An illustrated diary from Kyiv: ‘I do not draw the houses, but the force of death’

Sergiy Maidukov is a Kyiv-based illustrator whose work has appeared on this journal, in addition to The New Yorker, The New York Occasions and The Wall Road Journal. He was born in Donetsk, jap Ukraine, which is now occupied by Russia and its militant proxies. Maidukov has been working with journalists protecting the battle. His footage, offered right here together with his feedback, seize the dread and hazard of the warfare because it rolled in direction of the capital.

February 25
The automobiles stand empty. They seem freshly broken from gunfire after a skirmish with the Russians who infiltrated the town’s Obolon district. Troopers mill about, tinkering with their tools.

February 25
On day two of the warfare, all I can assume to do this is for certain to assist Ukraine is give blood. So 4 of my pals and I queued for a number of hours, the road behind us rising ever longer as we waited. It was the primary time in my grownup life I overcame my concern of needles and donated blood.

February 26
A curfew was declared for tomorrow. Nobody shall be allowed to go exterior, because the army plans to conduct sweeps for Russian saboteurs. Anyone discovered on the streets shall be, we’re advised, assumed to be an enemy with each consequence that suggests.

February 27
The warfare is just three days previous. I rushed to evacuate my daughter, have barely slept and overdosed on information. Regardless of the curfew, I resolve to exit to assist neighbours put together Molotov cocktails. The journey is lower than 100 metres door-to-door however, inside sixty seconds, I’m thrown to the bottom and handcuffed at gunpoint. At the very least I’m not shot.

When I’m delivered to the police station, the temper is lighter. The officers Google me and let me go, joking about how fortunate I’m and that I ought to run house quick.

These are our luggage, packed and able to go away if we get the prospect.

March 2
I’m serving to two journalists who’re in search of feminine troopers in our Territorial Defence forces to interview. Whereas they do, I sit and draw this soldier guarding their headquarters. His identify is Oleh. He was a programmer, earlier than he volunteered to battle.

March 3
Two Russian missiles hit right here in Dorohozhychy two days in the past. All the things that was right here has been turned to black rubble. This was an assault on a broadcast tower close to the Babyn Yar, the place the place Jews, Roma, prisoners and tens of 1000’s of individuals had been killed between 1941 and 1943.

March 4
Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv’s important sq., morning. I used to be allowed by troopers to attract for 20 minutes.

March 6
Two days in the past, within the village of Markhalivka, a Russian aircraft was shot down. When it began to fall out of the sky, the pilot discharged his rockets into the city to keep away from exploding on affect. Just a few homes had been broken; certainly one of them is only a gap within the floor surrounded by wreckage. Six individuals died, together with two kids, burnt in a automobile.

Behind the buildings, there’s an open subject and, within the far distance, I can see items of particles which were blown clear by the blasts. The form of energy that might do that is surprising to think about. So I don’t draw the homes, however the drive of loss of life.

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