In Ukraine, the Bakhmut family is in the turmoil of war

Before it became a symbol of resistance to the Ukrainian army, the city of Bakhmut was a lively city with a beautiful city center bordered by a river, green areas and children’s playgrounds. Locals come here to shop or visit the large amusement park on the hill. In the evening, young people met in Nizhny Park to drink beer, go to a restaurant or dance in a disco that was there.

Sometimes you could hear shelling, in the distance, on the other side of the border that has been cordoning off the Donetsk People’s Republic since the 2014 referendum. But on this very Ukrainian side, life went on almost as usual.

It was in Bakhmut, in 2015, that Polish photographer Simona Supino met the Kovalenko family. Svitlana, Miron and their children live in a refugee center. The war in Donbas forced them to leave the village of Gorlovka, which is now under the control of pro-Russian forces. Ukrainian language and culture are no longer studied in this region. Little Oksana’s school teacher, who taught her in Ukrainian, now tells her that this language never existed.

“It was terrible, a real nightmare” Svitlana recalls eight years later. “Shops were empty, we were bombarded every day. I saw Russian tanks, jeeps with machine guns driving through the city. It was terrifying. We didn’t know what the Russians had in mind, so they shot us dead on the spot, on the street, like everyone else. »

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