The image of a young man skateboarding through the battlefield

There is an unforgettable moment I witnessed in Ukraine.

It was a young man riding a skateboard. In May 2022, fierce fighting continued on the outskirts of the eastern city of Kharkiv. The city was like a ghost town, and there were hardly any people walking around.

Occasionally, explosions can be heard in the distance.

I called out to a man who was trying to load his luggage into his car, and he said, “I’m about to run away.” Feeling scared, I was walking alone in the city when suddenly, I heard a series of ear-splitting noises and braced myself.

I turned around and saw a skater doing a wheelie down the hill and then disappear from view. It only happened in an instant, but it was such a powerful, surreal sight for me.

During subsequent visits to Kharkiv, I noticed that skaters gathered almost daily in a square in the city center, mostly young people in their teens and twenties.

They were doing tricks on their skateboards and taking videos of them on their smartphones. They called out to a young man sitting on a bench.

“This is the best place in Ukraine,” he said, surveying the square with satisfaction. “Whenever I come here I can meet my friends,” he added happily.

What on earth is going on?

Missiles fall on Kharkiv almost every day, taking people’s lives. The university building just a few dozen meters from this square was also destroyed by a missile and remains there.

The city center is just 40 km from the Russian border, and it is said that a missile launched from Russia can reach there in less than a minute.

It felt strange to me to be skateboarding in those conditions.

This March, on my fifth trip to Ukraine, I decided to find out, and the only way I could think of to do so was to get a skateboard and join the fun.

I bought a skateboard in the capital, Kyiv, and headed to Kharkiv, skating just like the others and listening to their stories.