In August 2025, I traveled through Ukraine to document daily life during the Russian invasion. Over three weeks, I conducted more than forty interviews with soldiers, teachers, journalists, artists, volunteers, historians, students, medics, and ordinary citizens living through wartime.
Traveling from Warsaw to Lviv, Kyiv, Irpin, Bucha, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, and Chisinau, I recorded firsthand accounts of resilience, loss, courage, humor, creativity, and determination. Rather than focusing primarily on military strategy or geopolitics, this project explores how individuals preserve their humanity, culture, relationships, and hopes for the future during war.
Stop Stealing the Future: Chronicles of the Ukrainian Resistance is presented in an oral-history format that allows Ukrainians to speak in their own voices. The result is a portrait of a nation under pressure and a testament to the people who continue to build, teach, create, volunteer, and dream despite extraordinary circumstances.
The complete series can be read free on Substack:
You may also download the free PDF edition here at
https://archive.org/details/stop-stealing-the-future-chronicles-of-the-ukrainian-resistance
— Brian Gruber
Life Stories, Illuminated
electric-memories.com