Kyiv, the Resistance of Citizens

March 2022.

Barricades are set up everywhere in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Right now, the Russian forces are getting very close.

The general feeling is that street fighting with the Russians is inevitable.

If the Russians burst in, it's the end of us.

But still the citizens remain in town and continue to resist.

We will never run away.

I’m sure everything will get better.

There is a filmmaker who is closely observing such citizens.

You saw a lot of people.

Nobody sits, nobody waits.

Everybody is trying to do something, and actually that is the main mistake of Putin.

People pray for peace...

Their hatred grows...

This is a record of the citizens of the capital city of Kyiv who refuse to move despite the ongoing crisis.

We enter Ukraine on March 7th, 11 days after the Russian invasion began.

Lviv is the core city of western Ukraine.

It's serving as a support base for Kyiv and the eastern part of the country, where fierce fighting is going on.

These people carry relief supplies from the Lviv area to Kyiv.

One of them is the filmmaker Taras Tkachenko.

Since the start of the war, he has been traveling back and forth between his hometown of Kyiv and Lviv to deliver urgently required supplies.

It's not from exactly here, but from a village not far from Kyiv, but that place is really hot now, its not far from Brovary and the Russian forces get in one direction of attack from that side,

so it's really necessary for our guys there.

Taras agreed to be interviewed and offered to take us with him to Kyiv.

The situation is very dynamic.

Every day, you don't know, can you get to Kyiv or not, because every day Kyiv can be closed by Russian arms.

8 am, March 10th.

We enter the capital city that is under martial law.

Barricades have been set up everywhere.

The entire city has turned into a military fortress.

As part of Russia's "special military operation," its ground forces continue to advance toward Kyiv.

Approaching from two directions, east and north, the forces are now only about 15 kilometers from Kyiv.

To meet them head on, the city is preparing for street fighting.

The streets are largely deserted.

In fact, however...

...as many as two million people, two-thirds of Kyiv's population, remain here according to an announcement by the city authorities.

Taras lives in a 38-year-old apartment block built in the former Soviet era.

The day after the invasion began, he insisted on his wife and four-year-old son evacuating to western Ukraine.

Taras is a filmmaker who has released several feature-length films both at home and abroad.

His mission has always been to shed light on the issues facing Ukrainian society.

This is that one, it's like a Ukrainian Oscar, In honor of Yuri Ilyenko, well-known Ukrainian film director,

so it's probably like the most famous my... award.

This is a clip from his major work.

A woman who has been working in Italy as a housekeeper struggles with her family after returning home.

The film was highly acclaimed both at home and abroad for its beautiful depiction of the suffering of the people of Ukraine, a major migrant nation.

Taras has long been wanting to create a work on the theme of war.

He has been planning to produce a film with the story of a Russian pilot who crash-lands in a village during the invasion of Ukraine.

It will depict the interactions between the villagers and the pilot.

The original concept for the work was conceived by Zaza Urushadze, a Georgian filmmaker who passed away in 2019.

He had pursued the theme of "hatred and forgiveness in war."

Urushadze had been writing until shortly before his death.

Taras, his great admirer, decided to add to the unfinished story and produce a film.

But just as he was about to start, Russia's military invasion brought the reality of war to his doorstep.

This is a story about evil that you have inside, that was like raked up by war, and what can you do with that evil inside you, because it's necessary evil.

Without that evil, you cannot survive and you cannot win.

But that evil is destroying you from inside, and that is the dialectic of the evil inside you, that you should realize it's inside you.

While working to deliver supplies, Taras is trying to find inspiration for the new film.

And now I'm working like a journalist, capturing to keep everything that I can see now.

This is very historical for Ukraine I think...

Taras arrives at a private medical center.

He's delivering various medicines procured in Lviv.

These are the basic medicines for any type of cold that our fighters might have in the wild,

because obviously they are sometimes in quite wild and dangerous places, they can't really go to the pharmacy, so we try to provide them with everything they need.

Many of the staff working here are volunteers.

They deliver medicine and food to soldiers fighting on the front lines.

We have the underground facilities and we volunteers here we are staying there after the night, so for me, for two weeks already, I am staying only here, so I'm not staying home.

Today, a family of evacuees has arrived at the medical center.

They fled from the war zone near Kyiv.

We’ve come from Irpin.

Irpin has suffered a fierce attack by the Russian forces aiming to invade the capital, and a huge number of residents have been forced to evacuate.

