Where Russians and Ukrainians pray together Photograph

The story of this photographic project is about how the Russian and Ukrainian communities (outside the respective Patrias) live the situation today. In this case in particular it is about the orthodox community that revolves around the Borodina center of Merano. The church, finely decorated, welcomes people from different nationalities: every Sunday there are Russians, Ukrainians, Moldovi, Serbs and Georgians. The community, always very united by faith, begins to have fear of cracks within it: there is tension of a deep split due to war. We leave politics out of the church, some Russian faithful tell us, who prefer to remain anonymous. It is not difficult to understand their will: many have relatives and family members in Russia, and a narrative contrary to the regime could cause an imprisonment of their relatives. And it is so that you realize how, even the Russian population is the victim of what is happening. It is discriminated by the mere fact of being Russian, and the iconoclasts affects not only the Russians of the Church, but also the others, "guilty" to attend the same place of worship. And who is contrary to the war, fearing retaliation abroad, closes in his silence. The spectrum of the war comes up here, it matters everything in one way or another. It is the fear that snakes, fear of retaliation for the Russians, fear for family members for Ukrainians.