Love, in theLast Hour of Struggle

"I woke up on 24th of February because of rocket explosions that bombed the airport near Kyiv. That was the first time I heard the war. We tried to hide in a shelter under the school. During the first days we spent there, I stopped feeling so scared. I organised people who could drive, and we started to help those who wanted to run away from the war. I helped unload trains with humanitarian aid, prepared hot food for refugees, and packed medicines. When we left the school shelter, it was being bombed with people still inside.

Half an hour before the departure of our evacuation train in Kyiv, a rocket hit the station. Everywhere was blood and death. I waited for the train with my kids hour by hour, and finally we saw it. The train was full of people. There was no empty space inside. Everybody was standing or sitting, but it was really hard. Especially for children and older people.

My business partner was killed, as well as many friends and relatives. My house was ruined by a rocket. I have nothing in Ukraine now. With Eva and Boris, I went to western Ukraine. My plan was to leave the kids with relatives and return to the army as a soldier. There was so much pain inside me. But my relatives asked me to stay with the kids.

We arrived in London through the sponsor scheme. Our sponsor, Gavin, helped us a lot — with accommodation, with school for the kids. He accepted us as family. I lost everything in Ukraine but now, step by step, my life becomes better. I work, I am learning English in Oxford, and I rent a flat. My kids are safe and attend English school.

I want to see my home town Kyiv again but I am scared to return. My memory is painful. I am afraid to see my Ukraine ruined."

An ongoing collaborative series between Jamie Melville and Ukrainian photographer Maryna Khivrych, documenting the intimate domestic spaces that refugees have made their own — the small objects carried from home, the rituals that anchor identity in exile, and the quiet acts of care that constitute belonging.

The photograph speaks to the project's central concern: that amid displacement, people carry within them not just loss, but an extraordinary capacity to create warmth, meaning, and love.

The project title 'Love, in the last hour of struggle' is inspired by the poem 'Shall We Ever Meet Again' by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.