A guide to places that matter to us

In light of The Counteroffensive’s second anniversary, we decided to make a map with the places in Ukraine that will help you to get to know everyone on our team.

Editor’s Note: There are probably various reasons why you read our publication. But we believe getting to know our team is a key part of it.

We usually tell the story of someone else to shed light on current events, leaving ourselves backstage. Today, as usual, we are using human stories to showcase the most beautiful parts of Ukraine.

But the main characters in this issue are the team who make our publication. Upgrade today to help us keep the journalism coming.

Before our team ended up here in Kyiv reporting on the full-scale invasion, we were all different people.

One of us was a journalist far from Ukraine, who never thought they would end up living here. Some of us were freshmen at university, with dreams far removed from writing about the military and war. Some were still in their hometowns, while others already had a settled career in journalism.

But now we all are a part of one team at the Counteroffensive, carrying the burden from a fight we couldn’t even imagine not long ago.

So we made a map of places in Ukraine that stop our hearts from growing cold.

It is easy to grow numb to headlines – to see war as another distant crisis. When we look past ruins and numbers, we see that the war in Ukraine has become a personal story for many – and not only Ukrainians.

These places are not just random pins marking beautiful places in Ukraine. Each one carries a link to something deeply meaningful for one of us: be it from the first days of the invasion, to childhood memories, or just a fragment from a peaceful life.

Every day, we have to find inner peace and beauty that will keep us going in the midst of the war – the time of our biggest crises.

A couple of weeks ago we had a live stream ‘Inside The Counteroffensive Editorial Meeting’ to introduce the team and show how we work.

We also ran a poll asking readers what they would like to read, and many people told us they wanted to get to know the team more. That’s when many of us realized we didn’t really know the people we spend most of our days with.

As well as hopefully being interesting for our readers, this map has brought us closer together as a team, teaching us what our colleagues love and care about around Ukraine:

The map of Ukraine with the pins at the most important places of each of the Counteroffensive team.

After the paywall:

• How a veteran confided in Tim about the depth of his war trauma during a chance encounter meeting at a bar.

• Why did Myroslava cry when she saw airplanes?

• What has become of Mariana's quiet refuge in troubled Kyiv?

• How a trip to Crimea left Sashko with a lifelong memory and faith in the peninsula's return.

• Which cities in Ukraine have united The Counteroffensive team?