"Jus In Bello" — SERHIY MORGUNOV

Any war means a life between battles. An interaction between militaries and civilians. A new nomos that is being created, negotiated between the civilian population and the combat units. A new reality with which people had to learn to live with.

The war in Ukraine began in March 2014 after the military invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Crimea and the subsequent annexation of the peninsula. The military response to the Russian hybrid aggression on the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions started.

No electricity, no food, and the constant shelling continues. Stories about people whose lives were destroyed by Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine - were depicted in the works of the famous Ukrainian documentary photographer Serhiy Morgunov. The Kyiv history museum has opened an exhibition called "Jus in Bello" or "The Law of War". Our correspondents have visited it.

Along the frontline lays a strip of the so-called “grey zone” - no-mans-land, where people suffer from a legal, humanitarian and informational vacuum due to the absence of any authority and institutions. At the moment many of them are left without housing, work and conditions for living. In many villages, they have no electricity, no gas, no food to secure their existence. They rely on the military for medical service. From time to time, artillery shelling and combats force them to live in basements. This is an extremely unfortunate situation for all those who could not flee - be it due to age, health, a disabled relative - or any other reason.

The exhibition tells the stories of people whose lives were ruined by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, and for which Ukraine is fighting on all fronts; not just military and diplomatic ones, but also the battle to disseminate information.

The exhibition showcases documentary footage from settlements along the frontline in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions between 2014 and 2020.  