The front line was only about a hundred yards away, over a slight rise. There was a checkpoint full of Ukrainian army and their armored personnel carriers. Everyone there was extremely nervous and ready to shoot anything that moved. Now the Ukrainians stopped us and came toward the car. Suddenly they recognized Yevgeny, who gave them all the information. “You just lost half a dozen guys. Another half a dozen are prisoners. Three trucks got stopped.” Yevgeny told them there was infantry and tanks. They were literally a hundred yards away, but you couldn’t see them because they were in a dip beyond the slight rise.
From there we went back to Artemivsk, checkpoint to checkpoint, all the way. Yevgeny stopped each time to talk to the commander and fill him in on the details of the ambush and the rebel positions. Now the Ukrainians would try desperately to reopen the road and help their troops break out of the kessel. Meanwhile the refugees were taken to what looked like it used to be a school, and Yevgeny dropped me off at New York Street Pizza, a restaurant that had a Wi-Fi connection fast enough for me to file my photos.
* * *
I SAT IN THE RESTAURANT with a beer editing a photo selection . . . these good, these no . . . To my left there was a poster of Frank Sinatra, behind me Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden; across the room Marilyn Monroe was giving me the eye. These yes, these no. Some photos were good in terms of composition, but unfortunately I was the only one who would get the context. Others had context, but I didn’t get the frame right, or the light was off. The gun-gray sky of a dreary Donbas winter, though, was perfect.
Just as I was sending the selection of photos to my agency, the pizza came, served to me by a young blond girl who looked like she was trying to imitate the seductive pout in the Marilyn portrait watching her all day long.
I ate the pizza with my hands and mentally went over the photos I’d just filed. The one with the old man stiff in the snow stayed with me. In my mind I also went over all the photos I’d missed, hundreds of them: the ones of dead Ukrainian soldiers after the ambush, the prisoners crouched down and staring at me with their hollow eyes as they braced themselves for a very bad day. But the one missed photo that remained indelible was the old lady—we’ll call her Masha (she deserves a name)—staring at her husband, plastic bags full of her possessions, ready to get out of town. Only she refused to go without him. All she could do was watch . . . and wait.
As I stared into my computer at the image of her husband, Ivan (he deserves a name, too), I wondered, Why him, why not me? Why was I deemed worthy of survival, of getting out of Syria, of breaking out of the kessel? Was it just dumb luck? Or some sort of grace? And in my staring I entered Masha, still in Debaltseve no doubt—entered her mind, or soul, or whatever—and I felt like I knew how she felt to be stuck watching and waiting, numbed by flights of hope and despair. Seems all I’ve ever trained myself to do in my short life is wander and watch such dramatic flights and falls, then freeze them in images that will wait for someone in the future to figure out how they happened, and why.
EPILOGUE
SINCE MY RELEASE I’VE MANAGED to keep track of some of the people who played a role in my abduction and captivity. Their fates are indicative of just how convoluted the war in Syria has become.
Alfarook, my fixer, left Syria and was in Turkey the last time we made contact. We communicate from time to time via Facebook and emails. Still, something inside me has always harbored the suspicion that he may have facilitated my abduction somehow, if even unwittingly.
In June 2016 Alfarook sent me a message that Essad had been assassinated. The commander and two of his men had been killed in Rankous, within a few miles of the place where I was kidnapped. Apparently Essad, like many of the Free Syrian Army commanders, had been running various illegal rackets to raise money. In effect, he had become as much a gangster as a freedom fighter. There were rumors that he had been talking to the government to gain some opportunistic advantage.
Fares, last I heard, was where he’d always been, back at the family house in the Qalamoun Mountains, near where I was kidnapped, surrounded by fruit trees and cultivating honey.
In one of the last messages from Fares he said that Essad, Abu Talal, and Noor had all been fighting in the northern Homs region. Fares also told me that Baby Donkey had joined Daesh and was fighting for them in Raqqa. It didn’t surprise me because he was the type who could easily be brainwashed. I found Abu Talal on Facebook and he accepted my friend request, but we haven’t exchanged any messages.
I asked Fares about Mej and he told me that Mej had migrated to Germany.
Fares also told me that Rabiyah had been captured, almost certainly tortured, and killed in prison by the Assad government’s troops.
Ray-Ban is now a refugee in Lebanon.
The only time I got in touch with Kamal Atrash was when I was in the French embassy. He tried to meet with me outside, but I was forbidden from leaving. He is still a very active pro-Syrian figure in Lebanese politics.
The only time I had any communication with Mohamed Aboud since my release was indirectly. While I was helping with the release of two Swedish journalists captured in the same area, potentially by the same group, I helped put the Swedish and French governments in touch with one of his representatives in Canada. He wasn’t very cooperative. Later I found out it was because he and his company still hadn’t been taken off the European Union’s sanctions list. Eventually he was taken off the list, but then he was reinstated again, as far as I could find out.
