A journalist and writer from Belgium, Victoria Belim, is collecting material in Kherson for her new book. It will be dedicated to how people preserve culture under a full-scale war. The woman is looking for stories about this by visiting frontline regions.
This was reported by Suspilne.
Victoria Belim arrived in Kherson for the second time. The first time she was here was in 2016. She says the city impressed her and left warm memories.
“I always dreamed of coming here, no matter what. Now it has become possible. First of all, I wanted to meet the people who remain in Kherson, who support the city and its cultural heritage. I want to stay here for a while, just to feel, to understand Kherson. Otherwise it’s impossible — you need the city, in a sense, to become part of you,” the journalist believes.
Victoria plans to use the materials gathered during her stay in the city in the book “The Rose and the Flame”. In it the author will tell stories of people from different regions of Ukraine. The book will be about how Ukrainians preserve culture during the full-scale war. Among the protagonists are residents of frontline oblasts.
“The title “The Rose and the Flame” is symbolism from Persian poetry. That is, it is beauty and at the same time danger, a combination of something that usually does not combine. For me this is very symbolic of contemporary life in Ukraine,” says the writer.
Victoria Belim was born in Kyiv; in her teenage years she moved with her family to the United States, later to Belgium. She studied at Yale University and worked as a journalist in various countries around the world. She has spoken Ukrainian since childhood — her family spoke it; her ancestors were from the Poltava region. After 2014 Victoria began to travel to Ukraine more often, and researching her family history became the basis for the basis for her first book “The House with Roosters”.
“I wrote it in English, then it was published in various translations. This book was translated into Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish and many other languages. Altogether there are now about 18 translations, including into Ukrainian. The Ukrainian version was published in 2026. For me this is very poignant and touching, because it is as if part of me returned home,” says Victoria Belim.