Posts By: Svitlana Matviyenko

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 18

By Svitlana Matviyenko, June 25, 2023

January 27 – June 24, 2023 On the morning of January 27th, I landed in Berlin. Having collected my suitcases, I dragged all three of them to the airport exit, the last gate of Europe for me to cross. In the meeting hall, I saw Asia in a black wool jacket, waiting for me with [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 17

By Svitlana Matviyenko, May 3, 2023

January 4, 2023 – January 26, 2023 My father, still extremely upset about being placed at the elderly house, tells me he would escape if only he could walk. He calls me on January 9th and asks me to get him crutches. My departure to Berlin through Bucharest is set on January 26th, now life [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 16

By Svitlana Matviyenko, April 10, 2023

December 13, 2022 – January 1, 2023 By mid-December, I had planned a trip to Kherson twice. I’ve never been there before, nor to other cities of the Ukrainian south and south-east, and knowing they have turned into unlivable ruins means I’ve missed an encounter with a big part of my country. The railroad connection [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 15

By Svitlana Matviyenko, February 21, 2023

November 13th – December 12th, 2022 At 6am on Sunday, November 13th, I took the elevator down, left the apartment building, and started jogging towards our meeting place with Olya – on the other side of the cemetery. That’s when I realized that the streetlights were on, which was unusual. In this early hour on [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 14

By Svitlana Matviyenko, November 16, 2022

August 29 – November 12, 2022 On August 29th, the Ukrainian army launched a spectacular counteroffensive towards the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv. Western media mobilized, I received several requests for comments and interviews from Canada, but did not have the energy to follow through with it all. “What did you feel about the [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 13

By Svitlana Matviyenko, November 1, 2022

After clocks are set back one hour, Olya and I are more comfortable running at 6am: we leave while it’s still dark – no streetlights, of course, in the times of blackout – but already within next ten-fifteen minutes, when both of us reach our meeting spot near the park, the darkness is gone. By [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 12

By Svitlana Matviyenko, September 29, 2022

June 26 – August 30, 2022 I have been resisting to return to writing this dispatch for more than two months. Notes – yes, constantly. Writing – occasionally, but not so much. When the tenth dispatch was published in June, I suffered from a two-week-long depression, dark enough I confessed to our School’s Director that [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 11

By Svitlana Matviyenko, July 9, 2022

May 30 – June 20, 2022 Salt disappeared. At the end of May, the shelf at the Silpo supermarket, where it is usually sitting – local or imported – is empty. Tired of answering the same questions, sellers at the market put their hand-made signs upfront: there is no salt – cолі немає. Online, the [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 10

By Svitlana Matviyenko, May 31, 2022

May 9 – 29, 2022 The war did not end on May 9th. That day Russia celebrated the 77th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany with a large-scale military parade in Moscow’s Red Square. To the huge disappointment of the public, there was no promised flying display of the supersonic Tu-160 strategic bombers, nor a so-called “Doomsday” [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 9

By Svitlana Matviyenko, May 10, 2022

April 13 – May 8, 2022 If you do not know Russian or if you just focus on the voice’s timbre and the rhythm of this brief conversation, it feels comforting. You’d immediately sense this young woman and man are attracted to one another. They definitely have a bond and, possibly, even a passion. You [...]