KYIV — When young environmental activist Ihor Sumliennyi arrived at the site of the latest missile attack, the debris barely held back the smoke.
Police officers guarded the streets. The people who lived in the destroyed apartment looked in disbelief, some even crossed themselves next to him. he started pecking.
And bam! his eyes lit up. Lying directly in front of him, near the pavement, was exactly what he was looking for: fragments of an actual Russian cruise missile that hit the building.
He scooped it up, stabbing it into a jagged steel edge in the process, stuffed it into his backpack, and briskly walked home for an hour or so.
That ugly hunk of iron is now the star of his “booty” collection. His collection ranges from ammo cans and used rocket-propelled grenade shafts to black Russian boots he found in the ruined city of Bucha.
“They have really bad energy,” he said.
Collecting war remnants in this way may seem strange and even eerie. But Sumliennyi is not alone. Across Ukraine, many civilians and soldiers are searching for debris, mortar fins, spent bullet casings and bomb fragments.
Ukrainian artists weave them into their works. Auction houses are turning over discarded weapons and other battlefield finds, raising thousands of dollars for Ukrainian soldiers.
It clearly speaks to something bigger. A great many Ukrainians want to be on the front line. Or even if they’re far from combat or think they’re not fit for combat, they want to somehow feel connected to the cause. With patriotism on the rise and the survival of their country at stake, they are looking for something tangible to hold onto to represent this huge and overwhelming moment. They crave their own little history.
“Each piece has a story,” he said. Renowned artist Serhiy Petrov I work in Lviv. He now incorporates used ammunition cartridges into his mask.
As he handled it, he thought, “It could have been someone’s last bullet.”
At a charity auction held in Lviv on Sunday, computer programmer Valentyn Lapotkov paid more than $500 for an empty missile tube used to blow up a Russian armored personnel carrier, the auctioneer said. . He said he felt “closer to our hero” when he touched it.
Though the war may be far from over, remembering the war is a way to show solidarity with the soldiers and victims. An exhibition of war relics was held. The room is full of gas masks, missile launch tubes and charred debris. The message is clear. You see, this is what a real war looks like.
On a personal level, Sumliennyi does the same. The 31-year-old is an auditor by training, but a climate justice activist at heart.From Kyiv, he is Greta Thunberg’s fridays for future He shows off his booty while organizing social media campaigns against fossil fuels and making hundreds of video calls. He has also sent some to “go on tour” out of the country with female activists (because Ukraine bans men of military age from leaving the country, he cannot travel on his own). You can not).
“It’s very interesting,” explained Samrienni, a tall and thin man who lives with his mother in a small apartment. “You don’t feel war from TV or the news. But when you show people these works, they do.”
That’s exactly what a young Polish woman said after Mr. Smrienni leaned out of the frame during a video call and came back with the trophy.
“It was shocking,” said Dominika Lasota, a woman, a climate justice activist in Warsaw.
“Ihor seemed cool about it,” she added of Mr. Samrienni. “He proudly showed off the fragments of the bomb – he was smiling.”
It’s a coping mechanism, he explained. “Without black humor, we cannot live through war,” he said. “It’s a protective reaction of the organism.”
Yet he and his friends treat the tools of war with as much care as soldiers fold flags for their fallen comrades.
“When I touch this, I feel a very bad energy in my fingers,” he said of the missile fragments he recovered in April.
He spoke with a weapons expert and determined that the five-pound chunk was part of the tail of a Russian Caliber cruise missile.
In Lviv, Tetyana Okten U-Aid Foundationis a volunteer network with a wide range of activities, but has so far sold more than 15 war wrecks, including blockbuster missiles and rocket tubes used by the Ukrainian military. increase. All in all, the remnants of the war have earned him over $4,000, which the Foundation spends on protective vests, medical supplies, and other supplies for the Ukrainian Army.
“We are taking what was used to kill people to save lives,” she said.
She said one young Ukrainian soldier fighting in the Donbass area was of great help in finding things from the front lines. He burst out of the trench, despite Russian shells exploding around him and his fellow soldiers shouting at him to take cover. But she said he was near a lot of volunteers and yelled back. my friends need this! ”
In frontline areas, some residents were surprised to learn that war remnants have become collector’s items.
“It’s funny,” said Vova Khurzy, who lives in the town of Donbass, where the Russians continue to attack. “He’s here to kill you.”
Still Sumliennyi continues hunting. A few weeks ago, he and a few environmentalist friends drove to Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, where the Russian army had massacred hundreds of civilians, to discuss the relationship between fossil fuels and the Russian war machine. Social took pictures for his media campaign.
They stumbled upon a backyard and found a Russian military jacket and black boots (size 10). They remain among his prized possessions.
“We didn’t go to Bucha looking for this,” he said. “We just got lucky.”
Diego Ibarra Sanchez contributed a report from Lviv and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn from Kyiv.