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The Washington Post in photos: The war in Ukraine June 30, 2022

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Metaphor Online , trackback

In early February, two of my colleagues and I joined a group of Ukrainian special forces on the eastern front of the “Gray Zone,” a border between the area controlled by Ukraine and the area held by Russian-backed separatists. It was cold, wet and muddy. The soldiers toiled in the mud digging out bunkers and trenches. We stayed at their barracks in the half-abandoned town of Novotroitske.

Michael Robinson Chavez

Michael Robinson Chavez

Heidi Levine, in Kyiv, Ukraine

When I first arrived in Ukraine, just four days before Russia invaded, it felt as though everyone was still trying to desperately hold on to a fragile thread of hope that this horrific war could somehow not happen.

Within the very first days of the war, I witnessed and documented the largest exodus of refugees fleeing to bordering countries for safety since World War II. It felt as though people were running from a tidal wave crashing down on their lives, most leaving their sons, fathers, husbands and even grandfathers behind to fight for their country.

In the city of Irpin, people carried their children, their elderly, their disabled and whatever belongings they could take with them. Some often collapsed from the journey against the sounds of war and crackle of gunfire. Even their pets showed fear in their eyes as their owners tried to keep their balance while crossing the shaking planks of wood over the icy Irpin river. During one snowstorm, the images I made of an elderly woman covered in snow as her family struggled to push her in a supermarket cart made me wish to caption my photos with a single sentence: “What if this was your grandmother?”

Heidi Levine

Heidi Levine 1

 

 

Salwan Georges, in Kharkiv and Odessa, Ukraine

It was 5 a.m. on Feb. 24 when ground-shattering booms woke Kharkiv. At that instant, I knew Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had begun. I threw on my helmet and flak jacket, both with the word PRESS on them, and headed to the streets. Within hours, the platform of an underground subway station became a refuge for women and children. Family members embraced as the sound of explosions intensified above them. At a territorial defense center nearby, many civilians lined up to join in defense of their country. They filled the backs of trucks and were sent to the front lines to fight.

Salwan Georges

Salwan Georges

Salwan Georges

Salwan Georges 1

 

 

Kasia Strek, in Poland and Lviv, Ukraine

One night after the curfew fell on Lviv, I saw a family running through the streets. A grandmother with her daughter and her granddaughter, who was tightly clinching a doll to her chest. The terrified look on the little girl’s face caught my eye. There it was, three generations of women fleeing the war, while the men in their lives stayed behind to fight. In the last few weeks we met a lot of women and their children. All of them trying to stay strong.

Kasia Strek

Kasia Strek

Kasia Strek

 

 

 

Wojciech Grzedzinski, in Kharkiv, Bela Tserkva and Lviv, Ukraine

This war hurts me because it’s just around the corner. It’s on my country’s borders [Poland]. I have been there several times in the past years, working and having a good time. I have Ukrainian friends, and their life collapsed in the blinks of an eye. I’m not surprised how courageous they fight. I’m not surprised how well organized they are and how helpful they are to one another. Ukrainians are giving everyone an example of what the word “humanity” means. It’s an amazing lesson we all can use.

Wojciech Grzedzinski

Wojciech Grzedzinski

Wojciech Grzedzinski,

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