Exclusive:
An iconic image showed Ukrainian father Ruslan Gladkiy saying goodbye to his son as his family left the country following the start of the Russian invasion in 2022
The hero Ukrainian father pictured on a Mirror front page saying goodbye to his young son is now away from his family again – this time fighting for his country.
As the third anniversary of the war approaches, Ruslan Gladkiy is not allowed to reveal his exact military role or location. He told the Mirror: “It is not as difficult to hold back the enemy’s advance as it is to hold back tears when looking at a photo of your family.”
Back in 2022, Ruslan was pictured saying an emotional goodbye to his son Hordiy at Lviv train station as he left Ukraine with mum Halyna and sister Emilia. Photographer Andy Stenning’s photo became one of the iconic images of the war.
Our front page headline read: “Be brave for your mother.” Ruslan, 38, is now at the front but is hoping the war will finish soon so he can return to his beloved family. Yet again, he dreams of hugging Hordiy, now 11, and his family.
He said: “I really want the war to end. Only during the war did we realise how well we lived before. I want to finally go home to my family. I want to finally start making plans. I want to start looking into the future again.
“Now we don’t have that opportunity. I want the enemy to stop razing our cities and villages to the ground. I want the senseless deaths to end. I want children not to die. It’s very scary. You know, we believe, we believe that everything will be fine. We believe that everything will end soon.
“The truth is behind us, God is with us, the support of the world is with us. After all, without our partners, it would be much more difficult for us to contain the enemy’s invasion. We will stand. We will win. We will flourish again. Glory to Ukraine!”
Three days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Ruslan put Halyna, Hordiy and Emilia on a train to Budapest in Hungary.
I remember the horrendous and chaotic scenes at Lviv station as families desperately tried to clamber aboard trains to safety. I can still hear the cries of children and wives as they said farewell to their dads and husbands – not knowing if they would ever see them again. No man between the age of 18 and 65 was allowed to leave.
That day, Ruslan held back his tears until his family was safely aboard the train. Initially, they stayed with relatives in Italy but could not bear to be apart and returned to Ukraine. Ruslan was not called up until last year, with part of his training being conducted in England.
The Mirror has kept in touch with him over the past three years. He said: “First of all, I would like to thank your publication for the opportunity to speak. After all, it is very important to convey to the world community that war is bad.
“War is probably the worst thing that can happen. For millennia, humanity has glorified conquerors, idolised them, immortalised them in sculpture, poetry, and songs. After all, the victors are not judged. However, we forget what horror any conquest brings with it – crippled destinies, death, violence.
“This is what the people of independent Ukraine have been experiencing for 11 years. Yes I am not mistaken with my dates because we were first attacked not in 2022 but this horror began back in 2014 which started with the illegal annexation of the autonomous Republic of Crimea and parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.”
Ruslan was speaking last weekend before Donald Trump’s recent controversial intervention. He revealed that Ukrainians use a lower case ‘r’ when they spell the word ‘Russia’ and a lower case ‘p’ for ‘Putin’ to show the disdain they have for their enemy.
He said: “We love our land, our country, our language, our centuries-old history. We respect our freedom, which, unfortunately, is not available in some neighbouring countries. Ultimately, it is our constitutional duty to protect the integrity and inviolability of our state’s borders. The roots of my own surname go back to the 16th century.”
He referred to the atrocities committed by Russia during the war, saying: “We remember Bucha, Mariupol, Bakhmut very well. This list is already very long. Just like the list of victims of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. We understand that behind our backs are our native cities. Our families are in those cities.”
He added: “If we surrender, the barbarians from the east will bring destruction, devastation, rape and death to our cities. Therefore, we have no right to surrender.” Ruslan concluded: “Fighting for Ukraine is not just important for us. Fighting for Ukraine is a matter of survival for us.”