“War is visible.” On each trip to Ukraine, journalist Florence Aubenas notes the effects of the invasion of the country by Russia, started on February 24, 2022, on the population. “People just don’t have the same faces, she confides to Pascal Claude. First there are the very obvious signs: roughly one out of two men in the street is dressed in fatigues, including those who do not fight directly. People started wearing camouflage in solidarity.”
Economic life is changing: “Hairdressers for men have closed for example; the men being at the front, they learned to cut their hair.” Daily life too. Florence Aubenas reports that small javelin come into the world, in homage to the Javelin, the American missile launcher. Many Ukrainians are contributing money to online fundraisers to fund the war. The journalist notes the increase in the number of belligerent messages: “I hope that with my money you can kill as many Russians as possible”, can we read. On the Russian side, the discourse has also changed: “We are here because we are fighting against the OTAN.”
“There is a very visible radicalization, Aubenas analysis. We have come to a real turning point in the war. We do not know where this leads us, because nothing is predictable. It is the essence of this war. It evokes old things in Europe. The first time I turned on my computer in kyiv, writing the words resistance, trench, mud, I asked myself: what century are we in? I never thought I’d take those words out of a history book. But it is also a very modern war with its share of fake news, social networks, drones.”