Luzia Tschirky

Alisa Kovalenko is an award-winning Ukrainian documentary filmmaker and parent who joined a volunteer battalion in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion. She documented her combat experience on camera and later turned the frontline footage into the film "My Dear Théo", offering an intimate view of life in war through the eyes of a soldier separated from her child.

For several hundred years, Ukraine has endured Russian colonial domination. The colonial nature of this relationship went unacknowledged for decades. Mariam Naiem, a Ukrainian author, has dedicated her work to helping people understand the context of the war. As Mariam explains, understanding the present war requires seeing Ukraine as a nation breaking free from a long history of imperial control.

After living for nine years in London, Sasha Dovzhy, a researcher of Ukrainian literature, teacher, and project curator, decided to move back to Ukraine permanently at the end of 2023. On this episode, she shares her deeply felt motivation to return amid the full-scale invasion and discusses the launch of INDEX, an institution in Lviv dedicated to achieving justice by truthfully capturing Ukrainians’ stories. Through INDEX, Sasha hopes to establish a framework for how the war against Ukraine will be understood by future generations.

At just 22, Nikoletta Stoyanova has already witnessed through her lens more scenes of human loss than many photographers see in a lifetime. Originally from Odesa, Nikoletta moved to Kharkiv to be as close as possible to Ukraine’s front lines. She reflects on how her youngest adult years have been defined by violence and grief: the friends and colleagues she has lost, and the fleeting moments of tenderness she strives to capture. Mid-conversation, an air-raid siren blares—and imminent reminder on how the absurdity of war has become part of everyday routine.