It was an eight hour overnight train ride with two additional hours of delays in a 6×6 foot cabin containing me and three girls who collectively would not Shut the Fuck Up all night. In moments when I did manage to doze off, it was to the sound of conspiring whispers that would not have…

I held off on writing any account of the Donetsk region for a few reasons. For starters, I was there for just three days as a policy and process observer. I was kept as far from danger as one can be in the Kramatorsk region, during a run of quiet nights when all of Russia’s…

It was an adjustment to come to Kyiv after a first impression of Ukraine in Kharkiv. So distant did the city feel from everything I had seen in the east; every step west from the Ukrainian frontline adds a layer of insulation. I hardly knew what to write as well – so much of the…

I donated blood this morning. This was not unusual for me; I have donated upwards of thirty times before in multiple countries. I normally would not even mention it, blood donation being something I regard as the responsibility of those who are able and thus not quite worthy of recognition. I tend not to offer…

To begin with, I want to make it clear that I am FINE. Everyone I know is FINE, everyone they know seems to be FINE, and the beginning of The Accountant 2 was FINE until I fell asleep. Finefinefinefinefine. Many people are not fine. In Kyiv alone, at least four people were killed and twenty…

The weather is lovely and there is a leisurely crowd in the park, the rare sight owed to a low rate of air strikes in the past week. The wind ripples softly through the trees and there are smiles in every direction. In the evening, the alarms begin and sound all night as the largest…

The walk down Sumska Street is to step into another city entirely separate from the rest of Kharkiv. Sidewalks widen, and the poplar trees that line the streets are replaced by towering spruces between the cafes and boutiques. The day is sunny, the breeze is cool, and the scene is not at all unlike an…

May 17, 2025 Today I went to Izium. Izium is not some backwater Soviet industrial village. The area has been inhabited since at least the neolithic 3rd century BC; the city was founded in the 17th century and achieved its municipal title in the 18th. Much of the architecture dates back to the 18th and…

Alarm after alarm buzzes around 8am as Putin flexes ahead of meetings in Turkey. They pose no danger to me, but I dare not restrict my notice settings any further. It’s a beautiful day in Kharkiv. I have no meetings until the afternoon and the blood donation center is closed today, so I set off…

My phone screams at me. It’s around 3am and I’m getting a perfectly timed reminder that I need to tune my air raid warning system correctly. I grumble about it into my pillow for about two hours before I pass out again. Tuning assistance in the morning comes with a reminder to be glad this…