17-year-old Masha is pictured here with her mother, Nina, at home in Termakhivka. She asked me to photograph the russian-language book for twelve to fourteen-year-olds lying on the table in the image’s foreground. Masha says that when russian soldiers entered their home and saw the book, they seemed shocked. ‘They had been told that Ukrainians know nothing about russian culture,’ she told me. Upon seeing an extensive library of russian classical literature on the bookshelves, the soldiers stopped searching Nina’s house. Perhaps these books saved their lives since Nina had hidden her son’s Ukrainian military uniform behind the sofa in the hall. Just as russian troops approached their one-street village during the first day of the war, Masha cut 40cm off her long hair ‘to look more boyish’. The family felt it could reduce the chances of her being raped.

Masha loves reading. She believes Ukrainian knowledge and education are crucial weapons against a largely uneducated russian army. ‘Having never seen them before, the soldiers destroyed all the flatscreen televisions in our village, believing them to be military hardware. They also seemed unable to use sliding wardrobe doors and broke them in many of our homes, which they occupied or entered. Before they left on 1 April, they loaded up their tanks and armoured vehicles with mattresses and spoons—can you believe it?’