I emailed Robert Doueihy for Christmas 2013 and he very politely replied to me. He maintained that the Damascus part of my story was made up, that I had gone straight to Lebanon. He had even said as much to my father. But in private he was always very nice to me and my father, very happy everything worked out. I just assumed there were certain connections he couldn’t acknowledge.
As for me, I keep doing this work. Most recently I covered the Battle of Mosul in March 2017. I’ve also returned to Ukraine several more times. On one occasion I was photographing a soldier from Ukraine’s Donbas Battalion as he shot an RPG at separatists during a firefight in Shyrokyne, not far from Mariupol. The building we were in took a direct hit. The blast affected my hearing and later tests revealed some brain trauma. Maybe that explains why I still haven’t figured out any plan B—even though I’m working on it.
April 2004, Aghdam, Nagorno Karabakh Republic, South Caucasus: NKR soldiers rush out of a trench on the front lines as Azeri troops are firing machine guns at their positions. The NKR is an enclave populated by Armenians who have declared independence from surrounding Azerbaijan.
April 2004, Aghdam, Nagorno Karabakh: NKR soldiers are helping each other leave a frontline trench.
September 20, 2004, South Ossetia, then part of Georgia: As we get closer to the Cossack positions, the guide puts on his mask so he cannot be recognized. He is carrying a Russian uniform and gun that he kept from his days in the Georgian army in the early ’90s.
February 3, 2006, central northern Kenya, south of the Ethiopian border: Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels are regrouping in northern Kenya for safety. The OLF is organized militarily as a conventional army, with platoons, battalions, and regiments.
October 15, 2006, Ogaden region, eastern Ethiopia: An Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) freedom fighter shows wounds sustained six months earlier when a grenade blew up near his hands.
October 24, 2006, Ogaden region, eastern Ethiopia: A rebel has just hit the ground after shots were heard coming in this direction. The rebel is taking cover behind a small bush, enough to give him camouflage while he waits for a potential target.
August 14, 2008, Gori, northern Georgia: A family is mourning the death of a relative who died during the bombings in Georgia. It is traditional to have a wake for a few days after someone’s death.
February 23, 2009, Galashe, Ogaden region, eastern Ethiopia: An ONLF soldier is taking a rest inside the town’s school during a sweep in the area for government soldiers. The school was
destroyed by government forces in order to make sure no one returns to their homes.
June 6, 2010, Shelwatay, Tagab Valley, eastern Afghanistan: A local Afghan man is walking close to the command armored troop transport for the Third Company. At this point in the operation, the company’s commanding officer is leading his men from inside it, gathering information, before the move northward.
June 7, 2010, Shelwatay, Tagab Valley, eastern Afghanistan: Soldiers from the Third Company, Fourth Platoon are counterattacking from the east side of the village in order to get closer to insurgent positions only a hundred yards away. Firing is getting intense, and coming closer.
October 20, 2011, Athens, Greece: Communists are charging down a street to attack anarchist groups in the center of Athens. One man dies after fighting erupts between protesters at an anti-austerity demonstration outside the Greek parliament.
March 17, 2012, near Al Janoudia, Syria: Rebels are resting after a gun battle with government forces. About eleven rebels, survivors of the fighting in Idlib and Al Janoudia, are holed up inside a small house. Most have deserted from the Syrian army to join the rebellion.
March 18, 2012, near Al Janoudia, Syria: Rebels are drinking tea and washing up early in the morning inside their makeshift defensive position.
March 18, 2012, Turkish border, Syria: With Bashar al-Assad’s troops in the area, a truck full of Syrian families tries to escape into Turkey.
March 19, 2012, Turkish border, Syria: Syrian families are hurrying toward the Turkish border with the help of local fighters. Many children are present. The rebels still hold a mountainous area around a few villages such as Al Chatouria.
March 22, 2013, Mokattam Hills, Cairo, Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood members are charging by the hundreds up Mokattam Hills to attack opposition rioters. Clashes in the Egyptian capital erupted between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and protesters who oppose the leading party.
March 22, 2013, Mokattam Hills, Cairo, Egypt: Opposition rioters are clashing with Muslim Brotherhood members. The violence has injured at least forty people, and police have fired tear gas at protesters in order to protect the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters nearby.
April 25, 2013, Yabroud, Syria: A Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter is taking aim at government troops controlling the next town over, Al-Nabek. Rebels from FSA have been fighting to keep the town and its surroundings clear of government troops, who have been shelling on a daily basis, killing civilians as well as fighters.
April 25, 2013, Yabroud, Syria: An FSA fighter is on the lookout from inside a defensive position after government forces just shelled the area with tanks. This area is attacked often throughout the day and night.
April 25, 2013, Yabroud, Syria: In a secret field hospital, an FSA fighter is being treated for wounds received in battle.
