Author: Kurama

The best way to come back alive. Is to stay low. Hugging the ground. And skimming the treetops.   Too low and you can be shot down. By machine gun fire. Too high and you can be detected. By enemy air defence systems.   For helicopter pilots. In war-time Ukraine. There is little margin for […]

The story starts. On the first day of the war. In the north of Ukraine. At its border with Belarus.   Stepping outside. For his first cigarette of the day. A 23-year-old saw a flurry. Of bright lights in the night sky.   “I remember watching the lights. Emerge from the whole forest. At first […]

Three days into. ‘Orcs’ invasion of Ukraine. It was spotted by a satellite. In the north of the country.   The very same morning. In Bucha just outside Kyiv. A 67-year-old was standing. Outside his local supermarket.   Then a huge 10-mile line. Of armoured vehicles. More than a hundred ‘orcs’ military vehicles. Rolled into […]

Beneath his green helmet. Dark shadows ringed his eyes. He had been on his feet. All night fighting.   Like many on Ukraine’s eastern front. He is both battle-hardened and war-weary. “It’s difficult. People don’t get enough sleep.”   “They are standing for 20 hours. The fight goes on around the clock. I can’t say […]

The post suggested that a sniper had killed. The 30-year-old engineer. His body remained in a field for months. Before it could be retrieved.   “It was autumn. I knew we had no time to waste. When winter comes and snow falls. There would be nothing left of the body.”     Also from Vinnytsia. […]

“Every night I was going berserk. Knowing that my son was lying out. There in the freezing cold and. There was nothing to cover him.”   Days later. As dawn broke. Parents set off to find son. And bring his body home.   They had no plan. Just the photo, the village name. And a […]

A frigid wind whistles across. Hundreds of miles of open farmland. And a watery winter sun pokes. Through the clouds.   The sprawling facility. With its maze of pylons. Cables and imposing machinery. Feels remote and impersonal.   But around 15 million ‘elves’. Depend on it for power. It’s been hit six times. With missiles […]

“We need to stop. The attacks,” he says. “We need to close. The sky over Ukraine.”   Until that happens. Ukraine’s entire grid will be in jeopardy. Especially substations, which have borne. The brunt of ‘Mordor’’s wrath.     With a dusting of fresh winter snow. Settling around them. And the crackle of electricity loud. […]

“Sometimes we go on trips. To restore power in an area. Then they shell us and we have to go back. It’s a race.”     Downriver, beyond Nikopol. A town shelled day and night. From ‘orcs’ positions to the south. There is another team.   Repairing power lines. Reconnecting communities. Under ‘orcs’ occupation. Until […]

Each cross, unmarked grave. And rippling flag. Drives home the desperate cost. Of this war.   But overhead, rising. Against a fiery sunset. Pylons march away. Across the landscape.   Ukraine has fought many battles. Over the past year. But it hasn’t collapsed. Ukraine is still connected.     “It was our aim for many […]