Anne and Laurent are French writers who use poetry to document the war in Ukraine. The couple has indescribably warm, soft hearts and a steadfast pro-Ukrainian stance.
The couple wanted to come to Ukraine as soon as the full-scale invasion began, but due to work commitments, they were only able to arrive in Kyiv in December 2023.
The desire to visit Ukraine had been brewing for years, as Anne's grandmother, Valentyna Panchenko, was Ukrainian and lived in Crimea. She met her future husband, Anne's grandfather, in Germany during WWII.
Anne still has relatives in Ukraine, so after the peninsula is de-occupied, the writer intends to explore her family roots more deeply.
Anne inherited a Ukrainian vyshyvanka from her grandmother and treats it with great affection.
"For us, this is like a passport or a flag because we know that every colour and every symbol is very different from each region and that you can read lots of history just by looking at the motives and the tissue," Anne says as she displays her family's keepsake.
As soon as the writers crossed the Ukrainian border, they felt a sharp change that signalled their arrival in a war-torn country.
"I remember it was snowing. We took the bus from Paris to Warsaw. When we were still in Poland, everything appeared 'normal': people were chatting and laughing. We crossed the Ukrainian border with the same people, but the mood quickly became more stressful. At this point, we realised we had entered a country confronted by war. When we arrived in Kyiv, it was both exciting and problematic because we saw so many soldiers. We knew we were entering something very powerful. Not long after that, we witnessed the first Russian strikes," Laurent recalls.
In the beginning, you feel as if fear is entering your body, and little by little, you learn to understand in depth what the people have been living for two years.
Meanwhile, Anne's first thought was of Ukrainian children. "I couldn't imagine children would live under this perpetual threat. I also realised that we would learn a lot. The reality of war seemed horrifying, but we were grateful to be here to discover the truth to later share it," Anne recalls, reflecting on her experiences when she first heard the explosions.
Over time, the couple, just like the majority of Ukrainians, became accustomed to the sounds of air sirens and explosions. However, nothing goes away without a trace. The couple says that every sound, whether it is a tram or thunder, makes you stop for a moment and consider the possibility that it was an explosion. The war seeps into the deepest parts of the mind. Laurent began to have terrifying dreams about explosions.
Anne and Laurent often make trips throughout Ukraine because they work with various Ukrainian organizations.
One of the projects they are involved in is Unbreakable Libraries, initiated by PEN Ukraine.
The couple has gone on about eight volunteer trips, witnessing devastation in Bucha, Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, and other Ukrainian cities.
What the writers experienced in Yahidne, however, had the most profound impact on them. In this village, the Russian military held approximately 300 Ukrainian civilians in inhumane conditions in a basement. The writers vividly recounted their observations in their report "Yahidne, the Ghosts of a Human Shield".
Anne believes that even in the midst of ruins, there are flashes of hope.
"During our trip to Apostolove, Dnipro Oblast, we saw the ruins of three schools that were targeted on the same day. There, we discovered the Petrykivka painting. The most surprising thing is that the frame's glass survived."
The poets brought the painting to Kyiv and placed it in their rented apartment, alongside a motanka doll they found in a destroyed library in Makariv, Kyiv Oblast.
"This doll holds special meaning. She is holding scraps of a children's book recovered from a burned-out library. There will always be something beautiful amidst all the cruelty," Anne explains.
According to Laurent, the incompleteness of experience is a stumbling block in his writing.
"The problem is that we are here, but we are no soldiers. We are not confronted by the war; life is in no way like how it is on the contact line. So this is a direct experience of a country in war, but this is not a direct experience of war itself," Laurent reflects.
Anne disagrees with Laurent, saying that she considers war to be everywhere.
"People living here are in a constant mind of war. And, interestingly, when discussing these topics, poetry is the first type of writing that comes to mind, aside from taking notes and recording dates and names. This is because it is extremely difficult to convey such sensitive information in an argumentative, constructed form, or to combine it with fiction. Poetry is the most natural way to express oneself right now. But it may change over time," Anne says.
"We have no doubt about your victory, your courage, and your ability to overcome all this cruelty and these traumatic situations, especially in a military context," Laurent assures.
When victory day comes, it won't be the government that won the war with Russia, but the Ukrainian citizens, Ann adds.
According to the writers, hope for victory is also heavily reliant on international news and support.
"For example, when any Republican from the United States says there will be no more money for Ukraine, it feels like hope is fading," Laurent explains.
To raise awareness of the events in Ukraine, the writers communicate with their French media colleagues. Laurent is pleased to be able to share the direct news.
"However, the news we send to our friends is different from the news they get from the local media," Laurent says.
According to the author's observations, French news outlets focus more on military operations, diverting attention away from the horrors of Russian war crimes, which may appear too graphic.
In addition to articulating the war, the writers see it as their personal mission to reveal Ukrainian culture, which is still largely unknown to Western audiences.
"We know this and that about Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko, but there are many strong Ukrainian writers who remain in the shadows," Laurent points out.
"It's also a tool for preserving and sharing your history. After all, each generation of Ukrainian writers, artists, and intellectuals has been subjected to suffering, persecution, or murder by Russian authorities. This continues to this day. That is why it is so important to research and discuss it these days," Anne concludes.
We must also fight against the repetition of history. We need to break this mechanism.
The longer the writers stay in Ukraine, the more acutely they develop a stronger sense of injustice and an awareness of the Russian military's ruthlessness. Despite their exhaustion and emotional burnout, the poets continue to tell the world the truth about Ukraine through poems that may one day metamorphose into a book.
