Mykyta Shandyba

“What’s the name of those creatures in Harry Potter that Luna Lovegood says only appear to you after you’ve seen death? Well, whatever they are, we’re all gonna be seeing them now forever.”

“Through our work, we want every single living member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to know firstly, no matter who you are or how you were killed, we will get you home. And secondly, we want every enemy soldier to know: we will find you, and we will make you pay for every single body you see here strewn across the ground. There is no escape, and there will be no mercy.”

The first thing that stood out in Druzhkivka—a frontline city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region—was not the destruction. It was the people. Despite near-daily Russian drone attacks, FAB bomb strikes, and artillery fire, thousands of civilians still remain in this frontline city, trying to survive another day under constant threat.

Forty years after the explosion at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the zone is defined by the silence that remains after. Streets disappear into the forest, homes crumble into dust, and nature quietly takes back what was left behind. This is Chornobyl today.

People have gathered, anxiously scanning the horizon for the buses carrying the released prisoners. For many, today is the day they will finally get to embrace their loved ones after years of Russian captivity.

Every night and day, surgeons from the 3rd Army Corps’ 4th Separate Medical Battalion race against time to save the lives of fellow soldiers. Our team spent 24 hours with them, sharing their grueling routine and their relentless fight to deal with the gruesome consequences of war.