My name is Steven, I’m a web developer, born and raised in Italy in the quiet province of Pordenone, to an Italian mother and an American father. I visited Ukraine as a tourist for a few years after meeting a local girl online. Since 2020, I’ve been living permanently in Ukraine together with my now-wife. We lived in Kyiv, but when the invasion began, we moved to my in-laws’ home in a small town in the Chernihiv region. I decided to start this blog and write for three main reasons.
The first is to keep alive the memories of what has happened and what continues to happen in Ukraine. I’ve realized I’m already starting to forget many of the events from the beginning of the invasion. In part, this is due to a personal defense mechanism: it’s easy to forget or distort traumatic experiences. Not that what I’ve personally gone through is even remotely comparable to what tens of thousands of Ukrainians have endured: torture or killings at the hands of Russian soldiers, sometimes just a few kilometers from where I live. In addition, I’d like to share the local culture in greater depth.
The second reason has an informative purpose. Many people in Italy are not truly aware of what is happening in Ukraine. Over the past two years, when I’ve visited my family in Italy, I’ve often been asked how my flight from Ukraine went—only to see the surprise on their faces when I explained that there are no commercial flights in Ukraine. On other occasions, people asked me whether what’s shown on TV is real, or simply inventions of the “media.” That’s why I think it’s important to spread the truth about what is happening here as widely as possible.
Finally, the third reason for this blog is to counter Russian propaganda, which is widespread in Italy. This likely happens because Ukraine is perceived as a distant country, making it easy to fall into Russian propaganda traps (and not only Russian). Or, for many, it’s simply easier to ignore the situation, thinking that Ukrainians’ problems don’t concern them. In the early days of the war, I had a phone conversation with a friend who insisted there was no war in Ukraine, claiming that television was only showing images from video games. Despite my efforts to convince him—as a direct witness myself—I couldn’t. From that moment on, I no longer spoke with this person, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, apart from sharing personal experiences, citing facts, and highlighting contradictions in propaganda, I don’t have many other tools to persuade those who don’t want to see. Some people prefer to remain in their own bubble, but I still believe it’s worth trying to provide a clear picture of the situation.
Moreover, there are many actors—both political and journalistic—who act in bad faith. It’s common practice for Russia to hand out money to Western political parties in exchange for favors. And it’s not just politicians, but also journalists and commentators, who present their audience with a highly distorted, simplistic, and pro-Russian version of events. I’ll dive deeper into these propaganda-related issues in a future article.
That said, I’ll try to publish a new story once a week. Comments and questions are always welcome! If you prefer to communicate privately, you can visit the contact section.