Sergii Polezhaka

Ukrainian. Photographies X BredaPhoto: Altered sites in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine

A destroyed blossoming garden has always been a symbol of the brutality of any war. Yet in this war, there is an additional layer: when visiting the ruined gardens, one not only feels the war but can also make sense of it. —In Bohdanivka, Kyiv region, Russians occupied and stayed in one of the houses on the edge of the village. A mid-sized house by European standards. A mixture of styles in the garden. A combination of pines and the local Ukrainian guelder rose, and a manicured lawn. By the time the Russians fled, the place looked predictably nightmarish: scarred by shell craters and littered with broken trees. A neighbour who had extinguished the fire there told me how it ended up like this. As they left, the last Russian IFV, an infantry fighting vehicle, fired a heavy burst of incendiary rounds at the house. In addition, the Russians left a mark on one of the walls. A short, scornful and jealous verdict reads: ”Bourgeois”.