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(photo credit: Konstantin Zorkin)

Introduction

How far would you go for love? When Czech writer Adela falls in love with artist Konstantin Zhorkin, she moves to Kharkiv, in Ukraine, to be with him.

Kharkiv is just 30 kilometres from the Russian border and has been hit by some of the worst attacks of the war in Ukraine.

In this short documentary, Adela tells her personal story of what life is like in Kharkiv as the war continues.

Vocabulary from the story

independent monitors
people or organisations who keep a record of a war, that are not influenced by the countries involved

civillians
people who aren't involved in the military

Shaheds
military drones

Transcript

Beth
At the BBC, our colleagues investigate important stories from around the world. In this new series, Our World in English, we're bringing you the best documentaries from the BBC in language you can understand. This episode is called Kharkiv: Love in a war zone.

Adela
I'm at the Polish Ukrainian border. It's midday. It's hot outside, 33 degrees. I'm waiting here. I've been waiting here for more than four hours in a queue. They work really slowly here. This is the longest time I've been ever waiting on my way to Ukraine. But anyway, I can't wait to be with Kostya.

Beth
This is Adela Knapova a Czech writer and journalist. She's stuck in a queue to cross the border into Ukraine.

Adela
It looks like it's my turn to go, to move another two metres, so I'm going to do it now. I just can't wait to be with Kostya. And I'm tired. To be honest, we are all tired. Everyone here is tired.

Beth
Adela is travelling to Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, close to the border with Russia. Kharkiv is one of the most bombed cities in Ukraine. Adela moved to Kharkiv around a year ago after she met an artist called Konstantin Zorkin, who she calls Kostya. Adela fell in love. She left her life in Prague and moved to Kharkiv to be with Kostya.

Adela
If someone told me even one year ago that I will live in Kharkiv, that I will fell in love, and that I will be happy in Kharkiv, and that I will leave all my Prague life for Kharkiv, I would consider that person a crazy man or woman. I just I would say it's no way, no way.

Beth
How far would you go for love? Over the past year, BBC Eye has been speaking to people in Kharkiv. In this programme, we're going to tell one story about Adela and Konstantin and what their life in Kharkiv is like as the war in Ukraine continues.

Adela's friends in Prague want her to come home, but Adela wants to be with Kostya, and Kostya feels he needs to stay in Kharkiv. It's his home.

Adela
When I'm in Prague, they almost always ask me, why don't you bring Konstantin with you? We can help you. He can live here. But I say he doesn't want to live here. It's his city. It's their country. They can't run away. They don't want to run away.

Beth
Kharkiv is a dangerous place to live.

Adela
Of course, if Russians enter Kharkiv, there is no place for us. We will be killed, both of us. And we know it. It's not only us. The, the reality of the war is is like this. But as long as Kharkiv is and the Russian bombing and the war is going on, that's, uh, my place. That's my home, because it's, uh, it's Kostya's home.

Beth
By the middle of May 2025, independent monitors say 1,684 civilians had been killed in the Kharkiv region during the war, and there had been over 23,079 attacks.

This is Konstantin's art studio in a basement. This is where Adela and Kostya first met. Sitting at the table, Kostya talks about meeting Adela.

Konstantin(translated and spoken by an English speaker)
We were sitting at this table talking about Kharkiv, about the feeling in the city. And Adela sat on the chair that I'm sitting on now. And I don't let anyone sit on this chair except for me. And there were two journalists here, and I felt very tense, and I just started talking to her. I looked at her and she looked at me, and I remember it as this magical story, because I hardly ever left this basement. There was so much death around. I worked all the time and love, warmth found me.

Beth
A month after that meeting in Kostya's studio, Adela moved to Kharkiv. They've been together ever since.

Adela
My closest friends say that Kharkiv has changed me. I have different eyes, they say. A different smile. I don't know, I'm not aware of it. I have a unique position. Half inside, half outside. I can run to safety at any time. Sometimes I even feel guilty for that. But as long as Kostya is here in Kharkiv, I have no choice but to live here with him. He never asked me to live here with him. He always repeats that he is aware of the risks I'm taking.

But I won't lie, somewhere deep beneath all that life, love, happiness, hope and gratitude, well, there is a sadness. I think I haven't admitted it aloud to anyone yet. The endless sadness.

Beth
Two weeks later, in the early hours of the 7th of June, Kharkiv is hit by one of the most powerful drone and missile attacks of the war. It comes five days after a Ukrainian attack on a Russian air base.

Adela
What you hear is the Shaheds and the Ukrainian army trying to shoot them down. It's more than 40 explosions during the night here. Rockets, ballistic missiles and dozens of Shaheds. It's the biggest Russian attack on Kharkiv during the war. What we're experiencing this night, it's not even four in the morning.

Beth
It's a scary night. And Adela doesn't know whether to stay in Kharkiv.

Adela
When the last explosions, Kostya told me that he will help me pack my stuff and I should leave, but I can't leave. I want to stay with him. But at the same time, I feel like I need to calm down, to breathe.

Beth
Later in their kitchen, Adela and Kostya are cooking lunch. It's small, everyday routines like this, Kostya tells us, that help you survive.

Konstantin(translated and spoken by an English speaker)
In this chaos, the only thing that you feel you can do is to live your life while you can. Live your life, love, work, and make some kind of contribution to what's happening.

Beth
In June, Adela leaves Kharkiv to spend a month in Greece in a house she owns by the sea. Meanwhile, the attacks on Kharkiv continue.

When Adela returns to Kharkiv, US President Donald Trump announces he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to find an end to the war.

BBC News headline
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin arrived in Anchorage in Alaska a couple of hours ago, greeting each other on a red carpet laid out at a US Air Force base. It's the first time they've met face to face since 2019.

Beth
Two days later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders fly to Washington for more talks about peace.

BBC News headline
Donald Trump has confirmed the US would be involved in security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a deal to end the war with Russia.

Beth
That weekend, Adela and Kostya are hosting a small party to celebrate their birthdays.

Adela has been watching the news about the negotiations between President Trump, President Putin, President Zelensky and European leaders. But living in Kharkiv, she finds it difficult to believe that the war will end soon.

Adela
Right now, I feel like there are two realities. The reality outside Ukraine and Putin and Trump and Zelensky and the European leaders are talking and they're pretending that peace is coming, but it's just blah, blah, blah. Because here in Ukraine, nothing has changed. The peace is not closer.

So for now, the reason I stay here in Kharkiv is the same as why I moved here. To be with Kostya. I simply feel I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. And with a man who is the love of my life.

You know, the death is inevitable. Our only freedom is to choose to live our own way. And I chose.

Beth
Thanks for listening to this episode of Our World in English, based on the documentary Kharkiv: Love in a War Zone by BBC Eye.

This programme was originally broadcast in September 2025. Since then, bombings in Kharkiv have continued and more of the city has been destroyed. Talks to end the fighting have also carried on, but for now, the war continues.

You can find more information about BBC Eye by following the link in the notes below this programme.

More about this programme

Based on the BBC Eye documentary, Kharkiv: Love in a War Zone, first broadcast on 25th September 2025. The orginal programme was reported by Albina Kovalyova and produced by Louise Hidalgo.