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Pavlina, 24, says she thinks about guns in the way she thinks about first aid; it's ones' responsibility to know how it works. Pavlina and her family narrowly escaped the atrocities of Butša, which led her to purchase her own gun. Pavlina posing for a portrait at her home in Kyiv, where she now lives. There's only one channel visible on Volodymyr's, 67, television. When he is done with his daily tasks, he lays down on his bed and watches it for hours until he falls asleep. Being outside in the frontline city of Kupiansk does not feel safe, so he rather chooses to stay inside. Volodymyr tells how he once saw from his window a missile flying by. Most of the people from his apartment building have evacuated, but he has stayed. It has been his home for almost 60 years. Russian positions are about five kilometres away. Dull rumble of artillery fire shakes the ground once a while. Saša stops to have a smoke inside a self-propelled howitzer before he needs to shoot again. The team adjust the direction of the fire a couple of times before it hits its target. Faces look blank; one could not tell they have just succeeded in the task they were given. A mass burial site in Izium that was in September 2022 a media hotspot for a couple of weeks, had by January 2023 turned into a landfill of hazmat suits. About half of the bodies that were dug out from the site were still not identified and more bodies had also been found around the city. On the grave site the silence of the now forgotten scene was interrupted occasionally by explosions of demining happening in distance. Pathway through the bushes leading soldiers to their firing positions in Kupiansk. Friends Dmytro and Viktor in a communal kitchen of a damaged apartment building in Izium. The kitchen now served as a home for Dmytro, as most of the residents of the building had fled. He heats the space with the three gas stoves and sleeps on the corner of the room. Broken window has been fixed with a plastic cover. Dmytro and his friend Viktor were sharing a meal and watching Russian tv-series from a phone placed on the table. Despite the war they have not started to boycott Russian culture. They also reminded that they have been under crossfire, suffering from bombardment coming from both sides. Due to hars winter winds the Ukrainian flag near to Mother Ukraine statue in Kyiv was lowered. Later, in November, it was reported to have been ripped in half in stormy weather. Olga, Vitali and Svetlana working for a charitable organization Peaceful Heaven of Kharkiv (Мирне Небо Харкова), bake some 500 breads a day to assist the people living in the war-torn city of Izium. A missile attack has just left the whole city of Kharkiv without electricity. A message from home front has reached frontline. This one, where the horse is hoped to help to bring victory and save the soldier in the case there are hardships on the battlefield, was seen in the house where soldiers were accommodating in Kostiantynivka. Sakke couldn't bear the news that civilians were brutally killed and decided to leave to Ukraine to do his part to stop it. Everything in his life in Finland was good but he left it and joined the International Legion. The photo was taken during his interview in Kostiantynivka, where he was positioned at the time. Sakke told that he is planning to stay in Ukraine as long as the war would require, but got injured in the battles shortly after and returned to Finland in October. Home, work and relationship gone he wondered how to start to build his life again. He told he had learnt he is not immortal. Who controls bridges, rules. The constant game of destroying and rebuilding is visible throughout the areas where fighting has taken heavy tolls. This scene is from January 2023 from Izium, which Russia controlled almost half a year before Ukraine managed to recapture it in September 2022.


Ukraine, 2023 / for Helsingin Sanomat
© Saara Mansikkamäki 2025