How do they prepare food? The bomb shelters are not heated, so they are cold. The residents don’t even leave the bomb shelters. As I understand, for the last several days the bombings and skirmishes have continued non-stop both night and day. At first, the attacks only took place at night, from airplanes.
The Russians have taken control of half of the city. It’s a miracle that there are generators. My dad wrote to me and said that they are sleeping on concrete floors. They’re not in ruins, because they were built in Soviet times with very thick walls. But these bomb shelters are totally unequipped, there are no amenities there. My parents helped re-open one of the bomb shelters in town. At that point people went to hide in bomb shelters.
Then it became clear that things were getting much worse. On the first day of the bombings, people stayed in their homes. It was just sitting in the middle of the street, this 500 kilogram bomb. I saw a picture of a bomb that landed in Izium but did not explode. There have never been any military bases there. I don’t know why they are attacking Izium. The center of the city has been hit really hard. I look at pictures from Izium now, and it’s all bombed out. We played soccer every single day when I was a kid. It’s a town where you can live not in front of a computer or television, but instead go for walks. We used to go foraging for mushrooms and fishing. I used to get on my bike, ride to the beautiful Donetsk River and then ride on a path along the river. Izium in recent years has been in economic decline, but nonetheless there’s a certain comfort. I’ve now been in LA for almost three months. While there I received an invitation to go work in New York. I went to college and graduate school in Kharkiv. All my childhood friends from Izium are still there. I’m from Izium, Ukraine, and have been living in the U.S. What follows are reflections from Ukrainians, Russians, and a Belarusian who now live in Southern California and grapple with the events unfolding back home. Three people who were originally set to be photographed withdrew, citing concerns over Russia's fifteen year prison sentence for those who criticize the state, and repercussions for family members. Others lost friends in arguments about the war. Some struggled to make contact as relatives lost electricity they waited for news from those in battle zones or from those who had fled.
#Russian collection hcn. series#
Many people Stella spoke to for the series worried about family in Ukraine and Russia. This is the third in a series of five stories. Russian-Ukrainian American photographer Stella Kalinina interviewed Ukrainians, Russians and others from former Soviet states living in Southern California about their personal experiences and reflections on the war. This story was originally published by KCET and is republished here by permission.Ĭalifornia is home to roughly 112,000 people of Ukrainian descent, and about 26,000 live in LA County.
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