Maddie Godsell-Tagg
TANIA YAKUNOVA , UKRAINE
WHEN THE WAR BREAKS OUT
Next to an avant-garde city map and a graphic picture of a Jack Russell Terrier , there is an eye-catching portrait of David Bowie on the wall behind her . Tania Yakunova calls me from a cosily decorated flat in Kyiv . Our perfect connection gets interrupted only once — by the air raid siren .
Time stood still while speeding away faster than ever on this early February morning . It was still too cold for dense forests , wheat farmlands , and sunflower plateaus to sneak behind the car windows . Instead , the overwhelming fear and anxiety blended with the grey of exhaust gases and crispy air . The mere thought of Ukrainian landscapes in full bloom was the only thing that could lighten the petrified hearts of its people on the 24th of February 2022 .
“ We had our belongings in the emergency bags in the car ,” says Tania Yakunova , an award-winning illustrator from Kyiv . Before the war , she mostly used to draw joyful illustrations with funny characters for children ’ s literature and advertising . The editor of The Washington Post approached Tania to capture the events that
TANIA YAKUNOVA , KYIV BEFORE / AFTER
were occurring right outside her window . This proved a game-changer . Even though drawing was far down on Tania ’ s priority list when the war broke out , the possibility of raising awareness through the world-renowned newspaper convinced her to start portraying the invasion . It all began with the piece called Protest .
The Washington Post contacted Yakunova less than a week after she had left the Ukrainian capital . Her entire family decided to flee their cities and meet up in the western part of Ukraine , in the city of Khmelnytskyi . From there , T a n i a allocated her parents to Berlin , Germany . Her aunt , uncle , and nephews drove to Rahib , a small Ukrainian village in the Carpathian mountains .
Feeling desperately homesick and even more uncertain about the future , Yakunova and her husband ended up driving through the country , moving from one place to another . She did not have any plans . However , she had her drawing equipment and the email from The Washington Post . Tania realised that apart from raising awareness , it could be
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