| The author discusses “The Ukraine,” his story from the latest issue of the magazine.  Illustration by Valerie Chiang; Source photograph by Valentyn Kuzan “I’m somehow ashamed to brag about The New Yorker to my comrades here, where what really matters is that I don’t lose vigilance while guarding them, and that we fix a truck malfunction, etc.” Those are the words of the Ukrainian writer Artem Chapeye, whose short story “The Ukraine,” about a couple’s love affair and their weekend journeys throughout the country, appears in this week’s issue. Chapeye is currently defending against the Russian invasion as a private in the Ukrainian Army—and he speaks with our fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, about leaving his wife and children to fight, squaring military service with his leftist politics and pacifism, and what the war might mean for his nation’s sense of self. “What’s most amazing, I think, is that most of us didn’t even expect so much resistance and solidarity from ourselves,” he says. “That came as a surprise, and it’s self-supporting.” Read more of the interview, as well as Chapeye’s evocative and tender short story. —Ian Crouch, newsletter editor | 
