“Mom, is it a nuclear bomb?” Ukrainian MP Sovsun on parenting, parliament, and perseverance in Kyiv

We meet Inna Sovsun in a cozy cafe on the northern edge of Kyiv, where extraordinary events are rare. It’s 31 May, and many children and teenagers have gathered in local cafés and McDonald’s, celebrating the end of the school year. It would seem like a peaceful city life if not for the constant threat of air alerts and missile strikes.

Sovsun, though, worries about serious issues. She, like other MPs, is trying to ensure there are enough bomb shelters for students, that tourniquets are made properly, and that the national school curriculum includes the topic of Ukrainian defense.

And while troops fought the invaders on the ground in early 2022, Ukrainian parliamentarians fought in the international arena, rallying support for their nation.

“When we traveled abroad the first year, the most interesting thing was explaining that we have a parliament, it meets, we vote. Many of our Western partners didn’t know this because only the president and footage from the front were shown by the media,” Sovsun, a Ukrainian MP from the oppositional party Holos and Ukraine’s former Education Minister, explains.

With her husband serving as a combat medic and an 11-year-old son in Kyiv despite missile attacks, Inna Sovsun discusses parliamentary challenges, the war’s impact on children, her high school defense education reforms, and strategies for Ukrainian victory. Here are the key takeaways of our conversation, in her own words.

The role of the parliament during a war

In the first months of the war, the task of parliament was not to pass laws but to demonstrate that Ukrainians exist and that Ukrainians are united, Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun says.

As the war dragged on, adopting new laws and amending existing regulations also became crucial. Those related to the war are passed first. The second priority is everything related to Ukraine’s EU integration — these are marked with an EU flag symbol on the agenda.

“In the last two months, we’ve passed many laws. Some are very minor, and sometimes, they’re things that have been hanging in a committee for years, just not brought forward. Sessions take place three days a week, every other week. This is a much more intensive schedule than before, and we’re voting on about 20 laws or changes at a session. This is actually a lot,” Sovsun said in June 2024.

Allies should provide Ukraine with the maximum means to ensure victory rather than a prolonged war

She says the Western support of Ukraine is insufficient because it only allows Ukraine to keep its defense but not liberate occupied lands and quickly end the war. “It is necessary to mobilize those resources that can be mobilized now to ensure a quick result.”

“At some point, I started to get irritated by the phrase ‘we will support Ukraine as long as it takes’ because it became an excuse to prolong the support indefinitely. Give us everything now so we can win faster. Because while we keep playing ‘as long as it takes,’ my life passes by.”

If Ukraine had everything it received from Western partners in 2024, two years back, in April-May 2022, the level of losses would definitely be much lower, and perhaps the war would already end. Sovsun emotionally says that in that case Maybe Ira Tsybukh would have survived, a 25-year-old Ukrainian military medic killed in battle on 29 May 2024, whom Sovsun used to teach at university.

“I read at night on 30 May that Biden allowed shooting at Russian territory. If this decision had been made two days earlier, maybe then Iryna would have survived. She was my former student. This is a huge loss for the country. She was one of those who would have built a better Ukraine afterward. But she didn’t survive because consultations were needed to decide whether it was possible to defend the Kharkiv region by shooting at Russian territory. This is not strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is accumulating maximum forces and means to ensure victory as quickly as possible.“

How Sovsun’s 11-year-old son experiences the war

Sovsun’s son, Martyn, is 11, and he continues living with his mother in Ukraine during the war. Twice, Sovsun took him with her on a three-day business trip. Once, she took him to the sea despite having little “internal strength” to do it. “I thought that the child wouldn’t have a second childhood. And I have to do this for him because who else will take him if not me?”

Both Martyn’s dad, Sovsun’s ex-husband, and her current husband serve in the army.

Martyn lives with Sovsun in Kyiv, his school has a shelter. He can go to school, unlike 60,000 children in Kharkiv who haven’t been to school for five years because of the shelling and earlier because of coronavirus. Most schools either lack a shelter or have one that is too small to accommodate all the students. Then, the children study on a rotational basis, one week at school and one week online.

“Compared to other children, he’s much luckier,” Sovsun says. “Compared to how we’d like it to be, of course, the very fact that my child comes from school and says, ‘Today there were no air raid alarms, such a good day.’ Or ‘Today there was only one alarm, it is normal.’ This is, of course, unacceptable. Childhood shouldn’t be like this.”

On the morning of 10 October 2022, Russia conducted one of its most massive missile attacks against Kyiv, targeting Obolon district, where Sovsun lives. She heard loud explosions nearby. At first, she decided to wait with her son in the bathroom, behind two walls, which had to save them from shrapnel in case of a close explosion. However, later when more explosions erupted nearby, she decided to run to the metro.

