The sense of war

The Sense of War is an ongoing documentary project about war without an official status or recognition which gains momentum right in the middle of Europe, in Ukraine. You can see it and feel, but it’s still easier to pretend blindfolded to numerous deaths, grieves and lives damaged.

I started documenting war in Eastern Ukraine from its very beginning in early April 2014, when the crisis in Donbass turned violent between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian officials in Donetsk and Luhansk oblast, home to 15 percent of the nation’s population.

The violence has left at least 2,877 soldiers killed since the start of the anti-terrorist operation Ukrainian Security Service reported.

Moreover, some 6,500 civilians have been killed and almost 10,000 wounded as the United Nations estimated. Over a million people were forced to leave their homes due to shelling.

The war crimes from both sides such as looting, executions to death, prisoners of war and tortures, kidnapping and killings of local people and political activists remain unpunished.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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A woman sits in the bus as she just got evacuated from the embattled Debaltseve village together with other dwellers of Donetsk area, Ukraine.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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The body of one of the passengers is marked with barrier tape near the crash site of the Boeing 777, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed during flying over the eastern Ukraine region near Donetsk, Ukraine. A Malaysia Airlines plane with 295 people on board crashed at 17 July in eastern Ukraine, and both the government and separatist rebels fighting in the area denied shooting it down. All passengers on board Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur are dead.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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Armed pro-Russian militants pass next to the wreckage of a Boeing 777, of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 debris, which crashed during flight over the eastern Ukraine region near Donetsk, Ukraine. A Malaysia Airlines plane with 295 people on board crashed on 17 July in eastern Ukraine, and both the government and separatist rebels fighting in the area denied shooting it down. All passengers on board Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur are feared dead. The plane was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members, the airline said.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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Rescue workers carry the bodies of the passengers of a Boeing 777, of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed during flight over the eastern Ukraine region near Donetsk, Ukraine.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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Oksana "Mama" Shakhray rests in her room in a military hospital in Bakhmut, in the Donetsk area of Ukraine, before leaving to her hometown Odessa on leave. The military commandment forced Oksana to take a break as she spent more than 3 months at the war zone which is too much. Oksana is a paramedic at the medical unit of Ukraine's National Guard. She joined the army voluntary because she knew that her 27-year old son might be mobilized and she wanted to be there for him if something were to happen to him. Oksana believes that besides medical help soldiers also need psychological help from people "from there," from a same conflict zone to understand them better and to whom they could trust. There are no military psychologists with soldiers in the war zone on a regular basis. Military psychologists come to the front line periodically to check the situation in the units, but they are based in military bases outside the war zone.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - A view of a kindergarten that was shelled in Debaltseve, Donetsk area.
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A view of a kindergarten that was shelled in Debaltseve, Donetsk area.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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Yulia Novomlynets, 18, waits in a line to receive the humanitarian aid in the local Palace of Culture which is used as a bomb shelter in Mironovka village, near Debaltseve, Ukraine.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Local residents of Popasna village, Luhansk area stand in a line to receive the humanitarian aid.
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Local residents of Popasna village, Luhansk area stand in a line to receive the humanitarian aid.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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A man takes part at a Solidarity demonstration in central square of Donetsk, Ukraine. The participants of the demonstration were given for free the flags of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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The portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin are seen at the wall of a destroyed with shells rehabilitation center for alcohol and drug addicts in Sloviansk, Ukraine.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - A woman and a man hide in a basement during the shelling of Debaltseve, Donetsk area, Ukraine.
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A woman and a man hide in a basement during the shelling of Debaltseve, Donetsk area, Ukraine.

© Anastasia  Vlasova - Image from the The sense of war photography project
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A child played cards in the local Palace of Culture, used as a bomb shelter during fighting between the Ukrainian Army and Russian-backed militants in Myronivskiy village, near Debaltseve, Ukraine.

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