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‘The war stole a lot from me’: Ukrainian woman speaks out at new exhibition in York

Mon 26 Feb

Kateryna Minakova comes from Dnipro and is seen here talking to Edward Matthews. Photograph: YorkMix

Mon 26 Feb 2024  @ 7:04am
David Dunning
News

A woman from Ukraine, who now lives in York, says this weekend she was thinking not about two years of war, but ten.

She says ever since Russian action on the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, in 2014 her life has been on hold.

Kateryna Minakova comes from Dnipro, which she says used to be central Ukraine but is now more in the east of the country given the Russian occupation. As the world marked the second anniversary of the major invasion by of her country by Russia, she says the West must continue to support her people or risk a wider global conflict.

She was speaking at an exhibition of photos and video at Spark: York taken by local volunteer Edward Matthews.

He hopes to return to the country this year if he can raise enough money. His photos catalogue the suffering of ordinary people.

One of Edward’s photographs from Ukraine

Kateryna told YorkMix Radio: “We don’t have enough weapons, we don’t even have enough international support, because there are more and more pro Russian governments all over the world. 

“It’s like a disease that is spreading and if we don’t react fast it will spread all over the globe.

“It’s actually the eleventh year of war for me. I feel that war stole a lot from me, and that we have to finish it soon or Russia will keep invading more territories over and over again.”

She says she can’t let herself become pessimistic about what lies ahead as if she does that she will have to admit that all her adult life will be marred by war.

She hope that the West will continue to back Ukraine in the future and help them fight off the challenge from Vladimir Putin

Edward at the exhibition

Edward Matthews was a nightlife photographer in York. Then he took a trip to the edge of the warzone in Eastern Europeand that changed everything.

Two years ago he decided that there was a greater need for his services there.

He says he has been moved by the stories he has heard from people fleeing Russian aggression when crossing the border between Poland and Ukraine almost daily to help deliver food and aid.

On the Ukraine Metro

He descibe the photo of the Metro carriage above and why it was an important part of his exhibition this weekend.

“It’s an image of the Kharkiv Metro. You see people just on their daily commute around the city. But if you look closely, there’s only one child and one fighting age male. 

“Everyone else on the train is elderly. So the demographic suggests that there’s something wrong and above the city everywhere was essentially under siege and constant bombardment.”


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