We continued to walk through the fields.
We had to walk straight because of mines.

We met three soldiers on the way,
but no one else was there.

We managed to come out to
a major road and finally got help.

The mother and her children will now be guided by volunteers to the relatively safer western part of Ukraine.

Lera, good girl, please be quiet.

I don't know what's going on either,
so calm down.

I'm at my wits’ end with this.

Okay, sweetie!

In Kyiv, many citizens have joined forces and are working hard together.

This group is making sandbags at the roadside.

Many of them are young.

They're piling up sandbags at a hospital entrance to hinder the Russian invasion if only a little.

Yes, I'm a student.

I study architecture in this university here.

From here, I'm ready to defend our country.

So why do so many people stay in Kyiv?

Taras takes us to a place which can provide the answer.

This is Independence Square in the center of Kyiv.

In 2014, this was the site of a massive protest by citizens.

Taras was one of them.

It was the Maidan Revolution, or Revolution of Dignity.

The citizens were protesting against the regime that continued to pursue pro-Russian policies while ignoring the voices of the people.

For three months, the citizens were holed up in the plaza and violent clashes with the security forces ensued.

The president eventually fled to Russia, and Ukraine turned to a more European-oriented policy.

They are from different regions absolutely.

Here Chernivtsi, here is Rivne...

The Maidan Revolution claimed more than 100 civilian lives.

At the cost of the lives of many young people, Ukraine seized freedom and democracy.

However, in the same year, the Crimean Peninsula in southern Ukraine was unilaterally annexed by Russian forces.

It was a step taken by President Putin in reaction to the Maidan Revolution.

Now the Crimean Peninsula has been returned to us.

In addition, attacks by pro-Russian militants intensified in two eastern provinces, resulting in a state of conflict.

We have not war from February 24th, we have war now eight years because they want to create a totalitarian society here in Ukraine.

We didn't want that.

We fighted for our freedom, for democracy, and we started to build a democratical country, a demo critical state, a democratical society.

That is why we don't want to surrender, because this is our values, this is our way of living, we don't want to drop it.

Two weeks after the start of the invasion, the daily life of Kyiv citizens is becoming increasingly severe.

Goods are scarce and prices have soared.

I put a little more in.

I’ll pay you for that.

No, it’s OK.

Thank you.

We’re doing our best to operate
despite the difficult situation.

We offer items for free to the elderly
who have no money.

I believe we’ll win.
We will never run away.

I’m sure everything will get better.

Yes, this is nearby my house, so I often take some fruits here, some vegetables.

So I don’t see the reason to change my usual day!

Thank you.

Just then, an air raid alarm suddenly blares out.

This is an alarm, yes.

Something happened, probably they’re bombing somewhere.

You have to continue living, you cannot hide every time they are switching on the alarm, because it happens five or six times a day.

You can hear they’re blowing up a far one, so they are bombing.

"Aren’t you afraid?"

No.

The first time, yes, but now it became usual, unfortunately.

I don’t want to let it happen but it happened, okay? It’s usual for us.

Let us cook with that!

Now we have a discussion between Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, "which heritage is borscht, Ukrainian or Russian or Belarusian?"

Because everybody has the same kind of dish, but in general, it is from Ukraine.

I think that the cooking of every country is like a mirror of their mentality.

And Ukrainians like to do everything slowly: "you’re heating the meat, you wait; you’re heating the potatoes, you wait."

You don’t have to be fast, you’re like meditating with the cooking.

So this is like our national character in there, I think so.

At night, to check out the safety of the residents, Taras visits the shelter set up in the basement of his apartment building.

Hello.

There were 12 people in the bedroom, but now a lot of people leave here, so now it’s about 3 or 4 people still live here.

So they are spending most of the night here and in the day they come back.

The schools are closed.

Under martial law, children are not allowed to play outside freely.

I get scared when the sirens go off.

Mom sometimes tells us to walk outside,
but we don't want to go outside.

The hard times continue for the citizens.

But even in the midst of it all, some people are trying to keep their composure by carrying on as they did before the war.

What are you doing?

Walking our dogs, as you can see.

Even now we have to look after them.
They’re family members!

Russian missile attacks on Kyiv are intensifying.

March 15th.

An early morning attack has killed one of the residents of this apartment block.

That balcony with the blanket is my place.

It’s 90% destroyed.

Electricity is still available, but water,
gas and heating have stopped.

