Ukraine

Getting to Ukraine during the war with Russia meant traveling overland, as the country's airspace had been closed since the invasion. Alongside my English friends Harry and Kieran, I flew to Warsaw before driving to the Ukrainian border, and then crossing by foot. The Ukrainian immigration officer looked surprised to see us. She asked why we were visiting during the war, and when we replied that we were tourists, she looked puzzled and remarked that we were quite brave for coming, a sign of just how rare foreign visitors had become. After crossing the border, we took a taxi to Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine.

Being far from the front lines, Lviv was one of the least affected parts of the country, and in many ways, life felt remarkably normal. Cafés and restaurants were busy, and the city’s beautiful old town was full of people going about their daily lives. That said, the effects of the war were still apparent. Tourism had largely disappeared, and there were noticeably few young and middle-aged men, many of whom were serving in the armed forces or had been conscripted.

One of the most moving places we visited was a memorial honoring Ukrainian soldiers who had lost their lives defending the country. Hundreds of photographs of the fallen served as a powerful reminder of the human cost of the war. As we crossed back into Poland, recruitment posters encouraging people to join the armed forces lined the border crossing, a final reminder that although life in Lviv kept moving, the war was still an everyday reality for millions of Ukrainians.