46 THENEWYORKER,M AY 9, 2022
The Hospitallers, a battalion of volunteer medics, aided civilians who were fleeing the intensifying combTHIS PIECE WAS SUPPORTED BY THE PULITZER CENTER.T
he original St. Michael’s Mon-
astery, in the historic center of
Kyiv, was commissioned around
the year 1100 by a Christian prince, who
dedicated it to the archangel and pa-
tron of soldiers after winning a war.
The complex, which included a cathe-
dral famous for its golden dome, was
pillaged by the Mongols in 1240 and
restored a few centuries later. In 1937,
Communist authorities demolished it.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union,
the Kyiv City Council had the build-
ings reconstructed. On March 1st, I ac-
companied my friend Anastasia Fomi-
tchova to St. Michael’s. Uniformed men
with Kalashnikovs patrolled the perim-
eter and guarded the gate. Anastasia
approached a fence, through which we
could see the cathedral. She bowed her
head; when she lifted it, she was cry-
ing. I asked her what she had prayed
for. “My country, my city, and my fam-
ily,” she replied.
I’d met Anastasia several years ago
in Paris, through my wife, when they
had both belonged to an academic con-
sortium sponsored by the European
Research Council. Although Anasta-
sia, a graduate student in political sci-
ence, had spent most of her life in
France, she was born in Kyiv and re-
turned there regularly. When Russian
forces launched multiple simultaneous
offensives against Ukraine, on Febru-
ary 24th, I called Anastasia to ask after
her relatives. One prong of the attack
was advancing on the capital, and
missiles had already started landing
there. Anastasia was preparing to travel
to Kyiv, and invited me to go with her.
Two days later, in Paris, at 7:30 a.m.,
I arrived outside a Métro station near
the Place d’Italie, where people were
loading boxes of food and other provi-
sions into the luggage compartment of
a commercial bus. I spotted Anastasia,
wearing a backpack and smoking a cig-
arette. She told me that she’d been re-
turning home on this bus, which was
owned by a Ukrainian man and which
departed every Sunday, for the past sev-
eral years. The voyage took more than
thirty hours but cost only eighty euros.
Normally, the passengers were immi-
grants visiting friends and family; now
they were mostly young men and women
going back to fight.
In response to the Russian invasion,
LETTERFROM UKRAINE
THE WOUND-DRESSERS
When Russia attacked Kyiv, Ukrainians dropped
everything to protect the capital—and to ease others’ suffering.BY LUKE MOGELSON