Kiev- Life Under Siege

Dates

2022 - Ongoing
Author

Nikos Pilos

Having worked several times in war zones in the past, I have always had a special appreciation for those people who remain in their homes during the bombings. This is their voice.

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, I had very serious doubts about whether I wanted to cover it. A week later - and while everyone was waiting to see the Russian army take Kiev - I realised that this is the first war in Europe and the first war in the 21st century without any ideological bias - that is, it is clearly geopolitical.

When history is written, people's stories are lost. The big agencies and TV networks focus on the war zones, the shelters, the stream of refugees - the “hot” news. The big picture that one sees in a crisis, a disaster, a war is likely generic, perhaps even stereotypical - and it certainly does not delve into people's lives.

I wanted to approach people's stories and how they reconstruct the big picture. I'm interested in understanding how war has turned their lives upside down, how they think, what they want, what they fear. To illuminate their collective and individual trauma.

Having worked several times in war zones in the past, I have always had a special appreciation for those people who remain in their homes during the bombings.

I went to the east side and the west side of the Dnieper, to five different apartment buildings representing three different historical periods: the tsarist, socialist and independence periods.

I met people of all social groups and classes. One introduced me to the other and for 15 days we lived together ( the third and fourth week of the war, during the bombing of kiev).

I did not just watch as an observer who comes, takes pictures and leaves. The shots were taken inside these peoples homes during the overnight curfew and air-raid sirens. They shared their food, their home and their thoughts with me.

This is their voice.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

19/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. View from the window of a neoclassical house of the Tsarist period, on Hoholivska street just after the curfew has begun.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

20/03/2022, Kiev, Ukraine. 2. Miazo Diniz Astanisca, 31 years old. I am a photographer and editor. When the war started I was on my way to work. My supervisor called me and said "if you don't come I understand". So I didn't go, I started packing some emergency stuff in a bag. I didn't understand what was going on, I was doing it mechanically. I saw people panicking and I froze. I tried to think about what people do in situations like this. Now I live in the present, I don't know what's going to happen so I don't make plans for the future. I sincerely believe and hope for our victory, but I understand that it will take time and however long it takes, I think the outcome will be victorious. I can't know what's going on with the Russians, it's like they’re living in another universe. I tried to talk to my friend in Russia to explain the situation. He told me that everything I say is a lie. My parents are in Crimea and they don't know what is happening. When Russia entered Crimea my mother got a heart problem and since then we have agreed to talk only about other things, about life, about work, not about politics or war. I try not to explain to them what is going on. We talk every day but not about the war, they don't experience it in their daily lives.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

24/03/2022 Kiev, Ukraine. Alina Shapran, 26 Actress, designer and illustrator “Today I went into a café and I heard music – I wanted to cry, I could not believe that I was listening to music! I cannot allow myself to live normally and enjoy life while a war is going on. Spring is around – flowers are blooming and birds are singing – and I cannot enjoy it… Now I don’t look at anything beyond the end of the war, I don’t have any thoughts. I feel like I don’t exist. I should not feel hatred, but unfortunately in order to win you must also feel that. When I see videos with young Russians saying that they didn’t know where they came to, I understand, I feel worried about them. This is a dangerous moment: I try to forgive them but I know that I shouldn’t because the next day they can easily kill somebody. So I try to suppress all these feelings of compassion for them. I have put good clothes on for this photo. In the beginning I was like homeless and sick – then I realized that I can’t be afraid in my own house. My personal resistance is to get dressed, put on my makeup and take care of my appearance.” Alexander Alexandrou, 31 Illustrator “Society has changed much. Today we were helping with someone else to maintain a monument. I went out in the sun and suddenly explosions started, we looked at each other and felt such a great union! This unity will be, I think, the feeling of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine must be in NATO, but it seems they don’t want us there. Thus we must build our own union for our defense with other countries – certainly Poland, Turkey and the UK. I believe that the EU is slowly deteriorating, Britain went out, and France and Germany do not behave with much self-confidence. The EU is weakened at its foundation. I don’t know if now is the right time for Ukraine to join the EU.”

