🇺🇦 ‘We really didn’t expect Putin to invade... it was a huge shock.’
London-based food writer @Olia_Hercules on Putin's 'tsarist ambitions', raising £1 million for her homeland – and the power of Instagram during war ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk
London-based food writer @Olia_Hercules on Putin's 'tsarist ambitions', raising £1 million for her homeland – and the power of Instagram during war ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk
Hercules was born in south Ukraine but has lived in the UK since she came here, aged 18, to study Italian and international relations.
👉 She became a chef – partly because cooking helped keep her connected to her home and family – and eventually a food writer and teacher
👉 She became a chef – partly because cooking helped keep her connected to her home and family – and eventually a food writer and teacher
📚 In her books, particularly Mamushka and Summer Kitchens, she encourages us to appreciate Ukraine through food and stories
🔴 But, when Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, Hercules became more than a food writer, she became an activist, a warrior
telegraph.co.uk
telegraph.co.uk
‘We really didn’t expect Putin to invade,’ she says, ‘it was a huge shock.’
She stops to take a breath and holds her head in her hands. ‘What is the justification for invading a country where people are just going about their daily lives?’
She stops to take a breath and holds her head in her hands. ‘What is the justification for invading a country where people are just going about their daily lives?’
Her parents were in Ukraine – her home town is Kakhovka, 80 miles from Crimea – together with her brother and endless aunts, uncles and cousins.
🗣️ ‘I could hear gunfire in the background when we talked'
🗣️ ‘I could hear gunfire in the background when we talked'
🇺🇦 She believes Ukrainians live with the trauma of their past: ‘Ukraine has always been attacked. It’s a corridor between Asia and Europe, it’s vulnerable. My whole life I’ve suffered from some kind of anxiety or other. It’s as if Ukrainians are born with this and hold on to it'
Hercules didn’t set up a charity to raise money, she put the details of a PayPal account on her Instagram posts
🗣️ ‘People said that I had to do things properly but there was no time for that. I needed to get money in'
🗣️ ‘People said that I had to do things properly but there was no time for that. I needed to get money in'
In just two days she had amassed £100,000 and the money was still coming.
👉 Before long she had volunteers working round her kitchen table, answering phone calls and emails, helping the public understand how to donate
👉 Before long she had volunteers working round her kitchen table, answering phone calls and emails, helping the public understand how to donate
‘I didn’t think about trolls or becoming well known,’ she says. ‘Social media was a way to communicate with people, so I did it.’
Read the full interview with @Olia_Hercules here ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk
Read the full interview with @Olia_Hercules here ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk
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