Reference :
V-P-UA-E-00522
Date :
11/07/2016
Caption :
Kiev. The ICRC helps families find relatives. Marina sits in her son Ievgenii's apartment, who disappeared during the summer of 2014.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
ICRC website article, 05.10.2016: " Ukraine crisis: Uncertainty on both sides of the contact line. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and grandparents of the missing on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine cope as best they can with an impossible, wholly intolerable situation.
Waiting to discover what has happened to their relatives means living in limbo, denied the chance to mourn or a reason to stop hoping against hope. This uncertainty has a severe emotional, social and economic impact on the loved ones of the missing. These are their stories. [...] Marina seldom comes to Ievgenii's empty apartment. She took his cat home to her place. Sometimes she drops in there on her way to work. She devotes all her time to searching for her son. "I travelled a lot, visiting morgues and hospitals. There is no place that I have not visited. Once I got a phone call from a hospital in another town. They told me there was a person who matched my son's description. I set off early in the morning and arrived there by midday. But it was not him, thank God, because that man was already dead. After that I received many phone calls - some people tried to deceive me and get money out of me. Once, I went to Kiev to meet people who assured me that he was there, but when I got there they merely took his photo from me and disappeared, because I didn't give them any money."
Marina believes that Ievgenii is alive and will be found. "I just cannot stay alone. I buried one of my sons in 2010. Now I have lost the second one. Everyone tells me there is no sense in continuing to wait. Let them say that... he will be found. He is alive."
Marina has no information about her son's whereabouts. She has the right to know. [...]"
The photograph is part of the ICRC exhibition "Uncertainty".
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
5760x3840
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