At that moment, Martyn looked at her and said, “Mom, am I going to die?”

“I will never forgive anyone involved in putting my child in a situation where he was forced to ask this question.”

When they reached the metro, Martyn stopped and asked, “Mom, is this a regular bomb or a nuclear one?”

“Don’t worry, it’s a regular bomb…” Sovsun replied, uttering the strangest sentence in life.

“Well, just in case, they told us at school what to do if it’s a nuclear bomb,” Maryn said, looking a bit disappointed.

It was just the disappointment of a child who wanted to boast to his mom that he had learned at school about the situation and knew what to do.

“These things are, of course, very scary. The fact that he knows the experience of air raid alarms,” Sovsun comments. “Talking about reality and not scaring the child is a very difficult balance. On the one hand, a child should have a childhood, on the other hand, a child should understand the reality.

During wartime, MPs in Ukraine had no additional security outside the parliament, living just like everyone else.

“I continued to commute to the parliament by metro, as I had been doing before the war. I constantly ride the metro because it’s faster, more convenient, and cheaper. And I’m not the only one in the parliament doing so,” Sovsun says, irritated that wealthy MPs or someone’s corruption are always highlighted in the media, unlike “normal” MPs. And this distorts the public image of the parliament and politics, she believes.

Reform of defense education in high schools — one of many examples of wartime laws

In January 2024, Sovsun gathered a team to completely rewrite the program for the subject “Defense of Ukraine,” which historically was in the curriculum but was practically of very low quality and importance, often informally replaced by other school activities. The program was separate for boys and girls.

The team completely rewrote the program, making it universal for boys and girls and modernizing it. Instead of the obsolete and unnecessary study of military charters, the new course provided practical knowledge of first aid, how the army functions, and how modern technology, such as drones, is integrated there.

“We tried very hard to balance between two points of view,” Sovsun explains. “On the one hand, requests were made, especially by some military personnel, that this should be almost a young fighter’s course — providing basic training, after which you’re ready to fight. On the other hand, some said this is just a course to talk about values. We tried to find a balance in which, on the one hand, we don’t militarize children, but on the other hand, are a country at war, and people should have a general understanding of what war is, what different circumstances can be, and how you can help and react. Because we found the balance between these two opposite points of view, both radical groups hate us, but the new program is balanced.”

The law approving the new program was passed in May 2024. Afterward, the Ministry launched teacher training and created centers in the regions where studies will take place since September 2024. The government has allocated UAH 100 million ($2.41 million) for teacher training and UAH 1.4 billion ($34 million) to purchase equipment such as tourniquets, mannequins, weapons, and drones.

Western countries mostly don’t have this subject, only specialized military high schools. “Because they don’t have a crazy neighbor,” Sovsun comments. “Although in their place, I would think about it. In Israel, there’s a similar model because it’s a country in a permanent state of war, so for them, it’s closer.”

A decision about tourniquets: minor parliamentary regulations that save lives

Last summer, volunteer organizations started saying that the Ukrainian army has a problem with the quality of tourniquets and first aid kits. The problem was dire: a low-quality tourniquet, a contraption that blocks intensive blood loss, can fall apart at the most crucial moment. This leaves the wounded warrior to bleed to death.

The issue fell under the scope of the parliament, which is responsible for regulations regarding tourniquets’ certification.

Sovsun then entered a working group that searched for solutions. “I have my beloved doctor-surgeon, and I have access to free, good expertise, specifically in military medicine. We then found another solution: we don’t need to create a new certification system but simply recognize those tourniquets that are recognized in the US Army. If Ukrainian tourniquets also want to be included in this list, we created an opportunity for them to submit their certification to the US.”

The law was passed in February 2024. Afterward, uncertified tourniquets cannot be purchased.

Another military-related proposal by Sovsun was adopted just a week before our interview. It involved a seemingly minor change—replacing a dash with a comma—that had significant implications. Previously, the regulation stated that only humanitarian aid provided to servicemen with UBD (Participant in Combat Operations status) was exempt from taxation. This meant that if a serviceman did not have UBD, they had to pay tax on aid received. As a result, many recently mobilized soldiers who had not yet participated in combat could not receive supplies from volunteers without being taxed. The small amendment to the law expanded the list of aid recipients to include all military personnel.

The issue of the new mobilization law

Ukrainian parliament adopted the new mobilization law after long debates on 11 April 2024, widening the categories of people eligible for mobilization. This rapidly increased the number of recruits, albeit many military representatives still criticized the law as too weak.

