Stages of Air

The Donbas landscape near the front line radiates an unsettling tranquility. It would be easy to surrender to its quiet beauty—were it not for the constant echoes of aerial bombs, drone strikes, and artillery fire. At times, the explosions are so close that the ground trembles beneath your feet; at others, the sharp whistle of a ricocheting bullet cuts through the air. Here and there, the illusion fractures—a trench carving the earth, the remnants of an abandoned firing position interrupting the view.And yet the landscape persists in offering the semblance of peace, as though the war were not fully present but suspended just beyond the horizon—a few miles ahead, in another dimension. Even after years of conflict, the mind resists accepting its reality. It feels, at moments, like a nightmare from which one might awaken. War should not exist here. It feels absurd—an intrusion, something fundamentally unnatural in the modern world and in human nature itself.Now in its fourth year, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine remains as brutal and uncertain as ever. Amid shortages of ammunition and personnel, and mounting casualties, exhausted Ukrainian troops continue to retreat under relentless pressure.