In the Shadow of Ukrainian War: Stories of Survival

I could tell you about the long journeys delivering supplies in Ukraine, the sleepless nights, or the dark humor that became my shield against the constant presence of war and the conversations about death. But those aren’t the things that keep me up at night. I hear the silence that follows, the kind that comes when you’re standing in front of a shattered home or a hospital that’s no longer standing, where life used to pulse but is now replaced by haunting stillness. I hear the echo of voices that once spoke of everyday things like work, school, or love, but now only whisper stories of survival. These are the things I carry with me.

I heard stories in a place that many would describe as a wasteland — a city that once stood tall and proud, now reduced to rubble by relentless bombing and shelling. A city that is 90% destroyed, where buildings are mere skeletons of their former selves, their walls crumbling, half collapsed, scattered like broken memories across the streets. Yet, somehow, amidst this devastation, there are people who still love those walls, who cling to the remnants of their homes, as if by doing so they can hold on to the lives they once knew. These are people who have seen the unthinkable, who have lost everything except their will to survive. Their faces are marked by unimaginable grief, eyes that had witnessed atrocities that no human should ever have to endure. Some had watched as their loved ones were taken by monsters — soldiers whose cruelty seemed boundless. And yet, these survivors still stood…