Ukraine Portraits

A few months into the war, I took humanitarian aid to the western fringes, inside Ukraine. . Once you leave Ukraine, you have little control over where you end up, perhaps via a clearing station in Budapest, and you are pretty much sent wherever there is space for you. . This means that you lose a certain amount of autonomy. . Perhaps therefore it is better to stay, albeit on the Western fringes, contiguous to Poland, Romania, Hungary, retain your Sim card, your currency, your language, your cultural identity? . If your husband / wife is in the military or has been conscripted, you can also see him or her when they are on leave, something you cannot do if you have left Ukraine. . This becomes increasingly important, if you have children, so many Ukrainians have not left the country, choosing instead to stay close to the western border. . How then, to house this huge influx of refugees? . I was given access to photograph a number of junior schools, and not that long after having been through the Covid lockdown, these schools were well equipped to move to online learning, in order for the refugees to find a bed space, on the floors, in these ex-junior schools.