Unity in times of war: VistaCreate employees share their stories

At VistaCreate, we are here to help small businesses around the world thrive on social media. Today, we are using the power of social media to stand against the atrocities taking place in a country we call home.

Voices around the world are coming together with a single message: We stand with Ukraine. Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine has devastated a nation. Our nation. We’d like to invite you to join the fight for justice. 

You can share your support for Ukraine using free templates with the keyword “endwar” in search or find them in our featured templates along with new thematic stickers. Customize our templates, repost, and share. Remember that your voice has power!

Our team continues to deliver our services to millions of clients around the world. Our main responsibility was the safety of each team member during these challenging times. Together with the global Vista team, we have developed an initial plan to minimize the impact of war on the work of VistaCreate employees. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we continuously worked to ensure the safety of our team members based in Ukraine. And we continue to do this – informational support, psychological assistance, assistance with transport, search for housing, coordinating on the ground.

In addition to information support, our employees are volunteering, donating money for humanitarian purposes, men join the ranks of territorial defense. And these difficult times, we’ve learned to come together for something much bigger than us.

These are our voices, and the voices of people witnessing a war first hand. 

In one way or another, citizens around Ukraine all woke up to the same phrase from their loved ones, “The war has started.”

For some reason, I woke up early on the 24th.  I opened Instagram as part of my morning ritual. I saw posts where they mentioned that several cities in Ukraine were under attack and I thought it was fake news. I saw another post that Putin has attacked Ukraine and also thought it was fake news. I went on YouTube and saw the official message, I didn’t believe it. It took me about an hour to get that war has really started. I called my mother who started wishing me a happy birthday and I interrupted her to say that a war has started. She said, “what the f*ck?” That’s how my birthday started and how I found out about the war.

Denys Abramov, Frontend Developer

Others woke up directly to the sound of sirens, and the less fortunate of us to explosions nearby their apartments. In the days that followed, countless families have been torn apart, and many more in our country left to grieve from bereavement or loss of their loved ones.  

I was having a bad dream before something pushed me out of it. I heard a horrifying trembling sound… Turned out it was the glass panel doors.

I couldn’t figure out what time it was, as the whole room was flooded with light. And while my brain was trying to understand what was happening, I heard an explosion. The same I’ve just heard in my dream. Well, now I know it wasn’t a dream. I also know that the glass panel doors are the worst interior solution in wartime…

Valeriia Babko, Copywriter

We do what we can to keep it together. In a stressful situation, strength and a sense of responsibility have proven to come out as the primary driving force to go on. Our families and their well-being keep us going. 

My mom is in Nizhyn now, together with her neighbors they sleep in the basement of a 5-storeyed house because of the constant sound of sirens. Yesterday one of the Nizhyn districts was attacked by the Russian artillery (Grad) and in the early days of the war, Russians attacked our airfield, which is based near the area where my home is.

Thanks to my friends and their families, I can keep my common sense and keep my mind cool.

Vladymyr Shushlebin, Product Manager

Once in a video call, someone said “You know how you always thought it’d be great to move somewhere? There’s nothing more I want now than to be back home.” Many left their homes, their home cities, some even their families. For one of our employees, this was a traumatic parallel to the events of the past. 

Kyiv is my hometown. It is being attacked by Russia. We had to leave our apartment. I cried on the second and the third day when I began to realize that it was really happening. Now – I experience despair and faith at the same time.

I am proud of my country, the people who live here, the army that protects us. I saw the unity of people, mutual assistance, volunteering. It’s a very cool feeling. On the other hand – anxiety, fear. Real fear. Fear for your life, for the lives of my relatives.

This is the second time for me to leave my home with only documents in my hands. The first time this happened was in 1986. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant forced us to leave home and start living from the very beginning. Then I was a little girl.

Viktoriia Pylypenko, Marketing Manger

At times like this, you’re left to pray it’ll all be over, that we can go back to our normal lives. But the days dragged on and on, with news getting worse and worse. 

The following five or six days felt like one long fever dream. Running from the flat to the nearest bomb shelter and back, sleeping on the floor in the hallway. Going through waves of extreme, feral fear for your life and the lives of the people you love. Shortage of food, closed shops, having to keep the bathtub filled with water at all times because you never know when the water supply will stop. 

At some point, on day 7, I think, my boyfriend and I decided to go to Vinnytsia. My parents stayed in Kyiv. The evacuation trains were full, I barely managed to get him on the train since they were only letting women and children go. For the entirety of our journey — 4 hours — we were standing (there were no seats available and no space to sit on the floor) and praying a bomb doesn’t hit our train.

Valerie Kakovkina, Content Marketing Manager

Throughout all of it, our team has stuck together. From organizing our own real-time support chat, to directly helping each other organize. The company has gone to great lengths to help ensure the safety of each employee, giving everyone a sense of security during these difficult times.

I live in Kyiv, my heart is falling apart when I see pictures of buildings and bridges destroyed by missiles. It’s like a bad dream. I still can’t believe what’s happening in real.

From the first day of the Russian invasion, I’ve been helping out the HR team together with other colleagues from all departments that had already reached a safe place, to relocate our Ukrainian colleagues abroad, providing them with information and safe itineraries 24/7. I’m fascinated by how well-organized, tireless, and dedicated our team is! Their support and care motivate me to keep working under these terrible circumstances and gives me confidence that together we will win.

Iana Sviderska, Partnerships Manager

Most importantly, Ukraine has stuck together. We became a more unified, strong country. Many of our employees recall this along with the courage expressed by compassionate citizens.

We left Kyiv early in the morning the same day and spent 15 hours driving to Khmelnytskyi, my hometown. We had had our documents packed, the car fueled, and the route planned in case Russia would attack Kyiv. When the war broke out on February 24,  there was no panic, we followed our contingency plan.

Apart from the apparent consequences of the warlike safety and humanitarian issues, lack of medicine, fuel, and essential living items in Kyiv and other cities being continuously attacked, I want to highlight the incredible unity and courage of Ukrainians in every town and family as one of the strongest and positive reactions to the happening events.

Vlada Chuvashova, Digital Marketing Lead

There is a hopeful message at the end of it all. That we stand strong as a team, as citizens, and as a nation that’s determined to stand up for justice. Our team continues to build, to create, to deliver a service so many of you have grown fond of. And we do it with passion and integrity, hoping the world hears our voices, and with the determination that we have left a mark. 

For now, Kyiv stands strong. And it will stand strong in the future, I know it for sure! We will restore everything russian orcs have destroyed and, soon, I expect to come back home, have a cider at Okno, chill at the banks of Dnipro, dance at Vognyk, walk all the way from Pechersk to Podil, hug my family and pet my baby kitty Plushka. 

My nana and uncle got help from volunteers who delivered them food and water. 

I got engaged. Not exactly the way I imagined it would happen, but somewhen during the night at the bomb shelter, my boyfriend asked me to marry him when it’s all over.

Valerie Kakovkina, Content Marketing Manager

We have an amazing team. Many wanted to and continued to work all this time. For many work also helps to cope with anxiety, it becomes easier when you feel that you are busy with a useful thing.

We acted quickly when war broke out – Depositphotos launched Say No to War, an image collection that shows the brutal truth of what’s happening in Ukraine, as well as images of protests from around the world and inside of Russia. At VistaCreate, we gathered a collection of templates in support of Ukraine that can be used to help spread truthful information as well as your stance on social media.