the wounded... You definitely need four-wheel drive’”

One day, the military handed the girl a flag with an inscription that there were not enough bags for the bodies of enemies. The girl went to a store and stunned the shop assistant with a request: “Give me some bags for the enemies.”

“If Irynka has an idea, I pray first and then say, ‘Tell me’”

Irynka makes wreaths after school and gymnastics. She can make from five to thirty wreaths in an evening. She often stays up late at night. Viktoriia even hid a glue gun. After that, the girl did not talk to her mother all day. She sat by her father's photo and complained: “Do you see what she’s like, Dad?”

At the first fair, the girl sold 10 wreaths, and over time, her business has grown significantly. Most people buy them on Instagram. Smaller items cost 150 hryvnias, larger ones 250. Often, buyers drop much larger sums. For example, we once bought four wreaths for 40 thousand hryvnias. The greatest demand is for yellow and blue wreaths. Several wreaths went abroad: to Poland, Canada, Norway, and the United States.

For the company where her father served, Irynka's money bought four cars, five thermal imagers, a drone, a rangefinder, chainsaws, a telescope, a Starlink, and an anti-drone rifle.

“We really appreciate Irynka's help. Each car has a yellow and blue heart drawn by her and her name written on it. This is a symbol of the unit. Every soldier has this symbol in his heart. We are all delighted with it,” says company commander Dmytro Sanotskyi.

“When Iryna wakes up and says she has an idea, I cross myself three times, pray to God, and then say: ‘Tell me about it’,” Viktoriia laughs. One day, her daughter came up with the idea of writing a letter to Boris Johnson to ask him to help buy a Javelin.

She was at a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in August 2022, when the president and the first lady presented gifts to child volunteers. Iryna asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the Javelin, but he said he didn't know where to buy it. After that, she decided to look for help abroad.

In her letter, the girl wrote the following: “I, Irynka, am writing to you because you love Ukraine as much as I do. I know that you are helping us a lot. My dad died in the war. Now I am helping to defend Ukraine. I want to buy Javelin because it will definitely help. We will win and everything will be fine. Help me buy a Javelin for my dad's friends. Glory to Ukraine!”

Dad's friends became Iryna's friends. They send flags with wishes from the front. The whole room is covered with them. On Volunteer Day, the military chipped in and ordered a bouquet of flowers for the girl. They also gave her a guinea pig.

And once we launched a whole challenge among different brigades. Dmytro Sanotskyi asked to send the Russians shells with the inscription “From Irynka for Dad”. Ammunition from mortars, howitzers, grads, HIMARS, and other weapons flew to the enemy from different parts of the front. All this was filmed on a phone and edited into a video. The girl liked it.

The text was prepared by Memorial, a memory platform that tells the stories of civilians killed by Russia and Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russia, especially for hromadske. To report data on Ukraine's losses, please fill out the forms for fallen military and civilian victims.

Author: Natalia Khvesyk