How a wounded Ukrainian veteran who fought for his mother-in-law finds peace in the gloom.
The faces of the men Ivan trained come to him in his dreams. They melt and turn into skulls in the mud. Their bodies are broken by mortar rounds, they call him - "Save me".
Ivan Shostak fought in Bakmut in 2023. Completely blinded by a Russian attack, he was released and sent to his hometown of Vinnytsia. How to treat and reintegrate the hundreds of thousands of people with debilitating physical trauma from the war is an ongoing issue in Ukraine, and will become clearer only after the fighting ends.
Photo: George Ivanchenko / The Kyiv Independent.