The city of Kyiv has unfortunately seen many mass suicide drone attacks so far this year. Lucas Froufré only one. It was on November 15, at noon, when an army of Russian drones left half of Ukraine plunged into absolute darkness. And without the possibility of combating the cold, since that day's attack damaged a power station. But Lucas remembers it even with a certain nostalgia. In the bomb shelter where he hid, he experienced moments of restlessness, but never fear. The reason: next to him was Olha Likhtarenko, a 30-year-old Ukrainian journalist for whom he crossed half of Europe -3,800 kilometers- to reach a country at war.
Love, just love. That of Lucas Froufe, a 27-year-old Galician from Ourense (@lucasfroufe), is a simple story, even inconsequential if it weren't for the fact that among the videos they upload to their social networks, like any couple in love, the alarm sirens are heard Remember that the country is at war. Between kisses, the restlessness of not knowing what will happen the next minute. Normality versus unreality.
On the other end of the phone line Lucas's voice sounds happy. He has already returned to his native Galicia and he hopes to see what he already considers his girlfriend again in the coming weeks. He will do it in Seville, where he started it all. Where a simple presentation changed the course of his life.
Lucas traveled to Seville, to Dos Hermanas, to attend his cousin's wedding. Olha, a friend of the bride, also attended the link. They both stayed at the same hotel, La Motilla, door to door, opposite each other, and his cousin introduced them. "I thought: my goodness, what kisses! And I couldn't stop thinking about her," Lucas recalls. It was quite a crush.
Lucas and Olha lived a romance of almost two weeks between Seville and Galicia, where they went once the wedding was over. "It amused me that people who saw us in the city told us that we reminded them of their first love. That it was nice to see us," he says with a mixture of naivety and a romantic movie script.
Those pink bubble days were the ones that led him to decide to buy the plane ticket to go see her in Kyiv. She was already her official girlfriend, despite her short time together: "I realized that I was going to do everything possible for her, even risk my life to go see her." And she took a risk.
Although Olha updated him on how bad things were in his country, Lucas took a flight from Santiago to Edinburgh on November 7, and from there another flight to Warsaw. Then 20 hours by train to Kyiv. "That was the moment of the hardest trip. You don't sleep because of your nerves, the train was very old and uncomfortable, we were stopped for many hours... And the conductor and at the controls kept asking me if I was American and if I had gone there to fight Russia," he says.
Now, at home again, where he returned on November 16, he says that on the train it was the only time he was afraid. But not because of the war, but because he was totally incommunicado on a journey towards the unpredictable. "He was the thing he was most afraid of because he was going without internet; because until he got to Kyiv he couldn't buy a SIM card," he narrates. Also, "almost no one around there spoke English."
The arrival at the station was memorable. Only the violins were missing. At least for him. "She knew what time my train was arriving and when I got off I was in shock. I didn't believe it: I saw her standing there, among all the crowd."
Although Lucas prepared himself mentally for the war, through the news, documentaries and others, the reality was shocking: seeing how people have assumed war as one more thing in their day to day, it should be. "Most of the people I met in Ukraine have respect, but not fear. They are also convinced that they are going to win," he says.
And between the sounds of alarms, half-destroyed buildings and surprise attacks, Lucas and Olha continued their romance through the streets of Kyiv, where any couple in love can still find restaurants where they can share a table and places to have a few drinks and listen to good music. "As I would in Madrid," Lucas normalizes, but with the difference that the photos of him are not of beautiful monuments and squares, but of dilapidated streets, destroyed cars and relics of the war. He recognizes a point of unconsciousness in everything he tells, and that he previously explained to Faro de Vigo. But he attributes it to his permanent state of happiness. "Not even the bombs have scared me as much as not seeing her anymore," he says.
And what will the future hold for them? It remains to be seen. He is clear that Olha is the love of his life and plans to organize something that will allow them to live between the two countries. His experience in the world of hospitality and nightlife can be of help. "Everyone tells me I'm crazy; she, that time will tell if we can be together. War is a big problem, but I believe that when you are determined to want to spend your life with another person there is no obstacle that prevents you from doing so ", sentence. Courage and love are not lacking.
