Return to the front line
Irish citizen risks his life to help flagging Ukraine war effort
THE war in Ukraine is slipping out of people’s consciousness even in parts of the war-torn country itself, according to an Irish-Ukrainian man who has just returned from his second stint defending his homeland.
Stanislav Lepko was among a group of Ukrainian men living in Ireland who went over to fight as volunteers shortly after the war broke out in February 2022.
Then, after spending months back in Ireland sourcing vehicles to send over for the war effort when his first tour ended, the 53-year-old former PayPal worker returned to join the army proper in March this year – encountering ‘a lot more tragic moments’ this time around and several terrifying brushes with death.
Asked for his reaction to the diminishing coverage of the war internationally almost two years in, Mr Lepko told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘It’s the same thing in Ukraine. It’s not all the citizens [united] like it used to be in the first months, because the war is far away from the capital, from the centre of the country.
‘I heard a few times: “No one sent you [to fight]. That’s your own decision. You’re being paid there. So why do the rest of the people have to be worried about it?”’
Mr Lepko said the growing apathy is one of the main reasons he was determined to return – and he intends to go back again in February, despite his terrified family’s protests, ‘until the war is over’.
He said: ‘To be honest, when I’m walking in the street in uniform, I’ve seen loads of men in the capital or other cities in Ukraine all look away from me. They put their eyes down. I don’t want to be like that.’
The father of two, who has lived in
Ireland for over 20 years and holds an Irish passport, added that morale has fallen due to the sheer number of casualties and the lack of clear progress.
‘Expectations were so high in summertime that we would be successful in different regions. But it didn’t happen because we obviously didn’t have enough supply of weapons, things were delayed and everything else. So people aren’t motivated about it as before. Even in my unit, there are situations when young fellas get scared [for] their life and say,
“I’m not gonna do that task.”’
Speaking from his home in Tallanstown, Co. Louth, Mr Lepko said he has seen ‘a lot more action than the first time and a lot more tragic moments’ in his duties as a crew cab driver on his second trip.
‘The first [three-month spell in Ukraine as a citizen volunteer], we experienced only one or two tragic deaths, but this time around it’s a lot harder, a lot tougher. We’ve been constantly bombarded and everything else.’
His unit, mostly young men in their 20s with Mr Lepko among the oldest of them, lost their commander during their first week of combat.
‘When they got out of the trenches there was obviously