Days, nights, Kyiv. 

The first wave of refugees from Luhansk (Eastern Ukraine) came on June 2014, when the first sounds of explosions hit the outskirts and streets of the city.

For many people between 18 to 25 it became the final push to leave their home town. Luhansk has never been a place for romantics. It was a typical provincial post-Soviet city where time seemed to stand still, where everyone knew everything about each other. All of us were dreaming to escape from it.

Like most young people, I’ve chosen Kyiv. To me and my friends the capital seemed to be the city of opportunities. We thought there you could find the job of your dreams, meet new people and—at the beginning—count on those who moved there long before the conflict.

Throughout the year, I’ve been trying to capture what has changed in the lives of my friends and acquaintances. What were their dreams and thoughts now, whether they have changed or remained the same. My greatest surprise was that the feeling of homesickness had been gradually erased with new experiences, new faces, acquaintances, street lights. It seemed like everyone gained their freedom, which was stronger than the yearning for the home town, the city that will never be the same again and to which hardly anyone will come back. 

Evgeniy Stepanets was born in Luhansk (East Ukraine) in 1989.

Finished  Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University.

Currently lives and works in Kyiv as freelance photographer and designer.

He is focusing on documentary photography, exploring social issues in modern Ukraine.