Ukrainian photographer Petro Chekali documents life during the war and also creates music, writes prose and poetry. He seeks to combine poetry with prose, metaphors with documentary work, and the roles of artist and art curator. Petro Chekali spoke about searching for his own visual language and for a kind of light that does not blind but, on the contrary, illuminates — and why, for him, to stop photographing would be the same as losing his sight.

At the end of January, Russian forces carried out a series of terrorist attacks across Ukraine. Major strikes hit Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and the Dnipro region. In Kharkiv oblast, the enemy targeted a passenger train, killing six passengers. In Kyiv oblast, a drone’s direct hit on a residential building killed a married couple. In just one week, Russian aggression claimed the lives of three Ukrainian rescuers and an energy worker. By the end of the workweek, the number of strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had decreased. President Zelensky stated that Russian forces were shifting their focus to attacks on logistics while continuing to strike residential neighborhoods. Overall, over the past month, the Air Defense Forces destroyed more than 21,500 aerial targets, including 392 shot down by aviation.

The documentary film *“2,000 Meters to Andriivka”* by director, journalist, and founder of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, Mstyslav Chernov, is destined to remain in the history of world documentary cinema as one of the fifteen best films of 2025. The Ukrainian film did not make it onto the shortlist for the Academy Awards announced the day before by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. However, beyond the path toward a second Oscar, the creators of *“2,000 Meters to Andriivka”* spent the entire year bringing the voices of Ukrainian soldiers to the international community across every possible platform — and making sure those voices were heard. Ultimately, as Mstyslav Chernov notes, this is the film’s primary purpose.

Due to constant Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, the situation with electricity across the country remained difficult throughout the week. The energy system was operating at the limits of its capacity, and several energy facilities required emergency repairs after accidents. According to Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, the situation on January 22 was the most challenging since the blackout of November 2022. This week, the enemy focused its aggression on frontline and border regions, as well as Kyiv oblast and Odesa oblast. The most destructive and deadly attacks targeted Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia, and the Kramatorsk district in Donetsk region.

Constant missile and drone strikes by the Russian army have turned Odesa into a frontline city. It, along with Izmail, Chornomorsk, Kiliia, and other settlements in Odesa region, has been added to the list of active combat zones. Air attacks on Odesa region go hand in hand with information attacks. Propagandists overlay new events and contexts with old Kremlin narratives. In particular, the Russian army destroys civilian bridges, port facilities, and energy infrastructure in the region allegedly only “in response” and under duress.