Tímea Fábián, the ethnic Hungarian violinist of the Transcarpathian People’s Choir joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces in March, shortly after Russia’s attack on Ukraine began. She spent more than three months on the front.
In an interview she gave to a Ukrainian TV channel (Suspilne Uzhorod), she shared that although she is of Hungarian descent, and her mother tongue is Hungarian, she has always considered Ukraine her home, “regardless of what others may say about this”. Fábián spoke about the anger she felt when the war broke out and the fact that this only strengthened her patriotism. She was volunteering at a railway station and “saw the horrors people were living through during those days. Barefoot children in pyjamas, crying mothers, hungry people”.
“I was moved by it all and thought: I want to defend my country with a weapon.”
Fábián said that when she joined the army, she didn’t think she would immediately end up on the frontlines, but “life wanted it that way”, and she doesn’t mind at all.
“I realized one thing: no matter how much they want to destroy us – basically the Ukrainian nation – they will not succeed, because such simple girls and boys who simply want to live in peace and tranquility, they are the ones defending our country. And they are ready to exchange a violin for a machine gun."
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