War seen in person looks less terrible than on television. However, when I notice that I am becoming less sensitive and danger stops arousing fear in me, I know that it is time to go home and decompress. MAREK KĘSKRAWIEC: In your texts about the war in Ukraine, you rarely share your own thoughts, you don’t make yourself the star, you give voice to the protagonists. This …
In Bakhmut, medics’ vehicles wait hidden under thick layers of earth and concrete. Artillery fire almost never ceases and every bit of the city is within its reach. They come by minibus. A piece of paper with the number “300” stuck to the window means that they are transporting the wounded. They stop. The two medics do not get out. Fear and confusion are painted on their …
After months of fighting for the city, the few inhabitants of Bakhmut are struggling to survive—without water, electricity or gas, and with winter temperatures. The street is dead. Its landscape is made up of concrete apartment blocks, rubble from hit buildings, broken glass and remnants of rockets. And the corpse of a dog covered with frozen snow, from under which you can see a dead eye, a …
During the war, the Ukrainian railway has become one of the pillars on which the state rests. It evacuates civilians, transports weapons and brings hope. Only two letters remain from the inscription at the station: “BA”. Beside it there is a haunting hole, probably made by the shock wave. The platforms are empty. There are wagons, probably stuck here for a long time. At least for half …
The inhabitants of Kherson greet the Ukrainian soldiers who have recaptured the city after more than eight months of Russian occupation. They also tell stories of Russian violence. Our correspondent, Paweł Pieniążek, is one of the first foreign journalists on the spot. Loud music, dancing, shouts of joy mixed with tears. People gathered in the central square of Kherson wave blue and yellow flags, drape themselves in …
The inhabitants of Kherson do not want to think about the problems they will face. Today they want to enjoy their regained freedom. First, there were problems with electricity in the city–more and more frequently, until there was a complete lack of supply. It was the same with water and communication. Ukrainian telephone networks have not reached here for a long time, and now Russian ones have …
The wide and mighty Dnieper river separates the two warring armies, which fire missiles and rockets at each other. On the right bank is positioned the Ukrainian army, which had recently recaptured the city of Kherson and a large part of the Kherson oblast. On the left bank–the Russians are on the defensive. It was the sound of the Dnieper’s water that Roman heard when, during the Russian …
You don’t need to read the news in a field hospital. The wounds of the patients show what is happening at the front. One of the doctors perched on a stretcher. A group of medics was also waiting at the entrance. This hospital, formerly civilian, was first abandoned due to the ongoing war, and then occupied by medical units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They had earlier …
In places regained by the Ukrainian army, police units look for saboteurs and collaborators, search for abandoned weapons and clear roads. The man has a winter hat pulled over his head. At eye level, it is wrapped in duct tape advertising a logistics company and cafes selling croissants. Policemen in military uniforms walk around the man. One of them pulls Russian license plates from Crimea from the …
To this day, Serhiy does not know where his mother hid it. Volodymyr hid it in a cupboard. Julia in a shoebox. Now they proudly parade in the streets with the flags. He doesn’t even know how the old tattered flag got there. For as long as 17-year-old Serhiy can remember, it hung at the gas station where his father worked. The latter was the one who …
