Like Dew in the Sun

Olesya Hadarina takes her horse Syoma out for some exercise near the Azovstal steel factory, seen in the background, on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 in Mariupol, Ukraine. Azovstal has been negatively impacted by tensions between Russia and Ukraine on the Sea of Azov and in the Kerch Straight, which has limited access for ships to the Port of Mariupol, the largest in the region, from which Azovstal ships much of its product.

KIEV, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 18, 2019: Oleg Krysko, 34, at the Kiev Military Hospital, where he is recuperating after being shot by a sniper in October while serving in the Ukrainian Army in eastern Ukraine on Monday, February 18, 2019 in Kiev, Ukraine. More than 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in the war in eastern Ukraine, with thousands more wounded. CREDIT: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

A man is about to enter his car beneath the Motherland statue during a snowstorm on Friday, December 14, 2018 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

NOVOSERHIIVKA, UKRAINE - JUNE 15, 2018: A shepherd tends his sheep on Friday, June 15, 2018 in Novoserhiivka, Ukraine. The man says he regularly sees foxes, which can threaten the flock. CREDIT: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Farm workers harvesting wheat on Saturday, June 30, 2018 in Berdianske, Ukraine.

Women who have covered themselves in mud believed to be theraputic during a visit to a salt lake pose for a portrait on Monday, July 2, 2018 in Henichesk, Ukraine. The healthcare available in public clinics in Ukraine is often of poor quality, and many people turn to alternative treatments when they can't afford to visit a private clinic.

KIEV, UKRAINE - JANUARY 6: A statue of St. Michael is illuminated by a camera flash in the snow at St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, the main church of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine, on January 6, 2019 in Kiev, Ukraine. The independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which previously fell under the authority of Moscow, was granted official recognition today in a decree, or "tomos," signed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in a move with deep historical roots but fueled by contemporary political conflict between Ukraine and Russia. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

Children at a camp being used for the past four years to house people displaced by the war in eastern Ukraine eat an afternoon meal on Wednesday, August 22, 2018 in Korostyshiv, Ukraine.

Kalyna Shkribliak, age 88, walks in her yard on Thursday, October 18, 2018 in Yavoriv, Ukraine.

Mykola Mykolaiovych Lysenko, 69, who fled Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine, at the start of the war, poses for a portrait in the room where he lives at an old summer camp being used to house those displaced by the war on Wednesday, August 22, 2018 in Korostyshiv, Ukraine. More than four years after the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, more than a million people remain displaced, not all of whom have successfully established themselves elsewhere.

A deacon carries a fan as another holds aloft a copy of the holy gospel during Sunday liturgy services at the Refectory Church of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on Sunday, October 7, 2018 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is taking steps to further separate from its traditional authorities in Moscow in an attempt to insulate Ukraine from Russian political interference through the church. The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a nearly thousand-year-old religious complex, is loyal to Moscow but is sure to come under pressure to switch its allegiance to Kyiv.

KIEV, UKRAINE - JANUARY 19: Orthodox Christians wait to bathe in Telbin Lake, near the Church of the Nativity of Christ, for Epiphany on January 19, 2019 in Kiev, Ukraine. The holiday celebrates the baptism of Jesus for Orthodox Christians, who themselves plunge into the icy water to symbolically wash away their sins on a day when it is believed that all water becomes holy. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

KIEV, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 13, 2019: Stanislav Pereuznyk, 48, receives treatment on his knee at the Kyiv City Clinical Hospital for War Veterans on Wednesday, February 13, 2019 in Kiev, Ukraine. Pereuznyk was formerly a member of a Ukrainian Army air assault brigade and served in the war in eastern Ukraine, but retired from service due to a number of injuries including his knees, feet, and spine. CREDIT: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

PISCHANE, UKRAINE - JUNE 15, 2018: Evgeniy Shtin's daughter sits on his car while relaxing at a small lake on Friday, June 15, 2018 in Pischane, Ukraine. Sthin, who works as a coal miner, and his family were forced to relocate to the area from a suburb of Donetsk when the area became too dangerous. They regularly see foxes and other wildlife whose populations have boomed in the wake of a hunting ban implemented due to the conflict. CREDIT: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

KIEV, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 9, 2019: People wait for the start of a campaign rally with presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko on Saturday, February 9, 2019 in Kiev, Ukraine. A member of parliament and two-time former prime minister who made a fortune trading natural gas in the 1990s, Tymoshenko was for a long time the election's front-runner with a populist platform, but doubts about her commitment to reforms and realtionship with Russia have hobbled her chances of victory. CREDIT: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

KYIV, UKRAINE - JUNE 24, 2018: Anzhelika, 35, a member of the Roma community who did not want to give her last name for safety reasons, stands with her young daughter in front of her former home after it was set on fire in late April, forcing her and her family to flee, on Sunday, June 24, 2018 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Roma communities have been the target of a series of attacks in Ukraine over the past two months by far-right nationalist organizations. CREDIT: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

KIEV, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 17, 2019: on Sunday, February 17, 2019 in Kiev, Ukraine. . CREDIT: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

RIVNE, UKRAINE - DECEMBER 9, 2018: Rev. Vasiliy Nachev, a priest at the Church of the Archangel Michael, which adheres to the Moscow patriarch, poses for a portrait on Sunday, December 9, 2018 in Rivne, Ukraine. Nachev is one of more than a dozen priests from Moscow-aligned churches who was called in for questioning by the Security Service of Ukraine recently. Old religious power struggles have been reignited by the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, leading the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to seek and receive permission from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to establish recognized independence from the current authorities in Moscow.

Visitors walk in the shallow waters of Henicheske Lake, known as the pink lake due to its rose-colored waters, near sunset on Monday, July 2, 2018 in Pryozerne, Ukraine. The lake sits atop a salt flat in which microbes create a pinkish color; visitors collect the salt for its purported theraputic qualities.

People listen to the ringing of the bells inside the Great Lavra Bell Tower at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is taking steps to further separate from its traditional authorities in Moscow in an attempt to insulate Ukraine from Russian political interference through the church. The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a nearly thousand-year-old religious complex, is loyal to Moscow but is sure to come under pressure to switch its allegiance to Kyiv.
Ukraine 2018 - present
Ukraine is at an inflection point, teetering between its ancient traditions, Soviet legacy, and contemporary global trajectory. A war rages, and its political consequences rival its physical ones. A walk in the forest, the sound of a bell, the pain of an old war injury, boredom: the sensations are the same, but with new significance. Through thousands of individual choices and actions, society changes – or fails to change.