Diary of War: Women

Diary of War: Women is a documentary theater piece, featuring first-hand accounts from Ukrainian women who have shown remarkable resilience in the face of danger. The script is drawn from a larger archive of 41 personal histories from an eclectic group of Ukrainians describing their experiences of the full-scale invasion. These raw testimonies were collected by the Ukrainian cultural activist Daria Kolomiec, beginning with her own war diary, recorded as a voice memo on her cell phone while sheltering from bombs with neighbors in the basement of a local cafe in her native Kyiv. The full, original audio recordings of all the diaries are available with subtitles through the Diary of War podcast.

Diary of War: Women voices the stories of these brave Ukrainians:

- Iryna Tsybukh, call sign "Cheka," a film producer and a project manager in civilian life. Iryna shares her work as a combat medic in the Hospitallers volunteer battalion, evacuating soldiers in hot spots on the front line. In May 2024, she was killed during her rotation.

- Olena Nikulina is the wife of Maksym Nikulin, a soldier of the Azov Regiment. She describes learning about her second pregnancy while her husband was at the Azovstal factory surrounded by Russians. Olena has not heard from Maksym since his capture, and he has never met his son.

- Julia Kochetova, a photojournalist who regularly works in Ukraine's most dangerous places, reporting about Russian war crimes. For her work, she was awarded an Emmy in 2023 and a World Press Photo Award in 2024.

- Tetyana Kuzmenko recounts her experiences living under Russian occupation in the Kyiv region, providing insight into the harsh realities of those times.

- Anastasia Shevchenko (STASIK) is a singer, an actress, and a war veteran. Anastasia shares how she overslept the war she was preparing for, her experiences of hostilities, and of Ukrainian heroism. Since recording her diary, Anastasia has rejoined the army.

- Olha Bulkina provides a moving account of her volunteer work as a clown at Kyiv's Ohmatdyt, the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, where she continues to bring comfort to kids amidst the war's casualties. Recently, Ohmatdyt was targeted by a Russian ballistic missile, killing four children.

- Valeria Mykhailovska describes her emotional journey from the Czech Republic to rescue her mother and dogs from Mariupol. Her story captures the brave risks taken and personal sacrifices made during the invasion.

We offer this performance to honor the memory of Iryna Tsybukh.

Host or Publisher Musa Gurnis