“We just need to wait”

“We just need to wait.” This is what a woman in Gorlovka said to me, when I was photographing her apartment destroyed by another Ukrainian attack. To wait for what? “For peace, of course. Just a little longer,” she replied. These people have been thinking of it for a long nine years. The conflict in Donbass began in 2014. It claimed or derailed thousands of lives, and left hundreds of people homeless. Many residents were forced to leave their homes, but most decided to stay and wait for the long-coveted peace on their land. This story is about the people who chose to stay in their homeland no matter what. In February 2022, the President of Russia signed the executive orders recognizing the LPR and DPR, and later Russia announced the special military operation to protect the residents of Donbass.