Do Not Turn On the Lights
We scroll through photos on the screens of our phones, read updates about the power and gas cutting out, the internet going down. We have become accustomed to the fact that somewhere far away, the evil of war is being perpetrated. War is also raging right next door. It invades homes that are not thousands of kilometers away, but tens. It comes unannounced, in the morning, without warning.
Evening. A district of blocks of flats resembling a human anthill. I live between four thin walls. And yet I cannot hear, on the other side of these thin walls, the crying of children, the ringtones of phones, the roar of the vacuum cleaner. On the other side there is only deafening silence. I look out the window. Aside from a few lights, everything is cloaked in darkness. The people have left, or they are sitting in the dark. On February 24, 2022, in Ukraine, a regulation was introduced, or rather, an urgent public safety request: Do not turn on the lights after sunset.