Reykjavík Grapevine - apr. 2022, Side 11

Óskar Hallgrímsson–known as Skari
to his friends–is a photographer who
has been living in Ukraine for over two
years now, and lives in Kyiv with his
wife.
"I just completely fell in love with
this country and the people here,” Skari
says. “It's one of the most amazing
places I've ever been," which is saying
a lot for a person who has travelled all
over the world.
He calls Ukrainians “a funny people.
They're like the Scots of eastern Europe.
If you go to any other old Soviet repub-
lic, you don't see a smile anywhere. But
here, people are always smiling, laugh-
ing and joking.”
Today, there isn’t much smiling
and laughter. Our conversation, taking
place in the midst of the Russian inva-
sion of Ukraine, is briefly interrupted
by an explosion heard outside. Skari is
unshaken.
"I keep a pretty cool head in crisis
situations, because of the nature of my
job,” he says. “I've been in dicey situa-
tions before, though I've never been in
a war. I'm pretty good at doing these
risk assessments; what's actually going
to happen versus what your anxiety is
telling you, and not being controlled by
your emotions."
WHEN THE WAR BEGAN
"I was in my bed, and woke up to explo-
sions,” Skari recounts. “It had been
brewing for a few days at that point.
We knew that Putin was going to attack
somewhere, but most people thought
he wouldn't be stupid enough to try
and take the whole country. But then
during the night, I woke up to these
heavy explosions."
When it came to deciding whether
to stay or leave, Skari and his wife tried
to analyse the situation rationally. Skari
felt it was necessary to document what
was happening, and what was to come.
"I also saw this as an opportunity to
document the conflict,” he says. “And
looking at Putin's army, I just didn't
believe he had the might to do what he
wanted to do. It's just not big enough or
strong enough. Then we saw just how
strong the Ukrainian army is versus the
incredible shitshow that the Russian
invasion is, that convinced me more to
stay. And we're very glad we did."
PUTIN’S GAMBLE
The war is naturally having an
emotional impact on people, especially
as Ukrainians witness what Russia is
doing to the cities of Kherson and Mari-
upol. That said, Skari believes Putin has
miscalculated how Ukrainians would
react to the invasion.
"Putin is making a bet that this is
going to drag Ukrainians down and
make them afraid, but I think it's doing
the exact opposite,” he says. “It's only
fuelling their resistance. You can see
it in the fighting. The death toll on
the Russian side is ten times that of
the Ukrainian side. Plus the amount
of equipment that's been lost by the
Russians is just bananas."
RUSSIA’S QUAGMIRE
By all accounts, Russian forces have
not been able to make any significant
advances into the country. Drawing
from both official and semi-official
sources, Skari believes there are numer-
ous reasons for this.
In a lot of ways, Russia has been its
own greatest enemy in the conflict.
They have lost numerous generals
to Ukrainian forces, in no small part
because of another miscalculation by
Russian authorities.
"The Russians are pushing the gener-
als to the front because the commu-
nication lines have broken down,” he
says. “The Ukrainians have broken into
Russian encrypted communications.
Also, the Russians built this encrypted
cell phone entirely of Russian parts.
They distributed it widely in their mili-
tary. But it's still a cell phone. So if you're
in the middle of a field somewhere in
Ukraine, you don't have any service.
They effectively knocked out their own
communications. As a result, they've
brought their generals to the front to
communicate with troops directly and
try to boost morale, because morale is
completely fucked."
CLOSING THE SKIES?
Skari emphasises that as small as
Iceland is, its vote counts just as much
as any other NATO country in terms of
what to do next.
“The Icelandic government has a
vote in NATO, and it's as strong as any
other country in NATO,” he says. “We
could pressure NATO to do something
in a military sense, for example, to
close the skies. That would be amaz-
ing. That's basically bringing in NATO,
though, so it's very risky."
THE NUCLEAR THREAT
As dangerous as closing the sky might
be, a nuclear retaliation is not some-
thing Skari sees Russia resorting to.
Rather, Skari believes the next step in
retaliation could be something Russia
has used before.
"My worry is that a nuclear strike
isn't the next step in the escalation,”
he says. “What people are missing, and
what my worry is, is chemical weapons.
He's already targetting civilians, he's
already using cluster munitions, he's
already using thermobaric bombs, the
next step is what he used in Syria, the
chemical weapons. He wouldn't be able
to use them in Kyiv, but he could use
them in Mariupol or Kharkiv."
THE LESS FUCKED THING
Despite speculations of armchair
generals across social media, Skari,
from his position in the middle of the
conflict, does not see any clean and
abrupt ending to the conflict.
"When you're dealing with war, there
aren't any good things,” he says. “There
are just less bad things. You can have
one thing that's fucked, one thing that's
way more fucked, so you choose the less
fucked thing. There's no magic answer
to any of this. It's always going to be a
tragedy. Every decision here is going to
cost something."
That said, Skari remains optimis-
tic. His view from the ground, and
his closeness to the Ukrainian people,
affords him a keen look at the resolve
of the Ukrainian people, whose deter-
mination to halt the Russian invasion
grows with each passing day.
"I've seen people stop and clap for
Ukrainian soldiers they've seen on the
street,” he says. “They're heroes to these
people. The morale here is amazing.
Right now, it seems very likely that
Ukraine is going to kick Russia's ass
out."
“They're like the Scots of eastern Europe. If you go to any other old Soviet republic, you
don't see a smile anywhere. But here, people are always smiling, laughing and joking.”
“Putin is making a bet that this is going to drag
Ukrainians down and make them afraid, but I think it's doing the
exact opposite. It's only fuelling their resistance”