Over New Year I spent a week in Lviv, in the west of Ukraine near its border with Poland, and a week in Luhansk region, 1200 kilometres to the east, on the border with Russia. At both ends of the 26-hour train journey the snow on the ground was ankle-deep, sometimes falling in blizzards, and the temperature on some days was as low as minus 21 degrees.
Winter in Ukraine has many different moods, and although a couple of hours outside each day was all my body could cope with, I stumbled across many scenes during my trip that reflect them.
EURASIAN ECHOES 