Bakhmutka, Donbass, November 2016. Masha’s dacha and her family. Originally, it was their house in the countryside where they met up every summer. They lived there together from the time they left Horlivka in April 2014 until their new exile following the large-scale invasion in February 2022, in particularly difficult conditions: no water or electricity, just a few kilometres from the front line. The village was regularly hit by Russian strikes and is now annexed.
Bakhmutka, Donbass, November 2016. Artem, aged 5, is the only child in the village. He plays on an old Lada abandoned in his garden. In Ukraine, school starts at the age of 6.
Bakhmutka, Donbass, November 2016.
Bakhmutka, Donbass, November 2016. Masha and Ira cooks by candlelight. In this village of around twenty inhabitants, there has been no electricity since several years.
Bakhmutka, Donbass, November 2016. Ira fetches drinking water from one of the two wells in the village. There has never been running water in their dacha.
Bakhmutka, Donbass, November 2016. Masha in front of her little house. The windows have been blown out many times by nearby explosions. They have been replaced by tarpaulins.
Bakhmoutka, Donbass, novembre 2016. Sacha négocie un passage avec ce char ukrainien. Pour quitter Bakhmoutka – village très isolé – la route est peu praticable.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, November 2016. In September 2017, Ira decided to leave his family in Bakhmutka to move, with his partner Sacha, to Ivanhrad, a village 6 km from Bakhmut. They bought the cottage for $2,000 to get away from the front line and get closer to a school for their son Artem.
Invahrad, Donbass, November 2016. At the time, the inhabitants of this village in the Donbass were receiving both Ukrainian and Russian radio and TV channels. Sometimes Ira watches Russian TV. “It’s like a medal with two sides. I watch Ukrainian TV for information, but to understand the situation I watch what the Russians are saying about us”.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, November 2016. Sasha and Ira prepare tvorog to sell on the market. on the market. Since they arrived in this region, they have made a living from farming. Ira takes his cows out every morning and brings them in for milking every evening. So, three times a week three times a week, she sells her butter, milk and tvorog at the market. With this she earns between 800 and 1,000 hryvnia a week (between €25 and €35).
Ivanhrad, Donbass, January 2022.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, June 2018. Sasha and Ira are resting at home. In this particularly isolated Donbass, the days are long.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, May 2018.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, May 2018. Artem and Ira.
Bakhmutka, Donbass, May 2018. As soon as they arrived in their dacha in Bakhmutka in April 2014, Ira and his family began growing fruit and vegetables to support themselves their needs. After a year of war, Masha had used up all her savings. Ira repeats that it was humanitarian aid that saved them.
Bakhmutka, Donbass, May 2018. Ira cries during a meal with his brother Sacha and his mother Masha. Ira left Bakhmutka a few months earlier to live several kilometres away in Ivanhrad with his partner Sacha. She is finding it hard to separation. The two villages are isolated and very difficult to reach.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, June 2018.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, June 2018. Artem
Bakhmutka, Donbass, June 2018. Ira spends a lot of time cooking to fill his days. Due to a lack of funds, they are unable to leave the region, which is still in the throes of violent fighting. So, since 2014, they have been living to the rhythm of the war in Donbass.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, June 2018.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, June 2018. Artem, aged 7, plays with what he finds in his garden.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, November 2018. Over the years, Sasha and Ira have restored house. They have changed the windows, installed a shower and a kitchen, freshened up the walls and landscaped their garden.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, January 2022.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, January 2022. Sasha, Ira and Zlata. Ira breastfeeds her daughter Zlata, born in September 2020 in Bakhmout.
Slaviansk, in eastern Ukraine, January 27, 2022. The former cultural center which was destroyed in 2014 at the height of the fighting.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, January 2022. Sacha is at home watching the news on television. Rumours of a large-scale Russian invasion are multiplying.
Ivanhrad, Donbass, January 2022.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024. Ira’s phone shows a photo of his house in Ivanhrad, completely destroyed. The house was bombed in August 2023. They received the photo from Ukrainian soldiers who had moved into the house next door in April 2022. Today, Ivanhrad is under the control of the Russian army.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024. Portrait of Ira in his flat. Today, with her husband Sacha and two children Artem and Zlata, they live on the outskirts of Dnipro in this former communal flat that they rent for 10,000 UAH a month (€240). Ira misses her garden and her native region. She doesn’t feel at home in a city that isn’t hers.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024. Artem and Zlata.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024. The view from the family flat.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024. Artem spends a lot of time online. He plays with his friends, but he also goes to school. Because the city is regularly bombed, lessons are divided between lessons are divided: one part at school, the other online.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024. Portrait of Masha, aged 63. She rents this furnished apartment with her son. In despair, she can’t collect her pension because all her papers are left in her house in Bakhmout. Since her arrival, she has been receiving monthly assistance for internally displaced persons of UAH 1,580 (around €40). Her son Sacha works in a shop next to their flat.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024. Ira and his daughter Zlata. Ira looks after his daughter full-time. In Ukraine, school starts at the age of 6.
Dnipro, Ukraine, February 2024. Ira and Masha. Ira, who lives a few kilometres away, visits her mother regularly. They tell us how they cried when they images of their town, Bakhmout, completely destroyed.