A city of anxiety and hope

Mariupol is a city flanked by the sea on the one side and the war on the other. Den’s journalists and photographers came there on a sunny day. It so happened that the war reminded people of itself precisely on that day, March 31, when an explosion in the heart of the city killed a Ukrainian counterintelligence officer. Accordingly, it turns out that the locals are living amid contrasting feelings and even convictions. Unfortunately, even the measured murmuring of sea waves cannot rid people of anxiety there, because the enemy is very close.

In the summer of 2014, when the Russian occupiers started to use their Mariupol puppets to seize administrative buildings, employing the scenario that had already played out by then in other eastern cities, a Ukrainian APC broke through their barricade, while our soldiers drove the thugs from the police building. One Ukrainian volunteer, who wore regular sports spectacles instead of tactical ones, lost his sight then, after small shards of glass hit his eyes when he was sitting in a tank. Doctors have restored his crystalline lenses to health, and the soldier sees the world again. Nonetheless, how many lives have been lost since, how many bodies and lives have been crippled where we lacked such resolute lads! This is why I feel my Luhansk heart pulsing with a particular heartbeat when I enter the city which I was just passing through on the way to the warm Sea of Azov in peacetime.

While visiting Mariupol State University, Den’s team, as usual, had the opportunity to talk with students about the photo exhibition and the book projects alike. The conversation was peculiar in that the students, unlike in some other eastern cities, were speaking more freely. One can say they were bold, as were their questions. Why was it so? The answer is obvious – they are not afraid that Russia will come from the direction of Shyrokyne, the former resort which has become a ruin. There is an armor-clad wall there. Meanwhile, Sloviansk lads, despite the fact that the front line is far more distant there, feel some kind of apprehension and are afraid of saying something that should not be said, if only because the city is still infiltrated with influential hostile elements despite the presence of Ukrainian troops.

“The more events such as Den’s photo exhibition are held in Mariupol and other cities of eastern Ukraine, the more confident will the locals feel themselves as they experience the care and protection provided by Ukraine as a whole,” said Mariupol resident Eduard Abdulkadyrov. “It seems sometimes that the government does not care about state-building. Accordingly, private citizens have to take on the state functions, such as in the case of blockade. What is the result of it? We see everyone starting to do something different, without a systemic approach, not always in the proper way, and often causing more harm than good. However, why did the government initially fail to take up the issue of the blockade and offer the relevant explanations? The same concerns other areas as well. Therefore, I would like to see the government of Ukraine to play some role in such events as Den’s photo exhibition or your book launches. The government should provide citizens with patriotic formation. When people look at your photos, they feel themselves to be just such citizens. National security begins with it. Otherwise, we will continue to build some ill-defined, unstable structure, and the enemy will exploit it and try to offer its scenario for Ukraine. What does that scenario involve? It already seems to be clear to all: they intend to destroy us, to turn us into a mere appendage of Russia, lacking memory and identity as citizens of Ukraine.”

Exhibition visitor Pavlo Khomenko, in turn, thanked Den for new names he had encountered there. “I was struck by the interview with philosopher Andrii Baumeister,” Khomenko told us. “Den educates its audience instead of chasing superficial fake sensations. I cannot recall a similar project with such a powerful informative, and most importantly, meaningful content. I hope that your books and photos will produce a qualitatively new generation, which would become the basis for the formation of a qualitatively new political elite, the latter being a highly problematic issue at the moment.”

“I really wanted to cry when I saw some photos. I saw there not only familiar places, but familiar faces too. Their eyes are lined with pain,” said 8th-grade student of School No. 15 Sonia Savielieva. “I come from Amvrosiivka myself. I have not been at home for two years. My grandmother has stayed there, but I cannot go and visit her. I remember well how we left home overnight. I was in the Ukrainian-language stream at school, and my teacher inculcated patriotic feelings throughout our studies. And then, the principal came to the class one day and told us to remove the flags. We had embroidered towels, Ukrainian paintings, and stylized folk design elements hanging in the classroom. The principal ordered us to remove them as well, since ‘officials’ of the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ were to visit the school. They did come to the school, assembled all students and teachers, and began to boast how they would take control of everything since they would be our rulers now. They presented it as a joyful occasion which we had to rejoice in. A week later, I was in Mariupol with my parents.”

This blonde youngster wearing an embroidered shirt has learned to speak strongly due to the current realities. When I asked her if she wanted to return to her hometown, Savielieva replied without hesitation: “No.” Having fled Amvrosiivka, she had to come there again to “pick up some things.” It turned out that their teacher, the one who inculcated patriotism, had defiantly laid the removed Ukrainian flag on her desk, so that the kids see, know, and remember. People living where the blue-and-yellow colors are not a sign of sacrifice can hardly understand how courageous her step was. Where is this teacher now? What is her fate after years of occupation? Has Ukraine brought her to safety? We know nothing.

The locals’ consciousness has undergone catastrophic changes over the period of occupation. Fear and propaganda have worked as intended. But most importantly, Russia has crippled Savielieva’s former classmates. She cannot even guess now when the situation will be resolved and what efforts are needed to ensure that all falls into place. She is convinced that the occupation was planned long before 2014. Talking with her, I recalled schoolchildren from Popasna. Unlike Savielieva, most of them returned to their Ukrainian hometown after a temporary occupation. Savielieva, meanwhile, had to leave her hometown and move to Mariupol, where eastern neighborhoods keep hearing explosions, which hints that the war is nearby.

Looking through the lens of these young lives, one can make a broad and multicolored mosaic. Their characters are changing; their worldviews are becoming sharply delineated by principles. All the while, true patriotism is being born in their hearts – here, in eastern Ukraine, near the front lines.