Eternity Above the Trenches

Sometimes it seems like war is nothing but darkness, but if you gaze up at the sky in the middle of the night, the darkness fades, receding to the edges of your consciousness, making room for something greater and more significant. The stars, the Milky Way, and even the aurora borealis stretch out over the trenches, fields, destroyed frontline villages, and rear cities. Down on the ground, soldiers defend positions, counting their losses and gains, while up in the sky is eternity, indifferent to human conflicts, decisions, or fears. And this eternity is strangely soothing.

Photographer Andrii Revun has loved astronomy ever since he was in school — he observed the Moon through a telescope, read about black holes, and tracked meteor showers. He photographed the starry sky, gave lectures on astrophotography, and helped popularize astronomy. In the spring of 2022, after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he joined the ranks of the Defense Forces. He started as a gunner in an artillery brigade; later, he joined a communications unit.

Astrophotographer in civilian life, and in wartime a press officer for the First Information and Communications Support Center of the Ukrainian Army, he captures the night sky over the Donetsk region. Here, every shot is a compromise between beauty and safety: if the sky is clear, take the shot; if you hear a threat, get out of there.

Andrii Revun says he didn’t set out to capture the war — quite the opposite, in fact;  in his photos, he wanted to show the beauty of the night sky.

“It’s soothing and helps you realize how small we humans are in the context of the universe, and if we were to disappear from the planet, absolutely nothing would change. Besides, we don’t have anywhere to escape to. In other words, our planet Earth is our home. That’s why we need to cherish and protect our planet and learn to live in a civilized way as a community of people. Right now, we’re not very successful at that,” says the photographer.

And perhaps, while the struggle continues beneath our starry sky, this eternity teaches us that even the darkest night has an end.

Translated from Ukrainian by Liubov Kukharenko