Standing on a U-Bahn platform in Charlottenburg, I was surrounded by conscription-age boys sporting shaved heads and trainers.
Carrying huge rucksacks on their shoulders, it was hard to tell what direction they were headed.
Were they fleeing the draft in Ukraine, or had they just completed military training in Berlin and were heading back to the front?
My gut told me home. My train to Neukölln arrived before I could ask.
Berlin had never felt so much at war.
Not even during the 2015 refugee crisis, when Middle Eastern migrants flooded the city and could be found sleeping on the sidewalk in our neighbourhood.
This was different. Ukraine is much closer.
Exactly two years later, I found myself standing in the middle of a Ukrainian-speaking crowd again. This time, in Piazza Castello, in central Torino.
The occasion was a demonstration against the Russian invasion led by local refugees.
A Ukrainian ambulance was parked in the square. Demonstrators, with fake blood on their teeshirts, lay in front, pretending to be dead or wounded.
Despite the display, I found it hard to take photographs.
For the last year, all I’ve focused on is Gaza. I wish I had more to give emotionally, but the combination of the two conflicts is almost too hard to bear.
Judging from all the Palestinian solidarity graffiti and protests in the city, Torino hasn’t found it easy to multitask either.
If the recent appearance of anti-Lebanon war street art is any indication, the situation will get even more complex.
It makes you wonder when the violence will finally reach here.
Walking through a military fair in Piazza Castello two weeks ago, it seemed like Italians are worried about this, too.
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Photograph courtesy of Joel Schalit. All rights reserved.