Many residents are trying to repair their damaged apartments so that they can continue living here.

The next day, more Russian missiles strike Kyiv.

They’ve now started attacking
almost every night.

How was last night?

I felt the windows trembling.
I live nearby.

This resident evacuated with his elderly parents.

He starts telling a story that he has heard from residents of Russian descent living in the same apartment block.

A Russian neighbor called his sister in
Saint-Petersburg.

She told him the attack was staged
by the Ukrainian military.

It’s a ridiculous story.

I can only think that they’re crazy.
I don't understand it at all.

A lot of people pass by here,
so make a donation box.

My place wasn’t damaged at all,
but yours was destroyed, so take this.

Thank you very much. I’ll share this
with the other victims.

Let’s prepare a donation box.

It’s just a living area.

There is no military object, there is no administrative building.

First of all, I think that they want to grow up the fear and the panic, and they try to show us that there is no safe place in Kyiv.

We do understand it, but we will not go out from our houses.

We will stay here in any case.

Today, with the attacks continuing, a 35-hour curfew has finally been imposed throughout the city.

It's been twenty days since Taras's family evacuated.

Actually my wife and son really like Christmas.

I tried several times to put it off.

Then they told me, "Okay, let it be one week more, one week more, one week more," and after that the war started...

We like our home.

It's small, it's tiny, but we like it.

And we want to return back and at last clean it, make a general cleaning of the house and remove the New Year tree and everything...

You can see far from here.

Actually today, there was a bombing in that direction.

One house was hit by a missile, and I hear one more time the warning down there.

That is the kindergarten that Taras himself went to when he was a child.

Since the war began, it has lost the sound of children's laughter.

During the curfew, Taras holds an online meeting.

The participants are students at the film school where Taras teaches.

This is the first time they've seen each other since the war began.

Good evening. Are you all safe?

I’m still in Kyiv taking care of
my grandmother.

And I’m doing some volunteer work
in the community.

Taras encourages them to record their current situation.

Take your camera and get pictures
of the neighborhood.

The important stories are not on the
front line but in our everyday lives.

Yes, I will. And if I don't get a chance
to film, I will still keep a diary.

Because now things change rapidly
every day.

We ourselves are also changing.
Many things occur around us.

Let's put all those things together and
make a film for our graduation project.

Meanwhile, Taras is struggling with how to deal with the theme of his own film, "hatred and forgiveness."

People are about to reach the limit of their fatigue.

Please come in.

Anatolia, who lives on the floor above Taras, has been battling with cancer.

But the war has prevented her visiting the hospital so she is feeling very anxious.

I’m worried because I’m not getting
enough treatment.

I finally finished chemotherapy and
was supposed to be having surgery.

But I was discharged from the hospital.

So now I’m waiting to find out when
the surgery will be.

Many elderly people with illnesses live in this neighborhood.

Anatolia's daughter, Vita, has started volunteering to support those people.

The pharmacy opened today.

So I rang those who needed medicine,
made a list, and bought them.

Now I’m going to deliver them.

Unable to go to school, Anatolia's granddaughter, Alina, spends her days at her computer.

She's a big fan of Japanese anime.

She says she has many Russian friends she has met through that shared interest.

When the war started, they often sent me
messages worrying about me and my town.

Ukraine’s suffering because of the
Russian government.

Some Russians are speaking out against it.

I want to meet my Russian friends I met
via the Internet in person someday.

I swapped it with my daughter
because it’s warm.

Where can we run to with our dogs?

No one will accept people with dogs.

The relationship between, for example, my neighbors is much warmer now and closer now, and now we are helping each other.

We’re like a small community in our houses.

And I think that is a very good beginning for us.

War is a tragedy, yes, it’s a tragedy, it’s a huge tragedy, but war simultaneously borns something more, something huge, something very spiritual.

And that is the gift of war.

Today the curfew has been lifted, and people are returning to church.

What are hatred and forgiveness in war?

When Taras leaves the church, he sees black smoke rising in the distance.

It is a fire.

It just happened, I think, 10 minutes ago.

So we can go there and see what happened actually.

This was a missile.

A private warehouse has been hit by a missile attack.

According to an announcement by the Ukrainian government, one citizen has been killed.

I don't know what I have to do with my evil now.

Now I am hating the people, the Russian people.

Now I am hating my enemies, now I am hating the people that bomb my city, that kill the people.

