Бахмут [Bakhmut]
Myroslav Laiuk – Author
Ukraїner — Publisher
Myroslav Laiuk / Author
During the most intense fighting for Bakhmut in the winter and in March 2023, the author spent days and nights with Ukrainian infantrymen and artillerymen, medics and chaplains, rescuers and children who remained in the city and its surroundings, where artillery shelling and street battles were a constant. It’s a story about the anti-aircraft gunner who has just shot down a Russian fighter jet, father and sons fighting side by side, and a member of Wagner who cherishes Nabokov. It’s a journey to places where dogs feast on the dead, where you are petrified by fear and desolation but also stunned with courage, resilience and even love. There, you see everything with a clarity as sharp as that from new spectacles. This vividness begs a question of whether there is room for nuance. Or is the pursuit of nuance merely the privilege of those who don’t fight for their very life and existence here and now? But also whether the survivors are obliged to pursue this nuance? In his stories, the author opts for the fixation method, «photographing» with the text. The word «fixation» will be used in different meanings throughout the text. «Blending a poet’s skill with committed war reporting, Myroslav Laiuk illuminates the details, images, personalities of war the way only a poet can. He re-discovers Ukraine for the reader, making the neglected loved.»
Peter Pomerantsev, British journalist and writer, author of the books «Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible» and «This is not Propaganda»
«Each participant in the war forges their own path. Frequently, these paths are off-road, marred by potholes and rough asphalt. Myroslav has succeeded in gathering and conveying the profound anguish embedded in the stories of each of his characters. It is through books like this that entire generations will come to understand the monumental struggles of the Ukrainian armed forces.»
Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press photojournalist, Pulitzer Prize winner