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

23/03/2022. kiev, Ukraine. An old lamp from the communist period, at the house of Margarita Slepchenko, on Ipsylantievskyi provulok 3 str.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

19/03/2022 Kiev, Ukraine. Aniet Odoneva, 60 years old. I came to Kiev in 2005. I have a very strong character, I can leave the city or the country if necessary, but from the second day of the war I decided not to leave this place. Diplomacy must be successful, negotiations must continue and I hope Russia will lose. I was sure we would have a war long before it started and I was right after all. I have always been a very well organized person. I have everything planned out: when I will sleep, when I will eat, when I will call my friends to tell them that I am still alive. It's a tough schedule, but I follow it to the letter. I'm very active on social media, with various profiles through which I keep in touch with people. If I don't respond, they start to worry, so I try to be as active as possible. Through them, I encourage my colleagues to keep working and to not be afraid. And I think I'm helping them, I'm helping my partners move the work forward. Editing books is a long process, it's not done in two days. It takes 1-2 years and I promised myself I wouldn't stop trying. I think Russia should stop existing in the form it exists now, because we cannot have such a neighbor. We should continue negotiations, I have no opinion on Donbass and I don't know how it will end. But in the capital, I believe, we will manage.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

24/03/2022, Kiev, Ukrain. Margarita Slepchenko, 82 years old I was at home when the attack started. I couldn't believe it for a moment, you know I was born in Leningrad, I survived the siege. I was one year old. I couldn't imagine that my city would create such a monster like Putin. My father died in the first days of the Nazi attack. On the 70th anniversary of the siege we were invited to visit St. Petersburg to visit the graves of our relatives. And there were many of us from Kiev you know, we were discussing the events, their memories of the dead in the streets. We, the survivors, are still a community here in Kiev. My husband was a policeman and he was one of the first people who went to Chernobyl and was exposed to a lot of radiation. I don't see any point in going to a shelter in the basement of the building, we will just be trapped there. When the explosions are loudest, I move to the centre of the building away from the windows. I believe in God and I believe that Our Lady will not let anything bad happen to me. I choose to live a little in my own world, I just close the curtains. I ask the neighbours how bad the situation is . I have relatives in Russia but since the war started I have not received any phone calls. [...] I am not very involved in politics, but I was not a Zelensky voter, I was against him, I voted for Poroshenko. But I think he’s doing what he can now and I am at peace with him.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

24/03/2022. Kiev,Ukraine. Marina Klivaskaya, 47 Phycologist “The night before the war broke out we had opened up a Champaign to celebrate our moving into our new house. It was four o’clock in the morning when we heard the first bombs. It was a shock! I wanted simply to run far away. I don’t leave, simply because I can’t. My roots don’t let me go. My father is very sick and we have pets that we cannot abandon – we just got a small puppy. We should we go away? They should get out of our country! We are awaiting, on the basis of the European ideals, military help and more sanctions against Russia. The weaker Russia is, the easier we will live, and we will be accepted into the European family. We have participated from the first moment in the Meidan manifestations. There are no changes with only positive or only negative impact. We succeeded then to enrage Putin. And we realized that we have the right of choice. If the years went by, the independent media would disappear and we would end up to be like the energetic and democratic Russians who at this moment are being prosecuted. Putin has made a psychological mistake both with Meidan and the war: He has the illusion that at our root we are the same with Russia. In Meidan when one was falling, ten rose. We tasted victory and the nation was reborn. Then, many people were watching what was happening from their TV screens, events were local; now they are massive. We managed to have the right of choice and to speak out. My message to Putin is to drop dead! He is a man that can destroy everything in this world. We should have faith in our country, in our people and that things will be better, different. It will be a developed, beautiful and above all a free country.”

© Nikos Pilos - 21/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Building complex at 221 Pidizd street in the Obolone district, close to the war zone of Ιlpin.

i

21/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Building complex at 221 Pidizd street in the Obolone district, close to the war zone of Ιlpin.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

20/03/2022, Kiev, Ukraine. Sofia Sulipeva, 14 years old. I miss my friends, we ask each other how we are every day. We can't go for walks like we used to, but they are happy to stay in their homes and not in shelters. Mostly though, I miss being active like I used to be. Now I sleep until noon and I don't go to school anymore. Then I go for a walk and come home. I don't do anything substantial. Sometimes I go out with an older person to a store - I can't get around much on my own - and it's good to let off steam. We cook every day for all the people who live here, talk and sleep again. I want to tell all the young Russians that this will all be over soon and not to have Putin as their idol. In the future they should handle things differently.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

