I Hope Your Family is Safe

“I hope your family is safe”. I’ve heard these words many times since the Russian full-scale invasion of my homeland, and I still don’t know how to reply. What is safety in a country at war? I was born in Ukraine, left nine years ago for Poland and later Germany. Never have I felt the urge to return as strongly as now: to see how my homeland has changed, to challenge the oversimplified image of Ukrainians as mere victims. I can’t find words, and I am looking for visual hints: a car destroyed at the frontline, trenches where my dad trained, a wedding suit and mourning scarves at the market, my childhood friend’s photo among fallen defenders. Death is at every corner, and yet, so is life: crowded beaches, newborns, chicks, love, joy, beauty. In my country, filled with trauma and torn by the war, I feel as alive as anywhere else. Unsafe because of rockets, safe because it is my home.