“I’ve got an assault rifle next to me, and I’m ready to use it if needed.” Word of Inna Sovsun, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament for the opposition party Holos (Voce), who made the decision to be immortalized alongside a Kalashnikov, a photo that soon became viral. “I work as a professor,” explained the deputy to beraking latest news. “I’ve been teaching at the university for 12 years. And so I’m not known to use weapons. I have no military experience or anything else, I never thought I had a rifle and I have never been trained to use it. ” The deputy recalls how, with the outbreak of the war, “we held an emergency session of Parliament” and “afterwards they gave us the weapons to defend ourselves, to defend our city. I imagine that almost all the Members of Parliament have received weapons, and some of them are using them right now, ”she continued, stating that she joined the territorial defense units.
«My job now – he explains – is to speak to the international public and explain to the world community the atrocities that Putin is carrying out here in Ukraine. I know that this way I can be very useful and I have the skills, but if I have to, if necessary, I will use the weapon and I will use it only because I do not give up. I stay here”. In these four days following the outbreak of the conflict, the deputy specifies, many people are volunteering by enlisting in the territorial defense units. “A lot of them aren’t trained and frankly the only time I’ve cried in the last four days was when I saw the lines outside the Army Recruiting Office. There I saw the spirit of the nation ».