Reporters. Love In the Dark Times

Love is the only weapon that evil does not have in its arsenal. It's what helps us hold on and not go insane in the darkness of loss, destruction, and pain that Russia brings us.

This issue is 152 pages of textual and visual stories that radiate warmth, light, and love. Among them is a dramatic story by TV host Myroslava Parchuk about her grandmother. During World War II, she saved a Soviet prisoner from German soldiers by hiding him in a hay crib, and he became the love of her life. There's a column by writer and serviceman Artem Chekh about the special love for one's own people that is born in moments of mortal danger; an interview with American neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky on the healing properties of love and the psychological aspects of war; and a photo story by Emmy Award winner and one of the global winners of World Press Photo 2024, Yulia Kochetova, about the contrasts of war.
The cover of the issue features a photograph by documentary photographer Oksana Parafeniuk from a series about dating in Ukraine during the full-scale war, taken in the summer of 2024.

They say that love is a choice. A choice to wish another person well. We dedicate this new issue to this choice, which makes us vulnerable but at the same time prevents our hearts from hardening in these dark times.