21/03/2022 Kiev, Ukraine. 7. Dennis Buotko, 28 from Kiev. I used to serve in the army, then I decided to change my career and become a programmer. A few days before the war started I took my three cats to my mother's house north of Kiev, on February 23. On the 24th the war started. We could hear explosions. I started packing my things and was heading back to Kiev to join the army. My friends who were already there told me that there was a traffic jam on the roads, so I decided to wait a few hours. I waited until the afternoon and we heard that something was happening in Chernobyl but from where I was, I couldn't understand what was going on. Finally, early the next morning, I set off for Kiev. Locals were telling me that the bridges were blown up and I turned back. When I got back I contacted my wife to direct me on what to do to get back. I wanted to enlist as soon as possible, but I couldn't find a way and every day it was getting worse and worse. We had trouble accessing the internet, power, water and cell phone network. Now things are bad and people are suffering. There are difficulties with the health care supply and pregnant women who do not have access to a doctor. I found a way to get help to leave and find a car. Yesterday I finally arrived in Kiev. I was surprised. It was like a horror movie. Now I wanted to fight because I was angry. How this will turn out, depends on what the Western countries will do, but Ukraine will fight anyway, although we do need the support. I think something deeper has started, maybe it is the beginning of a Third World War. I do not know what the next day will bring for Ukraine. Some Russians understand what is happening. Others don't, but they certainly will when they “smell” the stench of war. I don't think those who left are traitors. Some left for their own reasons and when your country is at war it is not everyone's role to be at the front line. Traitors are those who help the enemy.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

23/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Dimitri Diatlov, 35, with his mother Elena. “I knew that it was going to happen. I felt anger. It was four in the morning and we were sleeping quietly. At one moment there were explosions in Vande. We went out in the hall. The window glasses started breaking when three rockets hit the factory. There was much smoke and fire – fortunately it didn’t reach our house. Suddenly the day turned into night. Everything darkened. We didn’t go down to the shelter. If something happens there too, I think it is not properly equipped for us to stay there. If you sleep in your bed and something happens and you get up, it is almost impossible to come down. There are only two walls and nothing else. I am half Russian and I could never imagine that people there have become such zombies and they would believe anything it is ‘sold’ to them. I keep talking to my brother in Russia; he understands everything but they can’t do absolutely anything. Putin is a unique dictator whom we will remember for many more years. History does not forgive, and should never ever forgive what has happened. People do not forget what has happened here. We might forgive the Russian people sometime but Putin never. Now we live day by day. I don’t believe that in the future the country will exist as it is now, it will be a different society. People have been united much, very much. There has never been such a mobilization and gathering. All people know what they are living for.”

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

23/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Tania Pretsika 28yo I studied art in Kharkiv and now I live in Kiev. I work for a hotline answering calls. It's hard to express how I feel. I want to continue to exist as before. There should be colour and not this bleak landscape. I'm very frightened when I hear explosions. I'm afraid for my brother who is in Kharkov. I don't know what will happen. I'm staying here and will continue as long as I can. A lot of people need help protecting our homes. Everyone in my family is strong, we have a common cause. We've got a black sense of humour about what's going on. We talk to each other, we argue, but it's not serious, now we're united in order to get through it. The last time I saw my boyfriend was on the first day of the war. He's a cameraman and he's at the front line covering the events and I don't know if I'll get to see him again. Every day I talk to my parents to let them know I'm alive. They're not in Russian-occupied territory at the moment, so I'm not too worried yet. I'm more afraid for my brother who is fighting. I don't know where it will end up. They're not behaving humanely, I don't know how far the Russians will go. I have lost contact with three people in Mariupol, I don't know whether they are alive or not. Some Russians may understand, they may have demonstrations for us but it's not enough. The fact that Putin is sending people here to kill and die shows that he is insane. And he has support from the majority of the Russian people and that scares me the most, that he will continue unabated. The Ukrainian people will never forgive the Russians. I hope that the war will end in a month or two, but I fear that it will last for years. I understand the people who are leaving, I cannot judge them, it is their own decision. The hardest thing for me, in these 24 days of war, is to wake up every morning. To wake up and realize every day that I am not living in the world I lived in before, knowing that my people are okay. I want to remain human.

