Ukrainian woman sews bulletproof vests in her living room

Ukraine war
Sewing for the war instead of for the wedding: Ukrainian woman tailors protective vests in her living room

The sewing machine rattles tirelessly in Irina Protchenko’s living room. For 50 years she worked in a factory on the outskirts of Kiev, tailoring men’s suits and coats for brands such as Hugo Boss and Lacoste. The 68-year-old recently said goodbye to her career and her well-deserved retirement.

After the Russian invasion of her homeland, however, she and her children and grandchildren began sewing bulletproof vests and balaclavas for Ukrainians. “I was supposed to sew tuxedos for weddings, not bulletproof vests,” she told CNN. She makes up to ten protective vests a day.

Every vest is celebrated as a victory

Protchenko is proud of her work – and sees every completed vest as a victory for Ukraine. “The greatest reward is when one of these protective vests saves the life of one of our fighters,” she says.

In the 68-year-old’s kitchen, her son-in-law Evgeny works on his own sewing machine. He makes up to 200 armbands a day in the colors of the national flag, which Ukrainian security forces wear to identify each other.

Other relatives and acquaintances lend a hand

It all comes down to a request from Vitaly Golovenko, another of Protchenko’s sons-in-law. When his son’s godfather went to the front and couldn’t find a bulletproof vest, Golovenko turned to his mother-in-law for help sewing such armors. They didn’t have a model for a real bulletproof vest, but they found videos and pictures on the internet and used them to design their own.

The materials they need for this all come from donations. Other volunteers also support the endeavor. For example, a local mechanic recovers scrap metal from old cars, which an engineer welds together. This is how the eight-millimeter-thick plates are created, which are sewn into the protective vests and are intended to protect the wearer from fatal shots.

source: CNN

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