Two Days with Kharkiv Rescuers: Reportage by Yana Kononova

— War is experienced differently in every city. In the frontline city of Kharkiv, what strikes me the most is the atmosphere – there is no sense of chaos or panic. The city is in a collected and tense state. There are few people and cars on the streets. For many Kharkiv residents, the war has turned into daily hard work.

Lately, I have been going there often. This time, my company consisted of my acquaintance, photographer Nicoletta Yurets, and American photographer Dom Marker, who was born in Kharkiv and is currently working on a project about Ukraine. We combined two missions: an interest in the work of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) and documenting war crimes related to the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

In the frontline city of Kharkiv, what strikes me the most is the atmosphere – there is no sense of chaos or panic.

We spent two days together with the rescuers, heading to the sites of recent shelling: a daycare center in the city center, the hotel complex “Misto,” the Printing House, and the private sector that had been hit on the first day of our visit. These objects were destroyed by spontaneous terror. There were no military targets; shots were fired, and that was it.

The rescuers we spent time with were constantly busy due to a high number of alarms and call-outs. In the past six months, they often had to literally live at work for several days. They are involved in clearing the debris and rescuing people from the rubble – it’s very challenging work. Kharkiv has many such units, and they respond promptly to all emergencies. Two of them were bombed at the beginning of the Russian invasion.

Now I continue shooting my black and white project Radiations of War. With its help, I try to find the image of this war, its specificity. The trip to Kharkiv was more of an impromptu decision. I was interested in capturing this reality on a digital camera, which provides a more immediate image compared to black and white film with its abstraction. I wanted to create portraits of people in the form of a diary. I also seek to find an answer to the question of how this method of documenting events can differ from journalism or if it can redefine it.

I was interested in capturing this reality on a digital camera, which provides a more immediate image compared to black and white film with its abstraction.