Interview with Pär Johansson, president of the Swedish charity Blåljus i Samverkan. Interviewer: Nikodem Szczygłowski.

Now faced with fighting a war through a brutal winter, Ukraine should appear exhausted, weary and ready to give in. However, such a pessimistic view remains far from the truth. Speaking to people on the ground, it is clear that such suffering has only made the Ukrainians more determined to win.

Approximately half a million Ukrainians are expected to move from one part of the country to another at the beginning of the heating season. The central government has tasked the regional administrations not only with providing warm and comfortable housing for every internally displaced person but also with creating new reserve housing options.

Interview with Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv. Interviewer: Nikodem Szczygłowski.

I spent three days recently in the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine. There I met with Lvivians mobilised to do everything they can to aid in their country's victory. This brief story with photos illustrates just how organised this society is in these efforts.

Lvivians have much in common with Italians. They enjoy the company of others and lead social lives. They cannot live without coffee and gossip, and they gladly start conversations with strangers. Maybe this is why we have the highest infection rates in Ukraine.

I live in Lviv, where I work as a tour guide. I tell people stories. Today I have a story to share with you. It is about Lviv, Ukraine and guided tours in the time of coronavirus. The pandemic did not come to us unexpectedly. After all, we had been watching the news. It did, however, come suddenly, like a wave that covered the entire tourist sector and beyond. On March 9th, I was returning to Lviv from a weekend away in the mountains. Life was going on as usual. That day I picked up an advance payment for a hotel group stay that was planned for June. I also received an e-mail informing me of a cancelled a trip scheduled for March 21st. This request surprised me and seemed unfounded at the time. After all, we only had one confirmed case of coronavirus in all of Ukraine!

The revival of angels. An exhibition curated by Pavlo Gudimov. Lviv: June 20th – September 22, 2019.

Lviv, the city of Zbigniew Herbert’s childhood, is a chapter that has never ended. It is something that once and for all acquired a metaphysical form for him. Herbert resolutely separated it from the chapter of his life almost immediately after leaving the city. Yet, the poem "My city", written in his notes in the 1950s, has a dedication: “For my city, in which I will not die…”

“Sir, don’t miss the strawberries or currants,” says a black-haired, middle-aged woman reasonably and calmly without yelling, which is unusual for this type of market. She sits on a low bench, opposite house number 55 on Lychakivska Street in Lviv. There is a whole bunch of baskets and pots with all sorts of berries in front of her: from the deep dark raspberry to the half-transparent, as if illuminated from the inside, red currant. Next to her is a late-blooming, assertive and impatient lilac. There are so many lilac branches that the woman cannot keep them all together. The lilac breaks loose and it seems that the saleswoman is paying less attention to the customers and rather speaking to the blossom inside that fragrant cloud, soothing and lulling it.

“Come on, lilaaac” she stretches the word. There is a lot of green and white one step farther: shaggy bundles of green onions sway between blocks of cheese, like the coast grass flowing between the dried up white stones at low tide. The water receded long, long ago.

“I thank you Lord, for creating such a beautiful and sundry world,” wrote the poet Zbigniew Herbert – who was born here, in Lviv.

Interview with Volodymyr Kostyrko and Yevhen Ravski, artists and creators of a series of paintings titled “Ukraine. Waiting for a hero”.  Interviewer: Zofia Fenikowska