April 25, 2013, Yabroud, Syria: Two civilians were killed on this day because of government shelling. The local men pray together before the burial.
February 2013, Port au Prince, Haiti: A Haitian gang member shows his weapon inside the infamous Cité Soleil, impoverished, densely populated, and the most dangerous part of the Haitian capital.
August 18, 2014, twenty kilometers south of Donetsk, Donbas region, Ukraine: Separatists are burying four of their comrades who died in fighting against the Ukrainian army. The men were locals from a small village south of Donetsk near the front lines; their final resting place will be in that same village.
August 18, 2014, twenty kilometers south of Donetsk, Donbas region, Ukraine: Two women mourn at the burial of separatist fighters.
August 19, 2014, Maryanivka, Donbas region, Ukraine: A shopkeeper has been killed by a shell while walking on the street. Ukrainian forces are inching closer to the besieged city of Donetsk, where thousands of separatists have regrouped to secure one of their last remaining strongholds in the region.
August 24, 2014, Donetsk, Ukraine: A man who lost both of his legs during an artillery attack takes shelter in the hospital’s cellar.
August 24, 2014, Donetsk, Ukraine: An early-morning artillery barrage landed on a hospital in central Donetsk. Although no one was killed in this assault, many wounded from previous attacks have taken refuge in the building’s cellar.
February 3, 2015, Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast (province), Ukraine: Two women pass by a damaged sign near Sloviansk. Each day many wounded soldiers, civilians, and refugees arrive in Artemivsk to escape the encirclement.
February 6, 2015, Debaltseve, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine: A woman stands in front of a bombed-out house. Each day volunteers from all over Ukraine risk their lives to enter Debaltseve to provide food to the thousands of civilians still trapped inside, as artillery fire from both sides rains down in and around the besieged city.
February 11, 2015, Myronivsky, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine: Civilians have taken shelter inside the Palace of Culture building as their town is hit by frequent shelling. About a thousand civilians are still trapped inside this small town on the front line where Ukrainian forces have set up artillery to shell separatist positions a mere three kilometers away.
May 2, 2015, Shyrokyne, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine: Troops from the Donbas Battalion of Ukraine’s National Guard return from a patrol along the cease-fire line agreed upon under the Minsk II Protocol.
May 2, 2015, Shyrokyne, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine: A soldier from the Donbas Battalion of Ukraine’s National Guard fires an RPG-7 at separatists while his position is being shelled by mortars.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Every day I try to be as grateful as possible, especially given the risks I continue to take. First of all I’d like to thank my parents, who went through the ordeal with me and have always been there when I needed them. With respect to this book, Stash, Bonnie, and I would like to thank my father, Jean-Louis, in particular for his contribution; Atria’s publisher, Judith Curr, for seeing the story in book form before anyone else; Rakesh Satyal for his deft editing; Jack Kliger and Steve Millington for playing matchmaker at Michael’s; and John Connor and Caterina Zaccaroni for their support. We would also like to thank all the editors and graphic artists who worked on this book or have ever helped get my pictures out into the world. Of course, I am especially grateful to those of my captors who were kind and to the people who negotiated my release and paid my ransom.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Born in Paris in 1979, Jonathan Alpeyrie moved to the United States in 1993. He graduated from the Lycée Français de New York in 1998, and went on to study medieval history at the University of Chicago, from which he graduated in 2003. Alpeyrie started his career in photojournalism shooting for local Chicago newspapers during his undergraduate years. In 2009, Jonathan became a photographer for Polaris images. His photography career stretches well over a decade, and has taken him to more than twenty-five countries, covering thirteen war zones throughout the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Caucasus, and Asia.
Alpeyrie has worked as a freelancer for various publications and websites such as the Sunday Times, Le Figaro magazine, ELLE, American Photo, Glamour, Aftenposten (Norway), Le Monde, and BBC. His photographs have been published in Vanity Fair, Paris Match, La Stampa, CNN, Bild Zeit, Der Speigel, the Guardian, and the Atlantic. A future photography book about World War II veterans is in the works (Verve Editions).
Stash Luczkiw is a poet, novelist, translator and journalist. He works as an editor for Longitude, an English-language magazine of international affairs published in Italy. Stash met Jonathan Alpeyrie in Donetsk while covering the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. They have returned to Ukraine several times and produced reports together on the war there.
Bonnie Timmermann is a producer and casting director who has worked on more than ninety movies, including such classics as Black Hawk Down, Quiz Show, and Amadeus. Film projects currently in development include a recounting of Jonathan Alpeyrie’s experiences as a prisoner in Syria and In Violet written by John Connor with Mathieu Amalric to direct and star. For television, Bonnie is preparing a series base
d on nineteen of Andy McNab’s Nick Stone novels, and Framed, based on Tod Volpe’s memoir about the high-end art market.
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