He had no children of his own. But when his brother was killed, he took responsibility for all eight of his brother’s children.
Volodymyr was just 24 years old. He wasn’t married, had no children of his own, and just six months earlier, he had been fighting on the front lines. Today, he is a father to eight children.
This story took place in 2023. Volodymyr Dubrovets, from Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, was defending his country in the Donetsk region.
But when the unthinkable happened, his life changed completely.
He recalled going to the military recruitment office on February 24. He had never served in the military before, so they didn’t take him immediately.
He waited one week, then another. Nobody called. Eventually, he found an announcement online about an operation to break the siege of Mariupol and traveled to Zaporizhzhia. He then spent nine months fighting on the Donetsk front.
And then tragedy struck.
His older brother and sister-in-law were killed. They were driving home when their car skidded off a slippery road onto the shoulder and hit a landmine.
The explosion was so powerful that a soldier at a checkpoint three kilometers away had his phone knocked out of his hands. Almost nothing remained of the car.
His older brother, Petro, was 38 years old. Petro’s wife was just 31.
They left behind eight children. The oldest was 13. The youngest, little Marichka, was only two months old.
At first, the family thought their older sister could become the children’s guardian. But she couldn’t. Then they considered their parents. But their father was 70, their mother was 60, and there were eight children to care for, including a newborn.
That’s when Volodymyr said he would take them all.
He was only 24. No wife. No children of his own.
But he wasn’t afraid.
He had been helping care for the little ones for years. He knew how to change diapers and prepare bottles. And whenever he couldn’t manage everything himself, his parents, sister, and brother stepped in to help.
What worried Volodymyr most wasn’t himself.
He wondered whether he would ever find someone to share his life with. Maybe in a year. Maybe in ten years. But finding a woman willing to accept eight children…
He didn’t know whether that was even possible.
But one thing was certain. He would stay with these children until the very end. Not just until they turned 18, but for the rest of his life.
He had become both their father and their mother.
That year, Volodymyr celebrated his first Father’s Day. And the children congratulated him.
They proudly explained that their new dad could do absolutely everything.
He could build a birdhouse, cook borscht, fly a kite, play soccer, read bedtime stories, warm up soup, play checkers, and take them fishing.
They called him the best dad in the world.
Volodymyr smiled.
He still didn’t know whether he could handle everything that lay ahead.
But he already knew one thing for certain – he would never abandon them.
Source: translated from Oleh Bairak.