Today, we inaugurate a room dedicated to addressing the ongoing conflict since February 24, 2022, since the beginning of the “special military operation” that Vladimir Putin’s Russia used to attack the Ukrainian republic. 29-year-old Bogdana Ruda, who has been volunteering with a unit of the Ukrainian army for months, tells us about the reality in the besieged country and about life today in the cities destroyed by Russian artillery bombs. His family is a guest at a reception center in La Morra is. To accompany her on this journey, her colleague Andrea Olimpi, with the task of collecting her testimonies week after week.
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December, it’s late afternoon and I decide to pay a visit to the children of what is actually a small community of Ukrainian refugees who have been visiting for months, one of those that take place around Christmas time, at friends and relatives’ facilities for cared for Living in La Morra in the Langhe.
I enter the great hall with the intention of helping put up the Christmas tree, amidst running children, laughter, mothers fiddling with colored baubles, and fairy lights almost everywhere. On the side a girl, blue eyes and red hair and a big smile. He has a Nikon around his neck and now and then stays to the side, taking photos but not rushing, calm, always looking for the right observation point. We introduce ourselves. Her name is Bogdana, she was born on September 6, 1993 in Kyiv. With her in La Morra are her mother and their young son Peter, who has just turned 10. She arrived at the facility a few days ago, it’s Friday evening and she explains to me that she will return to the Ukrainian capital on Sunday.
[Bogdana Ruda a La Morra – Ph. Barbara Guazzone]
Let’s rewind the tape. It is late 2013. Bogdana is a student attending a high school in central Kyiv when she takes part in the demonstrations related to the so-called “Revolution of Dignity” or “Euromaidan”: the government of the time decided to suspend her Association Agreement with the EU, which would have allowed free trade with the rest of Europe. In its place, it wants to implement an alternative Russian proposal for a customs union. In a few hours, thousands of people will take to the streets of Kyiv. In the next three months, they will become hundreds of thousands, who will demonstrate in the squares of the country’s main cities. They are mostly students and young workers peacefully expressing their dissent. A revolution reminiscent of what was shortly before the USA was “Occupy Wall Street”, but here the protests are soon violently crushed.
[Regione di Kiev – Citta di Irpin. Giugno 2022]
Bogdana witnesses these riots. He may not fully understand the political implications, but he gets a clear idea: “It was a matter of dignity for all of Ukraine and beyond. No one can take away a people’s freedom of expression, certainly not by force.”
Shortly thereafter, the so-called “Donbass War” begins, the conflict that actually led to the current war with Russia. When this conflict erupted in 2014, many of his friends decided to go to the front lines, and those at home began to implement forms of volunteerism to support those involved. She decides to do it herself.
Over time – continues his story – many gradually return to civilian life. Unfortunately, some never come back, and the forms of volunteering are gradually decreasing.
“Meanwhile, I too have returned to my normal life – explains Bogdana –. My son grew up, went to school, I devoted myself to work. In the meantime we decided to travel to Ukraine with some friends. It’s incredibly beautiful here. We have organized tours west to the mountains, north to historical sites and south to lakes and the sea. It was very inspirational. Every city has its own charm. We hiked, saw a lot, took photos, filmed and created a page on social media where we all told our paths to share these experiences with others.”
[Regione di Kiev – Citta di Irpin – Giugno 2022]
Let’s go back to the present. Bogdana trained as a translator, but dreamed of journalism. A purpose partly cultivated through the creation of video-photographic accounts of his travels and partly realized last year. He got a job at a company where he wrote about cars and, more specifically, wrote articles about vehicle inspections and certifications in Ukraine. While everything seemed to be flowing as in the normal everyday life of each of us, some military friends tell her that a new war is about to start.
“I prepared mentally – she says – I had a minimal plan, but I didn’t really believe in it. I really hoped it wasn’t like we were going to be laughing about it anytime soon. But no.”
On February 24, he was with his mother and son at their apartment in Kyiv when they were awakened at 4:25 am by the sound of an explosion. One of the first rockets fired at the country crashes 600 meters from his home.
[Regione di Kiev – Citta di Irpin – Giugno 2022]
“The same evening we were evacuated from Kyiv with my mother, my son and two cats. We haven’t returned to our house for a month and a half. We stayed away from the city while terrible fighting took place in the suburbs. So I decided to get back into volunteering, to do my bit for the country, but also to try to banish the scary thoughts I was having, especially when thinking about what was going to happen next.
A short time passes and some friends ask her to join a unit of a volunteer military battalion. She should have taken care of the communication, the documentation of what was happening. “I agreed – she explains – I took my mother and son back to Kyiv, where things have since calmed down, and I joined the unit. A month later, when the fighting in the Kyiv region ended, the group changed its area of operations.”
At that time almost every city in Ukraine was hit by shells, there was no completely safe place. Bogdana returns home to his family. He decides that mother and son should move abroad for a while just to be on the safe side. “I think children shouldn’t know what war is themselves, they shouldn’t hear sirens and explosions, they shouldn’t hide in bomb shelters, they shouldn’t see such horrors with their own eyes.”
[Regione di Donetsk, Chasiv Chr. Un condominio colpito da un razzo di un aereo. Luglio 2022]
He accompanies his family to Italy. They end up in the structure of La Morra where they are still guests. She returns to Kyiv, grabs the camera and joins the military unit. “I filmed their training, I spoke to soldiers, I lived their lives. In July we moved to eastern Ukraine, to Donbass. We spent two months near Bakhmut in Donetsk region. Then we went back, unfortunately not all. Two of our soldiers are dead. The boys from the unit went to study again and I returned to Kyiv. This is where I started to process all the material that I could record and photograph.”
He then began touring cities filming the aftermath of the war until December 3 last year. “It’s my son Peter’s birthday. I decided it was okay to spend it with him. He turned 10 and we hadn’t seen each other for six months. We missed each other very much.”
This is where our chat stops for now, we arrived today. Bogdana left again, having returned to Ukraine. Together we decided to produce a joint report, a diary from the bombed country, in order to tell you, the readers, with one article per week, the drama of a war conflict experienced from within.
Bogdana Ruda/Andrea Olimpi
[01 – continua]
[Regione di Donetsk, Chasiv Yar. Luglio 2022]