Julie Ward on a writer putting words into action
War From The Rear by Andriy Lyubka published by Cherry Orchard Books, an imprint of Academic Studies Press
Prior to Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion in February 2022, many people probably could not locate Ukraine on a map of the world. The war has changed that to a large extent with news bulletins from the front along with statements from the White House, Downing Street, Brussels, etc. However, the conflict still feels very far away for most people. The author, translator, and Vice President of PEN Ukraine, Andriy Lyubka, is attempting to change that, using his talents as a wordsmith to tell the stories of ordinary people rising to the enormous challenge confronting their country. In his book “War From The Rear”, he documents his experiences delivering aid to the front lines and in doing so reveals the humanity and humour of those caught up in the conflict.
Lyubka was about to travel to a literary event in Lithuania when the full-scale invasion began, changing everything for Ukrainians, regardless of age, class, gender and socio-economic status. His career as a successful author was put on hold, and he even questioned the value of literary pursuits during wartime.
“In the first months of the war, I didn’t just feel apathy, I felt a real disgust for writing: it seemed selfish and meaningless to me.”
Instead, he began raising money and procuring vehicles for Ukraine’s defenders on the front lines and through this voluntary activity, began to rub shoulders with a diverse set of people. Acknowledging how the war degraded his own physical and mental well-being, he could only dream of writing novels again in peace-time but we, the readers, can be grateful that he eventually began to commit his thoughts, encounters and experiences to paper. The short texts that make up this slim volume are mostly matter-of-fact, but occasionally we glimpse Lyubka, the creative writer, for example, when he writes one very long sentence over two pages which describes the experience of being “On the road”. There is also a sweet moment when a soldier requests one of Lyubka’s poetry collections. Poetry is the “queen of wartime”, he opines, due to its brevity.
“War From The Rear” paints a picture of humanity in the face of brutality: deliveries of Transcarpathian sausages at Easter time for friends in the military, the savouring of a decent cup of espresso in the morning on the frontline in Donbas. In the course of his aid missions, the author finds himself rubbing shoulders with people whom he would normally not encounter, such as the Roma second-hand car salesman in Slovakia who always gives him a good deal, and faith communities who open their doors to provide food and shelter for those on the move.
“This experience was truly transformative for me. It shifted my worldview, prompting personal growth and marking the end of my youthful frivolity.” He goes on to note that banal things have become significant with “simple professions” regaining respect, for example, low-paid train conductors who continue to work because it is their “professional duty”, and electricians labouring in freezing temperatures trying to restore power to critical infrastructure after enemy strikes.
The author, like most Ukrainians, has had to come to terms with the loss of friends and acquaintances. He mourns the death of soldiers he came to know and those unknown to him, and mourned by their bereaved families. As a cultural figure, he likely remains at risk and, indeed, experienced a degree of understandable paranoia about Russian kill lists. When the children’s writer Volodymyr Vakulenko was found to have been executed by the invaders, it was a warning to all those others writing in Ukrainian.
Lyubka’s tone is largely unsentimental. These literary fragments are not fiction, nor reportage but documentation and commentary – a re-telling of conversations, phone calls, chance meetings, brief friendships, internal dialogues and the daily grind of a country and its people putting up one helluva fight in pursuit of freedom and democracy (whilst the rest of Europe watches in a rather disinterested way, failing to understand the dangerous moment we are in).
“The enemy has stepped onto our land and awakened not just the people but the force that makes us who we are.”
In January 2026, Andriy Lyubka announced his decision to join the Ukrainian military, saying he felt this step was necessary because “the war continues” and it’s time “to be not only for the Armed Forces, but in the Armed Forces.”