Kharkiv Under Fire

“We have known everything about war since childhood! We played war, read about war, watched films about war, and imagined ourselves as war heroes—as scouts, pilots, and tankers”

“Inexplicably, this time burst into our reality, bringing another—real—war, with bombings, rocket attacks, ruins, and nightmarish news about the dead and wounded”

“Life in the city has been reduced to its most basic functions. What matters is surviving, not coming under fire”

“It’s strange to realize that there are people just a few kilometers away who want you dead”

“For some reason, they decided that they had the right to do so, to decide how you should live and what you believe. A horde! An alien, evil will!”

“Cain has come to kill Abel again—by the tens of thousands! To pulverize them with artillery. Destroy them with missiles. Drop bombs on them. Shoot them with machine guns. Shoot them at point blank range. In the back of the head”

“The war has come home to me. Crimea, where I traveled almost every weekend, and Donbas, where I grew up and where my mother is buried, had already been taken away from me. Then they took Kherson, where I lived for 25 years, where my children were born, and where my best friends remain. And now the war has come to my doorstep again”