Mykyta Shandyba

“To my fellow Colombians: Russia offers you money, they offer you everything—and you die. The money stays there. We don’t want that. We decided to change this story, to get to Colombia and tell the truth.”

More than a thousand people gathered in Kyiv’s Ivan Franko Square on July 16 to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine’s Defense Minister.

“God, please forgive your sons. Don’t let anyone come to Russia because they are just selling themselves to go and die. Nobody is coming home.”

“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.