The Cultural Work of Ukrainian Resistance
How Ukrainian literature serves as resistance to Russian “natiocide”
Text
15.09.2025
Narysy
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, keeping diaries has become an essential way of documenting wartime experiences and witnessing the historical rupture. This monthly project collects sketches from the INDEX community members (or “narysy” in Ukrainian) from their time in Lviv, their observations during fieldwork across the country, memories, and reflections that offer a glimpse into daily life in Ukraine.
To receive Narysy earlier, subscribe to the monthly Narysy newsletter.
Documentary poetry by Aneta Kamińska
Documentary poetry, written during the Residency in Lviv by Polish poet, and INDEX’s Scholar in Residence in July, Aneta Kamińska
Text
15.09.2025
Notes from the Field: Entangled History-Writing in Wartime Ukraine
This piece offer a nuanced reflection on roots and rootlessness, relationship between Ukrainian diaspora and Ukrainians in Ukraine, and how a historian of the post-WWII Soviet Union contributes to the mission of the institution which documents the ongoing Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Text
18.08.2025
7 notes from the diary of Kateryna Iakovlenko
In a series of diary entries, Kateryna Iakovlenko captures the atmosphere of wartime — from fleeting images and weather patterns to funerals, street scenes, and moments of quiet resistance.
Text
15.07.2025
A DNA match
Photojournalist Diana Deliurman's essay documents the painful search for the missing soldiers. Through the story of one woman’s year-long quest to confirm her husband’s fate, she reflects on the emotional side of reporting, the limits of distance, and the rituals of hope and grief.
Text
15.07.2025
Embodied Luxuries, Interrupted
In her piece, Kotišová reflects on the privileges and luxuries interrupted by the war. She writes about the deeply embodied experience of living in Lviv, hence being a little closer to the war zone — feelings and reactions one cannot access without being physically present—and the importance of self-care as a form of resistance.
Text
18.06.2025
When I close my eyes, I dream of drones
Kishchuk explores how war reshapes not only our sensibility toward landscapes but also our consciousness itself. Through vivid dream sequences and reflections on drone footage from the frontlines, she examines the paradox of loving distant places one cannot touch.
Text
18.06.2025
Reflection from Sumy
This volume of Narysy brings together two powerful texts that capture the raw immediacy of frontline cities, Kharkiv and Sumy.
Text
15.05.2025
Why Do Images Fade Away?
This volume of Narysy brings together two powerful texts that capture the raw immediacy of frontline cities, Kharkiv and Sumy.
Text
15.05.2025
Discovering Cyrano de Bergerac in Ukraine
This issue has come together around the theme of theatre—though perhaps, in wartime, theatre manifests itself as a quiet undercurrent, resurfacing where language alone cannot reach.
Text
18.04.2025
Amid dropped commas and epiphanies
This issue has come together around the theme of theatre—though perhaps, in wartime, theatre manifests itself as a quiet undercurrent, resurfacing where language alone cannot reach.
Text
18.04.2025
Roman Chornomaz: The Optics of Battle
Kateryna Mikhalitsyna, a poet, translator, and curator, presents a poetic and intimate curatorial essay for the exhibition Roman Chornomaz: The Optics of Battle, biography of Roman Chornomaz, a photographer, activist, and soldier who swapped his camera lens for a sniper rifle.
Text
17.03.2025
