FROM THE EDITOR
The stories of war for international aid and collaboration these
past few weeks.
Three hundred miles to the east, the story
HOW DO YOU TELL THE STORY OF A WAR? in Kyiv has been much more devastating.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began There, the Ukrainian photographer Maxim
on Feb. 24, all of us have been grappling Dondyuk has been creating a diary of life and
with the constant flood of images and mes- death in and around the capital city. His pho-
sages coming into our homes and onto our tograph of a mother and child being evacu-
screens, with what feels like unprecedented ated from Irpin by a Ukrainian soldier—on
immediacy. The world has been captivated a day in which Russian forces blew up the
by the extraordinary resilience of Ukraine’s railroad tracks on a key evacuation route—
people and the unspeakable tragedies they also appears on TIME’s cover this week.
are enduring.
This week, the war came home to TIME, TOGETHER, THESE IMAGES are an ex-
with the death of Brent Renaud, an award- ▽ pression of both the fortitude and agony of
winning 50-year-old filmmaker who was killed Renaud was killed Ukraine, a sentiment reflected in the words
by Russian fire in the Kyiv suburb of Irpin on by Russian fire in of the photographers. “This little Ukrai-
March 13. Brent had been working on a TIME Irpin on March 13 nian girl is the future, the hope, the joy, the
Studios documentary about the beauty,” JR says, “and, in this
global refugee crisis. That crisis ugly war, she reminds us what
now counts among its numbers our Ukrainian friends are
the 3 million refugees fleeing fighting for.”
Ukraine. Brent’s loss is devastat- “When we show [the Rus-
ing for journalism, compounded sians] the children killed by
days later by the deaths of cam- Russian bombs, they will imag-
eraman Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, ine their own children,” says
and the Ukrainian journalist Maxim about another heart-
Oleksandra Kuvshynova, 24. The breaking photograph of a child
stories of war would not be possi- that appears in this issue. “They
ble without journalists like Brent, will see themselves in us. They
Pierre, Oleksandra, and so many will feel it.”
others from Ukraine and all over On March 16, the morning of
the world, whose work is essential the day this magazine went to
to this critical moment. press, President Zelensky deliv-
As we mourn the loss of these ered his historic address to the
R E N A U D : E Y E P R E S S N E W S/S H U T T E R S T O C K ; U K R A I N E : A R T W O R K B Y J R ; P H O T O G R A P H B Y A R T E M I U R C H E N K O
courageous professionals, we pay tribute to Renaud U.S. Congress. “Now I am almost 45 years
their memory through our work. “What gives old,” he said. “Today my age stopped when
me the greatest heart,” Brent’s brother Craig devoted the heart of more than 100 children stopped
says in a remembrance in this issue, “is how his life to beating.” As I listened to him speak, and took
specifically and genuinely the people hon- in the dueling images of joy and destruction
oring Brent acknowledge the mission that telling the in the video he showed, my own 5-year-old
drove him.” stories of played nearby. I thought of the children on
We tell the stories of refugees, so much
a part of Brent’s work, in two covers that ac-
overlooked these covers and of the families from Mariu-
pol, Ukraine, to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, whose
company this issue. One is of a 5-year-old girl people stories of searching for safety and a better life
named Valeriia. She comes from President run throughout this issue. These stories con-
Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown and, with nect us all. We will continue to tell them,
her mother Taisiia, recently fled to Poland, and are grateful for your support of our work.
leaving behind her brother and father. “It
was very hard to leave Ukraine, very hard,”
Taisiia tells TIME in this issue, “but every-
one wants to take care of their children.”
An image created by the artist JR, and pho-
tographed by drone from above, is lifted
up by more than one hundred of her fellow Edward Felsenthal,
Ukrainians on Freedom Avenue in Lviv, the EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & CEO
city in the country’s west that has been a hub @EFELSENTHAL
4 TIME March 28/April 4, 2022