Cook who shoots down Shahed drones opens up about life on the front line

"My mission is to add smiles," says Yaroslav 'the Wise' Hulak, a serviceman in the Air Defence Forces, senior soldier in an anti-aircraft missile division, cook and blogger. [The original Yaroslav the Wise was an 11th-century Grand Prince of Kyiv.]

Yaroslav told the Ukrainian Witness [a new media project to document and memorialise the terrible events in Ukraine – ed.] about life on the front line and how he manages to find enough positivity to comfort his fellow soldiers even under Russian fire.

Before the war, Yaroslav lived in Odesa, where he recruited crews for ships and also worked in catering on cruise liners, but now he helps shoot down Shaheds, the Iranian-made UAVs.

After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, although Yaroslav was afraid, he went straight to the Military Commissariat. He told them he was a cook and received the corresponding rank while he was still a student.

"My hands were shaking when I filled out the papers. I'm a civilian - my nature is repelled by war," emphasises this soldier in Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Right up until the last minute, Yaroslav did not believe that all-out war was possible. 'Wise' even brought back a car from the US a week before 24 February, although his acquaintances tried to persuade him not to.

"I still don't believe this is happening, but I'm here now, getting on with the job. I'm a combat unit now," Yaroslav says.

In his unit, Yaroslav works as an artillery loader, but not only that: he also cooks for himself and his fellow soldiers and even posts videos regularly on TikTok with humorous chat about everyday life on the front line.

"You can find something positive even in the army and in war. I don't show our dirty faces and our living conditions. We have enough of that without me. My mission is to add smiles," emphasises Yaroslav.

In this video, you can see excerpts from videos Yaroslav recorded on the front line that show him cooking "Spanish paella, Uzbek plov and Brazilian feijoada" using the food they have available.

He admits that he uses a knife and fork even on the front line: "It's a simple matter of taking care of your stomach and health in general. Breakfast is the most important thing for me."

The anti-aircraft gunner also expressed his indignation at people who do not want to learn Ukrainian.

"It's a simple language! Even a simpleton like me who barely learned English can speak Ukrainian. You look at some people who learn German and Polish abroad, but they can't learn Ukrainian. Why? Because over there, they won't pay you any money if you don’t learn the language," insists Yaroslav.

Yaroslav talks a lot about the Russians. He believes that "this nation has no right to exist".

"I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about the very essence: in the civilised world, in the world of high tech, they must be nullified. Russians have no right to exist in the form they are now."

According to Yaroslav "the Wise", Russians should fear Ukrainians like fire, and the "grey zone" between the borders of the Russian Federation and Ukraine should be 100 km long.

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