Reframing Ukraine: A review of Olga Khomenko’s The Faraway Sky of Kyiv: Ukrainians in the War

From the cover of The Faraway Sky of Kyiv. Photo: Ibidem-Verlag

Olga Khomenko’s The Faraway Sky of Kyiv: Ukrainians in the War is described as a “product of personal and collective trauma”, as well as a “reflection of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War”. Its narratives include Khomenko’s friends, students, family members, and colleagues. While it echoes other Ukrainian war narratives such as Marina Sonkina’s Ukrainian Portraits: Diaries from the Border, the essays in Khomenko’s collection reveal the author’s lifelong affinity for Japanese culture, as well as the gap of understanding about Ukrainian history and culture in Japanese society. Thus, the collection acts as a bridge between the two nations, and like memoirs such as Tarek El-Ariss’s Water on Fire, The Faraway Sky of Kyiv: Ukrainians in the War is a unique, investigative snapshot of wartime and the extents to which people will go in order to preserve themselves, their families, their homes, and their homeland.

Each essay in Khomenko’s book is an exploration of the innerworkings of the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian society. Khomenko’s work is also a deep dive into the historical events and current political states that have brought Europe and Ukraine together at a formidable point in history. As the book examines Ukrainian culture and politics in the context of the country’s history and independence, it also raises awareness about Russia’s imperialistic motives. For those who do not yet—after over three years of full-scale invasion—understand why Ukraine’s independence is integral to global stability, Khomenko adeptly covers the basics. At first, she highlights a few of the economic roots of Ukrainian resilience. She asks, “Why do Ukrainians have special feelings toward their homes?” She then explains that because Ukrainians “have tasted the freedom of capitalism in the 30 years since independence”, and because “they still remember the Soviet era when they could not buy goods freely,” this drives Ukrainians to not only take care about their individual homes, but to also take care of and protect Ukraine as a whole. She also attributes Ukrainian resilience to the “strong rebellious spirit” that Ukrainians maintain “against pressure from above”. According to Khomenko, Ukrainians possess “a tendency to break the mold” and this influences Ukrainians’ drive to “communicate with people from different countries and cultures”. Thus, The Faraway Sky of Kyiv’s central message is for cross-cultural education and, more so, understanding.

The Faraway Sky of Kyiv also focuses heavily on the refugee and immigration experiences of Ukrainians since 2022. Khomenko’s essays closely survey her personal migration story as well as the migration stories of other Ukrainians displaced by the war. In this vein, The Faraway Sky of Kyiv echoes powerful sentiments preserved in texts like Orysia Hrudka and Ben Bohdan’s Dark Days, Determined People and Olesya Yaremchuk’s Our Others: Stories of Ukrainian Diversity. Khomenko’s writings cement the idea that the current migration wave caused by the full-scale invasion forms a collective experience among Ukrainians and the Ukrainian diaspora across the globe. However, she does not shy away from addressing the fact that while most of the globe responded positively by welcoming displaced Ukrainians into their nations, some Ukrainians faced difficulties while acclimating to a new life beyond the country’s borders. Khomenko notes, “I do not know whether Ukrainians who have fled to other countries will be strong and cheerful or will have negative thoughts for a while due to the trauma from the war, but I hope that societies of countries they currently live in will accept them as they are.” Khomenko’s words are a call for humanity and empathy during a time in global events and politics in which both concepts seem to be in short supply.

One of the book’s most notable chapters is titled “Laughing at War”. Since the war’s early days, Ukrainian humour has not only captured the attention of audiences everywhere, but it has, at times, left people asking how Ukrainians can laugh during such a perplexing, difficult period. Khomenko explains that “Ukrainians have tenacity, and perhaps, anger and laughter help them to keep their spirits up.” In other words, humour is a coping mechanism and, specifically, according to Khomenko, “stand-up comedy (improvised storytelling) has also become extremely popular” since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. She shares jokes from the stand-up comedian Anya Kochehura’s set. Kochehura’s range of jokes address the mundane aspects of everyday life —such as how an elderly concierge in Kochehura’s building imposed a curfew “even before the war started”. They also tackle national and continental perceptions of Ukraine’s allies: “If you are talking behind the back of your friend, you are a bad person, yet if you gossip about the German Chancellor or the French President, you are honored to be called a responsible citizen, aware of current affairs.” Khomenko poses that Kochehura’s humour possesses “a lot of black humor” and that Kochehura “gained popularity because she is targeting ambiguous political rhetoric” by expressing “what people want to say but are not allowed to”. Khomenko’s portrayal of Kochehura is filled with admiration, respect, and even affection. More so, Khomenko’s portrayal captures how Ukrainians use every mechanism they possess—including laughter—in order to overcome war’s realities.

By giving her audience specific cultural examples, Khomenko makes Ukrainian culture more accessible to those encountering Ukraine in all its forms for the first time. She provides direct, concise anecdotes about Ukrainian perceptions, collective psychology, and customs, especially as they inform day-to-day interactions with Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike. Specifically, in the chapter “War and Friendship”, Khomenko poses the question “What is a true friendship?” She analyzes the pitfalls and foibles of human nature and the research community in reference to empathy, and she discusses how the war acted as a culling process that separated fair-weather friends from close ones. War’s misfortune, according to Khomenko, reminded her of the self-respect passed down in Ukrainian culture since the old Cossack days. She also provides an interesting, positive-living anecdote that matches the Icelandic adage “Þetta reddast”—“It will work out.” “Even if you feel down, do not despair. Even if the odds are against us, we do not have to fit ourselves into the expectations set by others. My origins remind me to overcome hardships by myself, to live as a Ukrainian who is proud of her free spirit.”

The Faraway Sky of Kyiv: Ukrainians in the War also addresses the culture-under-fire crisis Ukraine has faced since 2014. Khomenko writes, “One may have the impression that poets and writers write their works in a quiet and calm environment, such as a library. In Ukraine, however, depending on the period, that was not always the case.” As of May 2024, PEN International reported that over 100 Ukrainian cultural figures have been killed by Russia since the full-scale invasion’s initial days. Khomenko documents poetry’s historical legacy in Ukraine by addressing the pivotal role Taras Shevchenko has played in the country’s history, literary identity, and poetic tradition that continues to this day. Ukraine acknowledges the deaths of writers and poets like Victoria Amelina and Maksym Kryvtsov, as well as well-known literary figures like Serhiy Zhadan and Artur Dron’s continue fighting in Ukraine’s armed forces.

Olga Khomenko’s book is an imperative contribution to the ever-growing canon of representative narratives concerning this recent period in Ukrainian—and global—history. With empathy and astute detail, Khomenko’s essays display individual, societal and even cultural reassessment of Ukraine’s history and place within the global theatre. Because of its cross-cultural mappings of Ukraine and Japan, it is a distinctly unique collection within the expansive list of translated Ukrainian literature works. The astounding depth of its humanity and scholarship, too, makes it an unforgettable masterpiece that raises the bar for nonfiction works and war memoirs.

The Faraway Sky of Kyiv: Ukrainians in the War by Olga Khomenko. Published by Ibidem-Verlag in 2025.

Nicole Yurcaba is a Ukrainian-American of Hutsul/Lemko origin. A poet and essayist, her poems and reviews have appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Atlanta Review, Seneca Review, New Eastern Europe, and Ukraine’s Euromaidan Press. Nicole holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University, teaches poetry workshops for Southern New Hampshire University, and is in the Humanities faculty at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College in the United States. She also serves as a guest book reviewer for Sage Cigarettes, Tupelo Quarterly, Colorado Review, and Southern Review of Books.

Culture, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian literature