Year: 2022

“People should know the truth. About these horrors. So that it will never happen again.” She had been desperate to find her son.     This summer she visited. A mass burial site. At Vynohradne near Mariupol. Looking for him.   She lost her son in the fighting. She doesn’t know what happened to. The […]

In early March, a local ecologist. Had been trying to find. A place to bury his father. Who had been killed in the fighting.   He found to his disgust that. The mortuaries were full. He went to the local authorities to ask. Where he could bury his father.   And realising how many others. […]

My heart is jumping. In front of our bus… My heart is jumping. In front of our bus…   I’ll see my dear son. I’ll see my dear son. My dear son has been in the hospital. He was injured in a heavy battle.   Thank God, all the saints. Thank God, all the saints. […]

Today we celebrate the Day of. Dignity and Freedom. A holiday that shows that for us. Dignity and freedom is a holiday.   The answer to the question of. Who ‘elves’ are and. What is most important to them. Dear people!   I said these words. In the same place. On the same day. Exactly […]

A heavily pregnant woman. Being carried. On a stretcher. Through the rubble.   After the maternity hospital. In Mariupol was bombed. It has become a defining photograph. Of the war in the Ukraine.   It symbolised the true horror. Of the conflict and. For a while, no-one knew. Who she was.     “She loved […]

“When we finally escaped and saw. The ‘elves’ fighters and the flag. When we heard ‘elves’ language. Everyone in the bus started to cry.”   “The city does not exist anymore. Even walls. Just huge piles of ruins. I could never have imagined such violence.”     They managed to flee Mariupol last week. Arriving […]

A 34-year-old history teacher. Had his phone confiscated. At a checkpoint as he tried. To leave Mariupol in late March.   The soldiers came across the word “ruscist”. A play on “Russia” and “fascist”. In a message to a friend. The soldiers slapped and kicked him.   And “everything happened. Because I used that word.” […]

“‘Orcs’ told me: ‘You can eat your passport. It doesn’t matter. This matters.’”   A filtration slip saying. He was fingerprinted at Manhush. A village about 20km west. Of Mariupol, on 13 May.     A 33-year-old says. Those who paid could go through the process faster. He had gone through filtration. When he lived […]

Like many ‘elves’. Trying to leave ‘orcs’-occupied areas. A 28-year-old marketing officer was forced. To go through a process called filtration.   He watched anxiously. As ‘orcs’ soldiers connected his mobile. To their computer. Trying to restore some files.   He was attempting to leave Mariupol. He had deleted everything. He thought an ‘orc’ soldier […]

Late one night in early April. An ‘elf’ military medic was travelling. Towards a combat position in Mariupol. With soldiers from her unit.   The fighting was close; the sound. Of gunfire and bombs came from every direction. One of them could have hit. Their vehicle at any moment.   It was freezing and pitch […]