In Ukraine, a Bakhmout family in the turmoil of war

Before it became the symbol of the resistance of the Ukrainian army, the city of Bakhmout was a lively city, with a pretty city center bordered by a river, green spaces and playgrounds for children. Locals came here to do their shopping or visit the large amusement park on the hill. In the evening, the young people met in Nyzhniy Park to drink beers, go to a restaurant or dance at the disco which was nestled there.

You could sometimes hear shelling, in the distance, on the other side of the border that has delimited the People’s Republic of Donetsk since the 2014 referendum. But on this side, very Ukrainian, life went on almost normally.

It was in Bakhmout, in 2015, that Polish photographer Simona Supino met the Kovalenko family. Swietlana, Miron and their children are living in a center for refugees. The Donbass war forced them to leave their village of Gorlovka, now under the control of pro-Russian forces. In this region, it is no longer a question of learning the Ukrainian language and culture. Little Oksana’s schoolteacher, who taught in Ukrainian, now tells her that this language never existed.

From left: Miron, the father, his daughters Marina (with her baby Danyil), Oskana, and Swietlana, the mother, in a center for refugees from the Donbas war, in Bakhmout, on September 2, 2015.
Ania, daughter of Swietlana and Miron, with her companion, on August 27, 2015 in Bakhmout.
Ola, the youngest of the family, in Bakhmout on September 2, 2015. The nine of them live in two rooms.
Swietlana and Ola in Bakhmout, August 27, 2015.

“It was terrible, a real nightmare,” recalls Swietlana, eight years later. “The stores were empty, we were bombarded every day. I saw Russian tanks, jeeps with machine guns, driving around the city. It was terrifying. We didn’t know what the Russians had in mind, if they were going to shoot us like that, on the spot, if we were going to end up dead in the street, like the others. »

You have to choose sides, and the Kovalenko family chooses Ukraine. As their eldest daughter moves to kyiv, Swietlana and Miron begin a new life in Bakhmout. Their grandson Danyil was born a few months later.

Swietlana and her daughter Marina in the latter's new apartment in Bakhmout on January 4, 2016. Marina's husband died in a car accident in Moscow and did not know Danyil.
Ola in her apartment in Bakhmout on January 4, 2016. Swietlana and Miron live there with their three youngest children, Oksana, Ola and Bohdan.
Oksana helps her mother in the kitchen in their new apartment in Bakhmout, January 5, 2016. Swietlana loves cooking very much, she is happy to finally have a real kitchen.
Swietlana and Miron on their first Christmas at Bakhmout's new apartment on January 6, 2016.
Marina and Ania go out to the park in the evening in Bakhmout, January 7, 2016.

For photographer Simona Supino, the fate of the Kovalenkos reveals the complexities of Ukrainian identity. “One day, someone draws a line on a map, and that line is supposed to determine how you feel. Families who live a few kilometers away are now in two different countries, some watching the Ukrainian television news while the others feed on Russian propaganda. »

Each time she goes to Bakhmout, Simona Supino finds her “Ukrainian family”. Swietlana and Miron move into an apartment with their last three children. They go to school, make friends. Swietlana finds work. Their grandson, Danyil, is growing up. Life is not easy but they live in peace, with the hope of earning some money to rebuild a home.

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