Since Russia’s invasion began, Ukrainian lives have been transformed — by violence, by loss and by the fight for a free land. The story of conflict is often told in battles and the cold numbers of the dead, in anecdotes of horror and lists of weapons. These photos attempt to pay homage to the personal fabric that weaves this reality together: the bonds of love that every soldier is fighting for; the knowledge that it may cost them their lives; the terror of losing who they love most.
For the past two years, I have been photographing the invasion and the nightmare it has brought to Ukraine. But as I traveled the country, I kept seeing the way love was holding people up, making it possible for them to defend their country when the world thought it would fall in days. The love stories I’ve witnessed are bright spots in the darkest of times. They speak to the cost of war in universal terms.