Soon after the summit in Madrid summit in Madrid, we flew to Warsaw, and took a bus into Ukraine. We arrived in Lviv on the 1st of July, day 128 of the war.
Lviv has always been safe; it was well outside of artillery range, and few (if any) missles were lobbed in this direction. Lviv served as the refugee hub for folks headed into Western Europe, but when we arrived, there were more Ukrainians coming into the country than leaving. The initial panic had come and gone; the fronts had stabilized, and many Ukrainians had decided to come back and rebuild their lives, rather than continue to live as refugees in a foreign land.
Kyiv was caught in limbo. There wasn't any traffic on the street, schools were closed or remote, and the city still had scars from being under siege. Meanwhile, you could walk into a Starbucks, and be surrounded by whirring grinders, stressed students, and the aroma of a good Pike Place.
What struck me was how normalized war had become.
Folks had reclaimed their lives any way they knew how. And in Kyiv, you could walk down Khreshchatyk road to bustling Maidan Nezalezhnosti, and feel that everything was all right.
But less than 20 miles away from Maidan Nezalezhnosti is the town of Bucha. Bucha was formerly under Russian occupation, and the location of one of the worst massacres of the war, where around 400 civilians were excecuted.
We had a month in Ukraine - two weeks each in Kyiv and Lviv, with some trips out to smaller towns like Bucha. Our goal was to collect as many stories as possible; from students, volunteers, entreprenuers, politicians, celebrities, soldiers, and everyone in between.
We ran these interviews wherever we could; at AirBnbs, shelters, supply depots; even in a bunker during an air raid.
Every single person we met had a story. I'm so grateful to everyone for being willing to share their stories. Mayor Klitchko taught us about bravery. Chef Klopotenko taught us about positivity. Anna taught us about grief, and Maria taught us about resilience.
I only hope that we, the rest of the world, can live up to their example.
Slava Ukrani!