Adrien Vautier : If you’re getting through the winter

© Adrien Vautier

FROM OCTOBER 5 TO NOVEMBER 8

Adrien Vautier
If you’re getting through the winter

Since 24 February 2022, Ukraine has been living under the suffocating shadow of a war that has shaken the European continent to its core. What was supposed to be, according to Moscow, a swift ‘military operation’ has turned into a long, brutal war of attrition, marked by daily violence that is reshaping the course of millions of lives.
As the months and years pass, the front lines shift, sometimes by just a few kilometres, at the cost of immense human loss. Offensives follow one after another; bombed-out towns are rebuilt. Hospitals, schools and vital infrastructure remain regular targets, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation. In 2023, hopes for a decisive counter-offensive were dashed. Three years later, the conflict continued to drag on. Russian forces made advances in parts of the Donbas and the south-east; Ukraine strengthened its defences, relying on fortified lines, drones, domestic mobilisation and fluctuating but still vital international aid. The years 2025 and 2026 brought no resolution: no lasting negotiations have emerged, positions remain entrenched, and both armies are adapting to a war that has become technological, static and, at the same time, terribly human.
Russia now occupies a total of 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory. Yet society continues to resist. In the face of Russia’s relentless assault, it is building a bulwark of solidarity. Schools and hospitals remain open, transport services are functioning as best they can, and the cultural scene is holding firm. The population is surviving, day by day… caught between exhaustion, courage and uncertainty. They are enduring a winter that seems to go on forever.
Adrien Vautier, a freelance photojournalist, has been covering the conflict in Ukraine since February 2022, working on a freelance basis for the newspaper Le Monde and other national and international media outlets.

Meet Adrien Vautier on Saturday, October 10, at 11.30 am, place de la liberté

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Outside in Bayeux
This exhibition was created in association with Nikon