"The Other Battlefields"

"The Other Battlefields" captures the enduring fight for freedom, dignity, normalcy, and hope among Ukrainian youth. These stories collectively reveal the lasting impact of war, leaving visible or hidden scars that will shape their lives.

"The Other Battlefields" shows the lasting impact of the war on Ukrainian youth, providing a glimpse into their realities almost two years into the conflict. While coming of age is usually synonymous with broadening horizons, friendships, and adventures, it is a different story for many. The war with Russia shattered these expectations, replacing them with danger, death, depression, and uprooting.

In this essay, shattered lives and fading dreams unfold, along with hopes that resist the surrounding darkness. Each image is a fragment in a larger mosaic, reflecting the realities and scars of this wounded nation.

It was in June 2022, in Odesa, that I became aware of the profound impact of the war on the new generation when I saw this symbolic scene of young graduates organizing an artistic performance in response to the Russian brutality taking place in Bucha and their loss of freedoms imposed by the war. What impact will this war have on their lives and, more broadly, on Ukrainian society in the making?

Among these stories, the visible scars serve as obvious reminders, but beneath the surface, hidden struggles, both physical and mental, are also revealed. Although they do not occur on traditional battlefields, these battles embody the ongoing fight for freedom, dignity, recognition of their identity, the search for a new-found normality, and a belief in a better future.