Sovsun says that the problem with this law was that the president removed himself from the debate. He didn’t want to be in charge of the unpopular decision, although this was his responsibility as commander-in-chief. He appoints the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, while all other ministers in Ukraine are appointed by parliament.

Like many in the military, Sovsun thinks the new law is too weak and lacks specifics regarding the term of service, which is currently defined vaguely as “until the end of the martial law.”

“I don’t hide my personal bias in this situation,” she says. “I’m thinking now, a new summer is starting. I’ve spent two summers without my beloved husband because he was constantly at the front for two summers. And now I’m thinking, will it be the third summer and then the fourth that we’re not together? Some small conversations about let’s go to the Carpathians for five days — you can’t even plan this. There’s no such luxury, while 90% of the country has it. And to say that even super-motivated people aren’t affected would be a lie. The injustice of this distribution of burden hits the psyche very hard. And it’s just physically difficult for people who are fighting constantly because their health deteriorates from each day of war. And they become less effective as warriors.”

Sovsun, like many other oppositional MPs, believes the term of service during martial law should be 36 months. To ensure this is possible, more categories of people should be mobilized to replace part of the current personnel. However, the presidential Servant of the People party, which has the majority both in the Parliament and in the defense committee, does not support this opinion.

In addition, the current law exempting all state officials from mobilization irritates many in Ukraine and sparks populist discussions such as “sent MPs and their children to the front first.” The latter phrase was even directly promoted by Russian propaganda on Ukrainian social media.

Sovsun admits shortcomings of the law regarding officials but mocks those who point at MPs as an excuse to avoid mobilization: “Every time I hear discussions about how the children of all MPs should go to war, I say that first, my son is 11 years old, and second, there’s not a single MP who you didn’t vote for.”

Should Ukraine conduct elections now that Zelenskyy’s presidential term has ended, but martial law prevents elections?

Currently, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has strong influence in the parliament but not because of the martial law. It is because his own party in the parliament received a strong majority from the Ukrainian voters in 2019. Before, it rarely occurred in the Ukrainian multi-party political system that one party controlled the government.

“If we lost the election, in the sense that our party got a minority, then laws are passed by those who have the majority. The ‘wise Ukrainian people’ made their choice. That’s how democracy works,” Sovsun says with irony, considering the governing political party Servant of the People populist. She believes education is the only way to nurture a more serious attitude toward politics and understand that elected people will make decisions that will affect everyone.

At the same time, she admits her party can often propose laws that will be passed, like in the cases mentioned above.

“In practice, having a situation in a European country where laws from the opposition are passed is actually very difficult. This is how it works. If Democrats control Congress, then Democratic laws are passed. All Republicans can do is somehow influence through political discourse. In fact, the case that sometimes laws from opposition MPs are passed in Ukraine is rather an exception to the norm for European democracy. I sometimes manage to get some laws through, and I feel like, ‘Oh, cool.’“

She believes the best political solution when elections are not possible is a unity government. First, it would remove political tension in parliament. Everyone would feel that they’re involved in the process and that they bear responsibility for it. Second, the current government objectively lacks personnel. The unity government could involve professionals from the opposition.

How can a democratic Ukraine, with its pluralism and liberal laws, win a war against the Russian authoritarian machine?

Sovsun says unity is crucial for winning. At war, it is necessary to clean the slate, stop slinging mud at each other, and focus on what we can do here and now. “I think that our biggest problem now is populism and ignorance. Everyone talks about corruption, but it’s an exaggerated problem. The problem is that we’ve learned to criticize but don’t always find solutions.”

“Democracies find it difficult to wage war and to do unpopular things, but somehow, we need to preserve both democracy and the country,” Sovsun says. “And it’s very hard to do both at the same time. But we need to struggle through and, I think, work on explaining to people that we will win only together or we will all lose together.

We won’t win because the same old people will keep fighting at the front. We won’t win because the same old people will keep donating [to military fundraisers].

We will win when everyone does at least 15% more than usual. A little better. Not just energy workers, not just emergency workers, and firefighters. The military is doing 300% more. But it doesn’t mean that if someone does 300% more, someone else should keep going as usual. There are too few of us for this. The math doesn’t add up.

Everyone can find a way to contribute, instead of looking for excuses or waiting for others to make victory happen. I have a friend who, before being mobilized to the army, went to weave camouflage nets every Sunday. Every single Sunday. She felt this was her contribution. Everyone can find something meaningful to do. My approach is to try to make an impact wherever I see an opportunity.”

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