I am a Brazilian citizen and this is the perspective of a foreigner who lived in Ukraine for the past 3 years.
Today is Day 8 of the invasion. I was able to escape before the bombs started to fall. I was one of the lucky ones who could take my Ukrainian wife out of harm’s way, just a few days before the invasion. I barely slept the past 8 days, keeping an eye on the bomb alerts next to my family there, trying to find ways to help all the people left to fend for themselves.
Pedro Bonatto, photographed by Iana Komarnytska in Lviv, Ukraine, in 2020.
I travelled all around Ukraine on photography projects, playing drums for hundreds of dancers, playing with great musicians, falling in love with the country.
I see many parallels between Brazil and Ukraine. Brazil is called ‘the lungs of the world’. Ukraine is called ‘the bread basket of Europe’. One laments in their samba, the other in haunting polyphonic songs. Both were conquered and exploited by tyrannical empires. Both kept their quest for peace and redemption.
Lurking around Ukraine were the shadows of the former Soviet Union, still seen in the architecture, in people’s memories. But I also saw everywhere people wanting to excel, to join the free world, to let the long nightmare of Russian aggression in the past.
Now my friends are in bunkers, in basements. A little girl I played for, one that dances, plays violin, speaks 4 languages, had to wake up with bombs and run for cover.
Now Ukrainians organize to help each other. To defend their country. In my opinion, they are defending us all. I’ve been coordinating with friends in Canada, Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Poland. Some told me they feel hopeless, like their efforts were impossibly too small. This is what I told them:
Even if ONE little girl in need gets one package of food, or a warm blanket, maybe that will give her enough strength to live through the night. And she will grow up to be a mother and grandmother and tell her children stories of a stranger that helped her survive. Small is big, and kindness is the ultimate strength.
And know that all of us, the ones born there, and us adopted by that beautiful land will go and help rebuild, and make it shine as it should, without the shadows of old enemies. Слава Україні!
