They have built a life and home in Kiev, with Alina working in sales and Andrey as a consultant. Like many Ukrainians, they felt suspicious when the bombs started falling two years ago. Andrei joined the Army, eventually heading east for deployment.
In May 2023, Andrey was in a trench in the Zaporizhya region, trying to stand up to reach a drone, when a mortar shell exploded at close range. The next thing he remembers is waking up in a hospital bed. “I opened my eyes and thought: 'Oh, this was just a dream. … Why is it so dark?'” He lost his eyes and hands, and suffered many other injuries. Despite the darkness, he knew that Alina was close to him.
Since the Russian invasion began, life for Ukrainians has been changed – by violence, loss, and the struggle for a free land. The story of the conflict is often told in battles and the cold death toll, in tales of horror and in lists of weapons. These images attempt to honor the personal fabric that weaves this reality together: the bonds of love that every soldier fights for; Knowing that this may cost them their lives; The terror of losing the one they love most.
For the past two years, I have been photographing the invasion and the nightmare it brought to Ukraine. But as I traveled across the country, I kept seeing how love preserved people, made them able to defend their country when the world thought it would fall within days. The love stories I witnessed are bright spots in the darkest times. They talk about the cost of war in global terms.
Anastasia Kocher and Yevgen Cherepnya
Last summer, I met Anastasia Kocher and Yevgen Cherepnya in Kostyantinivka, a village west of Bakhmut in the Donbass region of Ukraine. Anastasia was making coffee in the kitchen of a small house surrounded by overgrown flower gardens. They were enjoying a short respite from the front lines.
When the invasion began, Anastasia was a journalist living in Kiev. But she was determined to do more for her country. She signed up to become a combat medic, but struggled to get an assignment on the front, where she felt she could be very useful. That's when I wrote to Yevgen, a Maidan activist who became a soldier in the 93rd Brigade, and asked for his help. “She didn't say, 'I want to be a combat medic.' “I will, whether you help me or not,” she said. “I was impressed by the strength of her personality.”
Anastasia joined the 93rd Brigade, where she worked in field hospitals while Yevgen participated in combat missions. When their courtship began, he fought in Bakhmut while she saved lives at the nearest evacuation point. Separated for months, she dreaded seeing him being carried to her on a stretcher, often waking up in the middle of the night to text to ask if he was okay.
The couple married in a small ceremony in Kiev during a short Christmas break. Soon after, they returned to the front, and separated again. “Sometimes he says that if he had known we were falling in love, I would have done it better [had] “I stayed in Kiev,” Anastasia laughs. “But difficult times make you come closer,” Yevgen adds.
Maria Petrovska was playing the bandura, a traditional Ukrainian musical instrument, in front of soldiers, trying to boost morale on the front lines, when she met and fell in love with another musician. Since then, the couple has moved on with their lives, separated by distance like many Ukrainians.
“We made the most of our moments, even if it was just five minutes when we changed cars between shows.”
On his friend's birthday, Andrei slept next to his grave.
Andrei fell in love with Alexei at first sight. “Our first date was only an hour and a half, and then he had to go back to base,” said Andrei, a nickname he uses for privacy reasons. “When he left, I was shaking. I've never felt like this before.”
They met on a dating app. On their second date, they told each other everything, even exchanging passwords, credit card numbers, and family contacts, just in case something happened to one of them. They spent four happy nights together, anytime Alexei could stay away from fighting.
Andrei was worried about Alexei, thinking he might be seriously injured. But he was willing to stay with him forever, even if he lost a limb. One day, the scary moment came: Alexei stopped responding to Andrei's letters. He was killed in combat.
Now he visits the grave alone. Alexei never told his family that he was in love with a man, and Andrei keeps his secret.
Olga Prokopenko left her job as a nanny to help defend her country. She is a combat medic in the 53rd Brigade. During one of the training sessions, she fell in love with a soldier. “He had a lot of questions for me about how to tie the tourniquet. Eventually, when they sounded the alarms, we were running together. Soon we were sharing a tent.
“Now, he only trains for 120 kilometres [75 miles] away, so we feel lucky. “Sometimes he drives for hours just to bring me flowers, then turns around to go back to his base.”
Zoya Boychenko and Evgen
The first time Zoya Boychenko saw Yevgen, he was staring off into the distance at a field. At that moment, she saw something strong and weak, and she felt something for it. Zoya works at the Ukrainian National Institute of Memory. He was fighting on the front lines.
They fell in love, and six months later, on a June day in the pouring rain, Yevgen, whose last name has been withheld for security reasons, surprised Zoya with a marriage proposal. They married in Kholodny Yar after he had been involved in fighting for a year. Soldiers from Yevgen's unit said it gave them hope, and many other romantic stories emerged from the celebrations.
Zoya moves to Slovyansk to be as close to her husband as possible, where he continues to command a group of attacking soldiers. They live with a cat, Baloch, whom Yevgen rescued from the occupied territories, and Zoya now volunteers to help in the war effort, collecting and distributing supplies to the displaced.
They talk about their future in a conflict-free Ukraine, and together they dream of opening a rehabilitation center when it's all over.
Andrei Smolensky and Alina Smolenska
Andrei hugged Alina outside the hospital after his fifth surgery.
“I needed to be with him. I didn't cry. I decided that I had to be strong and I shouldn't cry around Andrei because he feels everything, and he shouldn't feel that way. His recovery will be slow and arduous, but for Alena, 'all that matters is that “Andrey is alive.”
Artem Hotorov dreams of becoming a tractor operator and studies in Kharkiv, a beleaguered city known for its great universities and young Ukrainian artists. In September 2022, he was kidnapped from his technical school in Kubyansk and taken to Russia.
It took months for his mother, Natalia, to secure his release with the help of Save Ukraine, a Ukrainian organization that specializes in helping children stolen and repatriated from Russia. But in captivity, Artem met Nina, another Ukrainian kidnapper. They fell in love, bonding over their shared desire to return home.
When they were released, Artem and Nina spent four precious days together. Artem remembers riding the elevator up and down their accommodation in Kiev in wonder. Today they broke up again. Artem returned to his family's farm in Hosinka and Nina to her home in Kherson, a few miles from the front.
These images were captured with support from the International Women's Media Foundation and the Aperture Creator Labs Photo Fund. Rita Borkowska contributed to this report. Hannah Kirienko provided additional translation and production support.