And that is, you know, it's very, very difficult, or probably impossible to reduce that evil.

March 20th.

Taras is heading to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.

Lviv is home to many citizens who have evacuated from Kyiv and other places.

Taras is reunited with his family after a long time.

I want this.

Shall we go inside and have a look?

Dasha, Taras's wife, is concerned about her parents.

Her father has left her mother alone to go and fight as a soldier on the front lines in the east.

Dasha's also worried about Taras staying alone in Kyiv.

My father’s fighting as a soldier
in Donbas, the most dangerous place, and my husband is also doing his job
in Kyiv, another dangerous place.

I cannot tell them not to because
what they do is important.

However, I want to support my husband.

We didn’t realize how happy we had been before.

Now we realize we want to have that small troubles, small, like, the beautiful days when we can be together, drink coffee, eat cakes,

and go to museums, and it’s a really happy time for us.

We want to return them back... that’s enough.

Alone again, Taras heads back to Kyiv.

He's determined to witness everything that happens in the future.

Nice to meet you! Goodbye.

I have to be in Kyiv.

"Why?"

Because it's my town, because it's my home, and so I can do much more in Kyiv than here.

I cannot live here in a safe place.

See you later in Kyiv!

April 2nd, some stunning news travels around the world.

The Ukrainian military announces that it has recaptured those parts of the Kyiv Oblast which had been occupied by Russian troops.

Taras heads to Bucha, one of the towns liberated from the Russians.

He's reacting to a report of a massacre of civilians in Bucha.

Bucha is a town located about half an hour's drive from the center of Kyiv.

On the way there, we pass many destroyed Russian military vehicles.

Bucha was occupied by Russian troops in mid-March.

They killed more than 300 residents during that period according to the Ukrainian government.

On the other hand, Russia claims that the incident was written and enacted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Taras visits a church in the center of town.

Work is underway today to exhume the bodies of residents.

At the time of the Russian occupation, bodies were left lying all over the town, and the residents temporarily buried them in the churchyard.

Sixteen bodies have gunshot wounds
to the head.

Two were killed by explosions and only
part of their bodies were found.

The evidence left on the bodies will be
used to prove war crimes against civilians.

It's said that more than 100 bodies are buried here.

The church priest starts to talk to Taras about hatred and forgiveness.

Christ guides us to love our enemies
as well as our friends.

Yet residents feel hatred toward those
who’ve slaughtered, raped, and plundered.

This is so contrary to our teachings that
they don't know what to do, so they ask me.

Just like Kyiv, many residents chose to stay in Bucha.

But deep, incurable scars remain.

On their way to deliver bread
to their father's house, two sons and their girlfriends
were getting out of their car

when suddenly they were all shot dead
by Russian soldiers.

It all happened in front of my eyes.

My son’s been missing since March 8.

I’ve visited all the hospitals and morgues,
but can’t find him.

I want nothing to do with Putin or Russians
who supported this war in the future.

I will never forgive them for my son's sake.

To tell that I'm shocked means to tell nothing.

I have no words.

It's not the bodies, you know, this is like gutted lives.

And each life had some distance, they made something in their lives, and probably they had children, they had parents,

and I have no doubt that if the Russians come to my house they can do the same easily with me.

And now I have one more reason to fight, because I do understand they will not mercy with me.

Taras returns to Kyiv and starts a new project.

It's something requested by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

He's been designated as the director of a documentary film about the process of recapturing the Kyiv Oblast from the Russian forces.

When the war started,
where did your unit fight?

The film will be titled "Kyiv's Victory."

Taras is interviewing soldiers and officers who have fought on the front lines.

I am making that movie about the defeating of Kyiv, because this is a miracle.

It's a miracle in many cases, it's a miracle in self-organization of people.

And for me, it's the main sign of hope that we will win.

The Russian forces are believed to have given up on the attack on Kyiv and shifted to a strategy to ensure suppression of two eastern provinces.

Fierce battles continue today in eastern Ukraine.

Kyiv is gradually coming back to life.

Taras has been able to bring his family back to Kyiv and they have started living together again.

He is not sure when he will be able to tackle his own work on the theme of "hatred and forgiveness."

Now inside me there is that evil,
because I want to win.

So I have to keep that evil inside me now.
But...

...there will be the day when I
have to say to myself, "Stop, it's finished.
Just take it out from me."

And how to do that, I don't know.

So I don't have an answer,
I have a question.

But, for a movie, a question is good.