© Nikos Pilos - 22/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Corridor in the Building Complex at 221 Pidizd Street in the Obolon area.

i

22/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Corridor in the Building Complex at 221 Pidizd Street in the Obolon area.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

23/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Max Nikoporenko, 38 y.o. Three days after I returned from vacation the war started. I went to Vasilkyv, because my parents are there and I wanted to help them. The town was being severely bombed because of the fuel depot. It was very frightening but I stayed for a week. Then I returned to Kiev and since then I visit them weekly. I decided to stay in my apartment because I read somewhere it is better to stay where the conflict begins. Not even in the basement because this is not a bunker and it is dangerous to be buried under the rubble. I am afraid but only women and children needed to leave. The men who left, some of them my friends, are cowards. I heard that some people who are in safe places are enjoying themselves I don't have army skills or have ever used guns. Since the 2014 escalation the Ukrainians were not united because the Westerns were more pro-Ukrainian and the Easterns were more Pro-Russian. But after the invasion the Ukrainians are united.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

23/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Lydia Kartuchena, I have, a daughter, 8, and a boy of 12 months. I was hearing rumours about the war but I didn't believe it. . The first day the children got fever and we moved to the bathroom where we were sleeping on the floor for some days. We heard the sirens and the explosions nearby. I am alone with two children. My husband is a sailor and was to return on the 24th but he couldn't. We decided to stay in the house. With the help of our neighbors we have supplies.To make my kids avoid the fear I pretend that all of this is a game. Since the war started there is solidarity between the people. Before it wasn't like that. I never felt protected in Ukraine compared with other European countries I lived in. As for NATO the promises they made were all bogus. They didn't send the help they promised. Although my mother and my grandmother are Russian, and we always thought Russians and Ukrainians had a lot in common, I had to stop contact with them completely. And that hurts.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

24/03/2022, Kiev, Ukraine. Julia kanak 32 I was at home sleeping because I work at night, that day I had switched the sound of my phone and in the morning it was full of messages from my friends and my family telling me that there is war. When my friend of 20 years in school and university called me to tell me to hear the bombing, I realized that something is not good (sobbing)…. This is how I got to know there is war. Then I called my neighbor, we walk our dogs together, she was super scared she wanted that we take any car and the dogs and leave. My friend packed her things and left and after many adventures she arrived in Netherlands where her daughter lives and now she is calling me every day. As for me, I was from the first day 100% positive that I should be staying as long as possible, till the end, till the last day. And that is the feeling I still have, although I am from the western part and my whole family lives there in a super safe area, no airfields or military factories. But I still feel that I want, need to be here. My small personal story is that my boyfriend, my fiancé, is in London now and the war started and I suppose that he got scared and he is not coming back, he did not come to take me, he had a ticket on Saturday29 and on Monday the war started. The first week I was 100% he would come back, but he didn’t. So this situation for me was more scary than the war itself, I am not used to be alone, I was always with someone, even staying at home alone in the apartment is very scary for me, so I had to go to Usis with my crazy dog Boco. I am peace minded and I could not accept the fact that any person in his right mind would start killing people with no definite actual reason. There were rumors that a plane would accidentally be hit, that we would be blackmailed to a war, but in reality nothing happened, there was no fault of the Ukrainians, nothing, no reason. The war happened out of nowhere, no reason. And the explanation that we are Nazis (laughs..) or who we are is not adequate at all.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

