I’m often asked what keeps me going. Honestly, I don’t really know — it’s a mystery to me.
One reason, maybe, is the little Peter Pan living inside. He often downplays the danger, romanticizes everything around, looks for adventure, and turns every small event into a kind of world journey. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad — but that’s just how it is.
There are also people around — as your tribe would say — those you understand with half a word, or even half a thought. Capital letter friends. More than friends, really — they’re real, as if they’d stepped out of the pages of Jules Verne, L’Amour, or Reid. They deflect the arrows aimed at you, and give you the warmth you’ve been missing. I thank them simply for being there.
Family — that’s the most important thing. My dear and genuine people, three generations of women and men who sometimes argue, make up, live, love — and even when they’re far away, they’re still close. All these people live in the quiet rooms of your heart.
And then there are the animals — fluffy little bundles of joy, radiating some otherworldly warmth.
Medicine — that’s another story. Strong stuff that somehow keeps your mind together in the fourth year of full-scale war, gives you the sleep you lack… but not always.
I’ve said a lot about photography — it’s like another world, a kind of escape, even if just for a little while.
Music on the phone and books too — always nearby, essential, inspiring, part of the everyday.
And then, the tattoos we still have to get, and the coffee we still have to drink.
Still, what keeps me going remains a mystery.
I don’t know who might need these words, but they somehow wrote themselves — one cold autumn morning, somewhere in the so-called “kill zone.”
Photographe et soldat, Yourko Kostyshyn est originaire de Ternopil.
Toutes les photos sont de l’auteur.
Page Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/kitkharakternik/
Page Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/urko.kostisin
Octobre 2025.
Yourko est mort au combat en décembre 2025.
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