'Love Doesn't Die With Death'

How to love amid the uncertainty of war? It takes many forms in Maryna Kumeda’s book, “Love in Wartime”. From Izium and Kharkiv to Kyiv, Sloviansk, and Lviv, she traveled across Ukraine to meet people and document how they love in these peculiar times.

Kumeda, 41, saw many kinds of love: There was the love of Ukrainians for their homeland, the fraternity and sorority among soldiers fighting in same unit, the love of mothers who join defence groups against Russian drones so their children never have to take up arms one day to defend their country themselves. Kumeda, who was born in Sumy, decided to join the Ukrainian army herself after writing the book. 

There were also many divorces and separations. A general trend suggests that after a “boom” in marriages linked to the beginning of the full-scale war in 2022, the number of marriages decreased every year compared to the previous year.

"War accentuates all the cracks: if the ties are solid, it doesn’t destroy them, but if there is already a crack, it widens,” said Ania, one of the people interviewed in the book. The war has also accelerated decisions, and marriages have taken place spontaneously in the space of two hours – the time of leave of absence given to soldiers

On the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, FRANCE 24 spoke to Kumeda about the different ways love manifests itself during war, and its capacity to transcend borders and even death.

- Author: Sonya CIESNIK, France24

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