Ukraine: 66 posts

I’m delighted to share that my book The Rooster House is now available in the USA and Canada. It has been released by Abrams Press on June 27th and it’s now on the bookshelves around the country. The New York Times ran a review of my book earlier this week.

“When something of ours, something we took for granted as being ours, is destroyed before our eyes,” writes the Ukrainian-born journalist Victoria Belim, early in her absorbing memoir, “we are destroyed along with it.” “When Going Home Becomes a Fact-Finding Mission,” The New York Times, June 27, 2023

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Once again the news from Kakhova and the Kherson region are terrible. Russia bombarded the Kakhovka dam and water from the Dnieper River flooded the region for miles on end. I have good friends who had to flee from the Russian occupation last year and now their remaining family members and friends are escaping because of the flooding. As of now, more than 80 villages and towns have been submerged. Miles of fields full of produce are under water. Animals have been drowning, unable to escape the sudden inundation. It’s a major social and environmental disaster and the consequences are far-reaching. In the areas occupied by Russia, people have to rely on their own efforts to evacuate their families. Elsewhere, the situation already difficult because of the fighting is becoming increasingly grim.

How to help:

Zeilen van Vrijheid

A Dutch group of volunteers that provides help to Ukraine. They are currently holding a fundraiser to help the victims of the Kakhovka dam explosion.

To donate: visit their website and make a donation with a comment “Kherson.” Or donate to their Paypal account [email protected] and include a comment “Kherson.” Armenian artist and photographer Lilya Corneli will send you one of her beautiful floral prints, if you contact her with a proof of donation via her Instagram @lilyacorneli. Her work is stunning and this is a special treat.

Artist and writer Darya Zorka has a really good list of organizations accepting donations, and I wanted to highlight the following groups that work in the Kherson region:

KHERSON: “Dziva” is a volunteer organization that provides help to people in Kherson and villages in the Kherson region. 

They bring food, water, medicine, clothes and other aid to people in need. 

To donate: PayPal: [email protected] (Валерий Зарубин/ Valeriy Zarubin)

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It was a few days before Easter when I arrived in Ukraine in 2014 to stay with my grandmother, Valentina. Taking advantage of being together for the first time in years for this holiday, we prepared a large feast, colored eggs with onion peels and baked paska, a brioche-like Easter bread.  I became obsessed with photographing every part of our preparations, making my grandmother laugh. She didn’t understand what was interesting about recording everything. I didn’t understand it myself at the time, but I felt that I had to capture as many of my impressions as possible. Ukraine was going through a painful period as Russia had annexed Crimea and was also supporting various separatist movements in the eastern part of the country. We lived with the sounds of gunfire from the military training grounds nearby and with bitter news from the front.

Yet, as we celebrated Easter with its powerful message of renewal and rebirth, we felt hopeful. We planted vegetables and flowers in the garden. We whitewashed our cherry trees. We waited for the blossoms to burst.

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For the past few days rescue workers in the town of Dnipro have been searching for survivors of a devastating Russian attack. A missile hit an apartment building, destroying it completely. I spent several summers in Dnipro and I have several friends there, and these news have affected us deeply. Almost a year later and I still haven’t learned to cope with the pain of seeing familiar landmarks scarred by war.

After seeing images of gutted apartment buildings and bombed out streets, I needed to remember Dnipro as a vibrant town in the eastern part of Ukraine. Its name comes from its location on the Dnieper River, and its shores offer beautiful views. I went through my archive of photographs that I took during my travels in Ukraine. It was in Dnipro where I discovered the art of Petro Magro (1918–2010). A native of the region, he captured its landscapes in his impressionistic paintings. I hope that you will enjoy his artwork as much as I did–a reminder of beauty and an antidote to darkness and despair.

Do you have a favorite artist whose works uplift you? 

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Last night I dreamt of making borsch with my late grandmother Valentina. It’s been three years since I last made it, but in my dream everything was as precise as it was in real life, down to the smells of vegetables and the rough texture of Valentina’s cutting board. My dreams of Ukraine recur frequently, but this particular one was especially vivid.

I have been writing about scents and memories for many years, and yet it always strikes me as remarkable how strong the recollections can be. I also noticed that the more I studied aromas, as part of my perfumery training and later during my practice, the more I could evoke scented memories. For this reason, I encourage everyone to practice simple exercises, such as selecting a couple of simple scents (black pepper, lemon, orange, or black tea,) and smelling them every morning for a few days in a row. As you smell, try to describe the associations that the smells conjure up for you. If you write them down, even better. Once you put something into words, it becomes easier to remember, even if it’s as intangible as a smell.

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