Mykyta Ovsyannikov
Severodonetsk
Lviv
How did you experience war in 2014? What do you remember from that? How old were you? How did 2014-2015 go for you?
Please tell this story in detail.
I saw the war when I was in the 10th grade, I was 15 years old. At that time, I did not understand at all what was happening around me, the attitudes of people suddenly changed to radically separatist ones. This surprised me: I got the impression that they сonserved this spirit of “little russian” and were waiting for the invasion of russia, although there were no prerequisites for this, but perhaps I was wrong. At that time, Severodonetsk was under occupation for two and a half months, and sometime in early July 2014, when Lysychansk was shelled and explosions were very audible, I went with my parents to Kyiv to wait for our city to be under Ukrainian control again. When I returned back, I did not notice any special changes - Severodonetsk was left almost untouched, the city continued to live at its pace. But the reaction to loud noises became more panicky. One of the main tasks at that time was to finish school, prepare to get admitted somewhere and decide what to do in life. This "somewhere" was KSADA. Getting admitted there was quite adventurous: when I came to Kharkiv for a creative contest , I noticed that among my peers very few people at all understood what was happening in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Like it’s a joke or some topic for memes .
I also met understanding, cool people...
and uncool ones as well.
"Where were you these 8 years?".
How has this time passed for you, what changed in your life since the events of 2014?
What has influenced you the most during this time?
Please write in detail.
In Ukraine, where else could I have been? — during this time I have changed two places of residence: first the 6 years in Kharkiv, then I moved to Kyiv. Studied at the academy, started tattooing, followed the development of the music scene, tattoos, design, all of it was very inspiring. It feels like the events of 2014 accelerated this burst of creative energy. It was also definitely influenced by the people I met during this time, with whom I create interesting projects.
What was February 24, 2022 for you like?
Did you believe that a full-scale offensive would begin?Where are you now? What do you do?
What do you think about your future now?
Like most people, I met it with shock. I wrote to all my friends and relatives, checked to see if everything was okay with them. Actually, with so much inflating news about the offensive, the mood was rather dispiriting. Conversations with the people around were more and more on political topics. So, partly I expected it. Now I am in Lviv. I try to do what I used to do, I draw, I try to express some thoughts visually, being able to do this calms me down for a while, otherwise it would have been even more difficult. Developed two designs for the Armed Forces, printed merch with a friend to raise funds for Kharkiv volunteers. As for the future, I can only think of one thing - to see my sister and grandmothers, who evacuated to Europe, as soon as possible.
