Faultine

Faultine documents life in the immediate rear of eastern Ukraine, in the grey zone behind the front lines that lies between civilian and military spaces. Pockets of life remain near a front that continues to draw closer, constantly targeted.

The Front’s Reach documents life in the immediate rear of eastern Ukraine, in the grey zone behind the front lines that lies between civilian and military spaces. As the war drags on into its fourth year, danger is no longer confined to combat zones. Pockets of life remain near a front that continues to draw closer, constantly targeted by Russian drones and bombs.

The project explores how sustained strain alters both the defence of a territory and the way it is inhabited. Technological advances in modern warfare have reshaped the use of space and individuals' relationship to it. The saturation of frontline areas with kamikaze drones has forced, beyond strategic changes, physical alterations to the landscape, with new forms of protection and fortification embedded into everyday infrastructure. Corridors of hastily installed anti-drone nets now coexist with expanding fortification systems aimed at reinforcing the defensive belt along the east.

The overlap of military presence with remaining civilian spaces blurs the distinction between frontline and rear areas. Frontline cities gradually fill with soldiers and equipment as the front approaches, interweaving civilian and military lives under similar conditions of strain. The effect of war persists through habits, bodies, and relationships, shaped by a constant awareness of danger and the need to adapt.

Rather than moments of combat, the project focuses on adaptation, the normalization of threat, and prolonged periods of waiting in between. From a form of warfare increasingly defined by drones and unmanned systems to the cost of conflict on individuals, civilian and military alike, the work reflects on the rear of a war shaped less by visible clashes than its sustained presence.