23/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Detail of the building complex at 221 Pidizd street in the Obolone district.23/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Alexi Doseyev Retired, 69 years old. Works as a security guard in a car park. Tatiana Doseyva - 68 years old, retired secretery. A. We don't go down to the shelter, we believe in fate, whether it will be life or death. We're going to stay here. It's hard to say why we haven’t left. I was surprised when it started. In those years, back during the USSR, my wife and I were working for the Union defense industry, earning barely any money and making equipment for a company that made microchips for missiles. It's hard to express an opinion on what happened; how we got to this point. Especially for this stupid country, Russia, because Russia has always been aggressive towards us, always looking down on us, always up to something. I watch the news all day, we do nothing else. We thank the West and the United States for helping us. We have to push this country back (Russia) and break it up. Because in 10 years, if they exist like this, they will start a new war. It's a terrorist country. Τ. I would not like to say anything good about the Russians. They don't understand the reality and what's going on here. I have a lot of anger towards them. Especially the people from the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union where I used to work, I can no longer have any communication with them. I'm sure they don't know what's going on here. They are cut off from any source of information about the war and even with the people I talk to, they say, "but what war are you talking about? Everything is fine with you". They don't understand that there is a war going on here. And those who do understand, tell us that what is happening to you is happening to you because you were killing the people living in Donetsk and Luhansk. We concluded that they are crazy and we cannot understand each other. All we want is to win and stop this war. We can't let these punks go on like this, because if we let them, in a few years they will start the same thing again.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

23/03/2022. Kiev, Ukraine. Alexi Doseyev Retired, 69 years old. Works as a security guard in a car park. Tatiana Doseyva - 68 years old, retired secretery. A. We don't go down to the shelter, we believe in fate, whether it will be life or death. We're going to stay here. It's hard to say why we haven’t left. I was surprised when it started. In those years, back during the USSR, my wife and I were working for the Union defense industry, earning barely any money and making equipment for a company that made microchips for missiles. It's hard to express an opinion on what happened; how we got to this point. Especially for this stupid country, Russia, because Russia has always been aggressive towards us, always looking down on us, always up to something. I watch the news all day, we do nothing else. We thank the West and the United States for helping us. We have to push this country back (Russia) and break it up. Because in 10 years, if they exist like this, they will start a new war. It's a terrorist country. Τ. I would not like to say anything good about the Russians. They don't understand the reality and what's going on here. I have a lot of anger towards them. Especially the people from the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union where I used to work, I can no longer have any communication with them. I'm sure they don't know what's going on here. They are cut off from any source of information about the war and even with the people I talk to, they say, "but what war are you talking about? Everything is fine with you". They don't understand that there is a war going on here. And those who do understand, tell us that what is happening to you is happening to you because you were killing the people living in Donetsk and Luhansk. We concluded that they are crazy and we cannot understand each other. All we want is to win and stop this war. We can't let these punks go on like this, because if we let them, in a few years they will start the same thing again.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

23/03/2022, Kiev, Ukraine. Daria Kristinova 27 years old. She worked as a PR manager at various festivals. My life has changed a lot. All my projects have stopped. We're told not to go out of the house unless we have a reason, only for shopping, or if you have to walk your dog. Life as we knew it before just stopped and now everything is closed. I am now involved in some volunteer projects, but they are all mostly internet related, so I do them from home. Psychologically it's hard to stay at home all the time, so sometimes we cook for other people. I wouldn't say anything has changed dramatically in society. The people have united, but we already had this unity in 2014 when the first war with Russia started. I know that in the end, Ukraine will win. It is not just hope. It is very difficult for me to answer questions about my future. As became clear in the last 3 weeks, you cannot predict anything in life and it is difficult for us to make any plans for the future.. What I want to say is that Putin is a very, very dangerous man, because he is unpredictable. The policy he follows has no rules at all, like Western leaders have. Putin has his own fantasy and he is trying to realise it without thinking about Ukraine, his own country or the world as a whole, as long as he achieves his ambitions. We could easily compare him to Hitler; but compared to Hitler, the latter may well have been more rational. We consider Putin a greater threat to the world than Hitler was at the time. I have no message to send to the Russian people. They like their reality at the moment because Putin is trying to convince them that he is a super power, that he is trying to save them from the evil West. Russians may be living in very bad conditions, without having food or even lacking the basic necessities, but they feel this sense of glory that Putin is trying to provide them, to feel proud, to feel like the world fears them.

© Nikos Pilos - Image from the Kiev- Life Under Siege photography project

i

20/03/2022. Kiev Ukraine. View from the window of a neoclassical house of the Tsarist period, on Hoholivska Street, shortly after the end of the curfew.

Latest Projects

Project

Salut Maman
Project

What did they think when it got dark?
Project

La Otra Orilla
Project

Weapon of Choice
Project

BILE
Project

Geographical Lore