The Ukrainian teens who took on Putin's gulag archipelago — and won

My cover story for Politico Europe

At long long long last, here is my story from Ukraine on the cover of Politico Europe.

This is a story about a group of Ukrainian teenagers who were taken to Russian indoctrination camps, and all the ways they resisted, rebelled, and gave their captors hell while trapped in Crimea.

As anyone who’s been following this war closely knows: Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, untold thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken to re-education camps all across Russia.

But there is perhaps no group of people on the planet who despise being told what to do and who to be more than, well, teenagers.

While in captivity, Ukrainian teenagers like Vlad, Denis, Serhiy, and Rostyk openly defied Russian authorities in acts of resistance big and small: raising their underwear in place of the Russian flag, sneaking out, refusing to sing the Russian anthem, trapping counselors with tape and glue. At camp, Ukrainian teenagers repeatedly and deliberately broke the rules—for fun, and for survival.

“They were trying to break us,” said Vlad. “And we were breaking them in return.”

They later escaped, and spent hours recounting every detail of their experience for me in Kyiv and Kherson.

And then there’s the story behind the story.

Anyone who’s spent more than five minutes with me knows what an insane saga reporting this story has been.

This all started in August 2023 when I first traveled to Ukraine for three weeks on my own. What ensued was the most agonizing year and half of my life. The debt, the rejection, the fear—I almost gave up multiple times.

But it was also the most electrifying and meaningful. I finally placed it with Politico last summer and returned to Ukraine in October. I won two grants. And along the way, I became friends with Nadia, my most intrepid fixer and translator who I could not have done this story without. We spent many weeks together driving across Ukraine in her bright green Beetle, talking about love and war, and chasing these badass teens who taught me the real meaning of resilience.

As the US descends into authoritarianism and abandons Ukraine for a dictator charged with war crimes for abducting these kids, remember that no matter how fucking awful things get, never stop fighting, resisting, and laughing.

We got a lot of smiles at checkpoints

Thank you so much to n-ost in Berlin and the Documenting Ukraine team at IWM Vienna for supporting this work. The Rory Peck Trust for covering my training. Politico for saying yes. Sasha Maslov for the photos. Save Ukraine for everything. And Vlad, Rostyk, Denys, and Serhiy for making me laugh in the dark.