Year: 2022

  The Russians are shelling Kramatorsk. During one of the nighttime attacks, 25 civilians were injured. It was after three o’clock when two loud explosions rang out. Viktoria, 54, went outside to smoke. She quickly finished her cigarette because it was chilly out and went back to bed, covering herself with a duvet. A moment passed. There was a flash, a boom, and dirt, glass and rubble pelted …

  The Russians are preparing for a major offensive in the Donbas. Missiles and rockets fall on front-line towns every day. Shot-up and burnt-out buildings, broken windows, rubble scattered all over, the thunder of cannons and the whistle of missiles have already become part of the landscape of Severodonetsk, the temporary capital of the Luhansk oblast. Until recently, over 100,000 people lived in the city. Now less than …

  The situation in the Donbas is worsening. The authorities are appealing to the inhabitants to leave for safer regions of Ukraine. Over a thousand people wait for evacuation trains at the station in Kramatorsk. Among them, women, children and the elderly. Men of draft age only come to escort their families, help them with their luggage and depart after giving them a hug. Families stand in line. …

Thousands of Kharkiv residents hide from the war in metro stations. They hope to return to their homes soon. There is not much free space at the large Heroiv Pratsi (Heroes of Labor) metro station. About eight hundred people take refuge here. The policemen who keep order say that at its peak there were over two thousand. According to 33-year-old Marina, it was hardly possible to get in …

  At least 10 million Ukrainians had to leave their places of residence. They dream of seeing them again. Two days before the Russian attack, Maria and Dmytro nervously paced the apartment, smoking cigarettes one after another and changing their minds every half hour: whether to leave Kharkiv or stay? They bought tickets for a train to Lviv just in case. They chaotically slipped things into suitcases and …

  After weeks of uncertainty, the inhabitants of the Ukrainian capital are slowly coming out onto the streets. They are seeking the life that the Russian offensive tried to destroy. The 31st of March. One of the first warm days in Kyiv this year. For more than a month, the threat of a Russian attack has been hanging over the 3-million-strong capital of Ukraine. But the situation around …

Although the Russian army is already on the outskirts of the city, inhabitants of the Ukrainian capital try to find a new normality. They have already developed new bonds of solidarity. Not far from the city center, the trendy restaurant Dubler is very busy. Not a moment goes by without someone coming or going. Some bring food, others take cartons full of food. The chef and the rest …

  Despite pleas from their families, some people don’t want to leave the shelled city. Only when the war ends, or when they finally leave, will they feel what they lived through here. The phone rings more than forty times within three quarters of an hour. In addition, twenty four year old Tetiana Holubova receives countless instant messages; All from people needing help. Her number spread on the …

  For the second day in a row, the inhabitants of Kyiv were awakened by explosions destroying civilian buildings. It was almost five when the 62-year-old Kateryna was again closing her eyes. Minutes earlier, she had been awakened by sirens warning of an air raid or rocket attack. She did not go down to the basement, she was lying in bed. The sirens howl several times a day, …