Sergei Loiko is an Russian-American journalist who has spent the last year covering the war in Ukraine. He's also a friend, and has now written Airport, a novel about the battle for Donetsk Airport. It’s about to be published in Kyiv, and Sergei sent me a few chapters to read.
To call Airport a novel is perhaps not quite accurate: it’s more like a memoir or a diary. Sergei covered Donetsk Airport throughout the long months of fighting, which ended with its total devastation. But when what we're fighting over is destroyed, can the battle be considered won? Who is the victor? How can you tell?
Who’s the victor?
Airport reads like one of those post-apocalyptic fantasy novels that are so popular here in Russia: members of the opposing armies occupy different floors of the half-razed terminal building. As positions are surrendered and recaptured, more men are killed each day.
