Roman Protsenko and Valentyn Zelenetskyi fought against Russia in Ukraine. Photograph: Alan Betson
“Thanks to the Irish doctors, they saved my eyesight,” Zelenetskyi tells The Irish Times through an interpreter at the Ukrainian Crisis Centre in Ireland. “The first time you see them in the night vision, you just see killers in front of you. I felt no remorse. They were only targets. There was no emotional enemy there. It is like you are killing a serial killer,” says Zelenetskyi, whose rank is master sergeant.
“It is not like some enemy. It is people on the ground. If he has the chance, he will kill you, he will kill your family. It is like if a burglar were to enter your house — you have to stop him.” He has found his return to his normal life in Dublin difficult. He is jumpy. On one of his first days back at work, he had to carry out a job near Dublin Airport. He ducked when a plane flew overhead. He says, during his time in Ukraine, a plane flying overhead meant trouble.When he rounds a corner now, he takes a few steps more and takes a wider berth; it is instinctive from his time in Ukraine where potential danger lay around every corner.
Asked how he is sleeping, he says: “Sometimes not good dreams.” He mentions the bombing. He also mentions how one of his friends killed in fighting was buried on Tuesday in Ukraine.
Prob one of these great lads
They shouldn’t be here….which Irish was left on the trolley in a corridor so they could have a bed?
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