Ivan Sarancha, 18, who left Luhansk after 11 years of living under occupation, stands in front of a memorial for the fallen at Maidan Square - where the pro-Europe uprising known as the "Revolution of Dignity" took place in February 2014 - in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 26. Anton Shtuka for NPR hide caption
KYIV, Ukraine - Ivan Sarancha was 7 when Ukrainian literature and history classes disappeared from his school. That was in 2014 after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and began to foment separatist unrest in his eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.
Sarancha says he was too young to realize what was going on back then. But his eyes were fully opened with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine eight years later. By then Sarancha was 15. He says he was deeply shocked by Russia's destruction of the port city of Mariupol and its massacre of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
"I began to develop critical thinking," says Sarancha. "I watched the Russian news and compared it with Ukrainian and American news that I could see using a VPN [an online virtual private network]. And I figured out what was true and what was false. It was just common sense."
That's when Sarancha also began to think about running away from occupied territory to free Ukraine.
The story of this shy 18-year-old's escape from enemy territory to what he calls "the country and culture of his birth" has turned him into a media star and is inspiring a war-weary nation. It's also giving Ukrainians a rare glimpse at life in a region that has long been cut off, as well as a small dose of hope.
Ivan Sarancha sits in his room in a dormitory set up by the charity Save Ukraine, in Gatne, Kyiv region. Anton Shtuka for NPR hide caption
The tall, long-haired youth smiles and offers a soft "hullo" - the extent of his English - when he meets NPR for an interview in Kyiv. He's standing in front of the apartment building where he is staying with other Ukrainians who have fled towns along the front line. He says he took big risks to leave a largely peaceful home with his parents.
Sarancha gives the interview in Ukrainian. He says he now feels uncomfortable speaking Russian - spoken in his hometown of Luhansk- preferring instead to speak Ukrainian "as a matter of principle."
Much of his short life has been under the shadow of Putin's war on Ukraine. His region of Luhansk, and neighboring Donetsk, became gray zones when Kremlin-backed separatists declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 and held referendums to proclaim the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics.
At the time, Sarancha says he was too young to realize that provoking chaos and instability in Ukraine was Putin's revenge for the pro-European uprising in Kyiv's Maidan Square months earlier known as "the Revolution of Dignity."
A memorial for the fallen in Maidan Square, in Kyiv, where a pro-Europe uprising known as the "Revolution of Dignity" took place in 2014, which led to the Kremlin's interference in Ukraine. Anton Shtuka for NPR hide caption
Sarancha says an atmosphere of fear pervades everything in his hometown of Luhansk, the capital of the region of the same name.
"There is basically no political or public activity because any opinion for or against anything could get you in trouble," he says.
Sarancha says people are most afraid of being taken to a place known as "the basement" for interrogation.
He says his hometown changed dramatically after the full-scale invasion.
"Many Russians started moving to Luhansk, and for the first time we had traffic jams," Sarancha says. "On my way to school one day, I counted more than a hundred Russian flags along the main street. It really shocked me. There were even flags with Putin's face on them."
