«I did not leave Kiev, I chose my people and my dreams»- Corriere.it

Alina Kakhorovska the third generation of his family in the footwear and accessories sector. at the helm of the Ukrainian brand Kachorovska, born in 1957 during the cold war on the initiative of her grandmother. Today it has 150 employees in the factories and shops in the country which has been at war since 24 February and his creations have also often been worn by the Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska. The company is still a family affair: Alina’s mother — Olena, has the same name as Zelensky’s wife — currently runs the factory which is located just outside the center of Kiev and which in the first months of the conflict also worked to supply boots to the Ukrainian army. They currently ship 25,000 pairs of shoes a year to their customers around the world and continue to work even as the war continues. Alina’s brand is an example of the resilience of Ukrainians and the local fashion world: the company continues to move forward even in a capital at times without electricity, without the Internet, without water.

Alina lives in Kiev, together with her husband and three children, and has never left the city during these months of war, despite having received multiple offers to save herself. She explains why: I chose to fight from the first seconds of the beginning of the conflict, when my husband woke me up at 5 in the morning on February 24th. I have chosen my country. I have chosen my home. I chose my people, incredible people and very dear to me. I chose my dreams and worked hard for 16 years to make them come true.

We hear her driving towards Odessa, a few days before the anniversary of the start of the conflict. She’s on her way to see her team and check out the store in town. We ask her how she is, however trivial this question may seem to those who have to face the sirens of bombings every day: I’m fine, as fine as we can be, with little vitamin D and optimism for the future, she tells us .

Kachorovska, what has your typical day been like since the war started?
There were several “typical days” in this year of war. For the first two weeks of the conflict we sat all day in shelters, trying to somehow muster up the courage to go out and buy groceries at the grocery store and cook something for the children, constantly listening to the news and hearing every sound that came from outside. Only in survival mode. Now it depends on the circumstances. Sometimes there are major rocket attacks, they start on time at 6 or 7 in the morning. I hide in a shelter with the children for several hours, sometimes 3 or even 5, then I drive them to school and go to work. I went to work in all conditions: without light, under shelling, without a connection, without the Internet. It helps me not go crazy and my way of fighting. I usually start from the news, I try to understand what happened during the night, if the sky is clear, I drink a glass of water with vitamin D

Vitamin D for what?
We have been without the sun for four months, in non-normal living conditions. The mind and the body suffer a lot, now I am healing them.

Are the shops open? How is production going in the factory?
Yes, in small steps. It took us five months to reopen all three of our stores after the conflict started. Online sales had restarted on March 14th. While the production and creation is fine, they are my inspiration.

In the first months of the war, you had converted your production to create boots for the soldiers of the Ukrainian army engaged at the front. Are you still making them?
On the fifth day of the war we went from fashionable women’s shoes to producing military boots for men. It was my mom’s initiative, after seeing dozens of requests on Facebook for army boots. We joined forces with several factories, with our colleagues in the industry, and produced nearly 2,000 army boots and shipped them all over Ukraine for free in the first two months of the war. We stopped producing in May when we realized we were ready to go back to women’s shoes and the market was picking up step by step.

Where are you now?
We produce shoes, accessories and clothing at full capacity, almost like before the war. And our 150 employees are still working.

What is the hardest thing to live with?
The death of innocent people and our soldiers. It hurts so much, a frustrating pain. For all the other things we have found a solution, such as traveling 30 or 40 hours to get to the nearest airport or your final destination on a business trip outside the country, but also the lack of light, water, energy, connection , the ruined days, the messed up plans, the curfew. But not for the death of people. This pain changed me as a human being forever. Today (Wednesday February 22nd, ed) the tenth day without a lack of electricity and in the evening we have the street lamps turned on. I’m happy like a little girl, we have light even in the evening, I can’t help but stare at the street lamps and I smile all the time. We have spent the last four months in total darkness. What I took for granted – without even realizing it – now a source of sincere happiness.

She chose not to leave the city and the country. How did you explain the situation to your children?
I know 100% where my life is: here, in Kiev, in the Ukraine. The most beautiful, vital, passionate, creative and alive place in the world, for me. I dedicate myself to who I am and to my path and this makes me incredibly present and happy. Children know war, but luckily they don’t understand its horror. They often ask why this country (Russia, ed) attacked us. Why why why? I explain something, but I don’t even know why this unreasonable stupid killing and destroying our people and our land is a gigantic crime against humanity.

How do you feel about this anniversary?
I have no words, only silence.