In 1991, the Soviet union collapsed, and as the second largest country in the former Soviet union, Ukraine inherited a lot of military technology and equipment from the former Soviet union, with a population of nearly 50 million. But after independence, Ukraine has been on the decline in all aspects, not only the economy, technology and education, but all the way back. Ukraine is the country with the most Soviet legacy except Russia, but it is also the country with the fastest decline in the former Soviet union.
Social unrest, economic retreat, endemic corruption, corrupt officials. People do not see the country's hope, so many people become unenterprising, thinking degenerate, men drinking and fighting, taking drugs, while women are forced into prostitution. For a long time the country was full of drunks, prostitutes, atrophied drug addicts, and young people with grotesque hairstyles.
In four cities in Ukraine, journalists have taken pictures of a group of drug addicts for more than 10 days. Of course, without the help of ukrainians who have been freed from drug addiction and AIDS, the filmmakers would not have been able to get close to the people who filmed them. This picture of fear, fear and compassion can also give us a lot of thought.
01
Djiana, 29, started with a combination of drug addicts, hiv-infected people and prostitutes. When she lost her job at the bakery, she fell into prostitution, where she first experienced drugs.
Her legs have been festering and slowly killing her because of a prolonged injection of drugs and a weakened immune system. Despite this, addiction still encourages her to tie a needle on her scarred leg every day. She has an 11-year-old son and knows that her mother is a drug addict, but she doesn't want to "talk about it."
Djiana and six other prostitutes live in apartments with two rooms - all of them hiv-infected and prostitutes.
None of them had access to antiretroviral therapy.
02
For 12 years, she has been raising two teenage mothers. Both sons were long-term drug users and people with HIV.
She had to give up her job to look after her two sons, she said, and it was her fate.
They also sell drugs occasionally - to support their families and satisfy their addiction.
She was helpless in this predicament, and the younger son, in order to be superior to her, scolded her: "bad mother, all blame her".
She said she wanted to die.
03
Former Soviet red army war fighter. He said the drug was because there was never any good in life.
Like many people who served in the red army in the former Soviet union, they became addicted to drugs in Afghanistan.
04
The tattooing man, vitaly, has been taking drugs for 30 years and has been with his son, both of whom are hiv-positive.
He says the only thing he CARES about is his son, which is supporting his life for this purpose. And the son said, the only thing that CARES about him is drugs.
He wanted to get rid of it, but he couldn't stop. Without drugs, he says, life is meaningless and depressing.
He CARES about his son, and he can only support life by drugs.
Drugs are the antidote to life.
There is no special AIDS isolation ward in this hospital, they are all in the general ward and other people in the hospital. Hospitalization and medical conditions are extremely rudimentary.
05
Smuggle drugs to the hospital to see the mother of her daughter. Daughter -- hiv-positive.
The mother said that she did not want her daughter to suffer because she brought drugs to her daughter. My daughter was a prostitute. The mother had another daughter, a prostitute and an hiv-positive person.
It was a young man who had just had a fluoroscopy done in a hospital, and then he was. He is also hiv-positive, one of the most complicated patients in the hospital.
He was sentenced to five years in prison for carrying drugs. His parents reportedly spent $300 to get him out of the prison hospital.
06
Dagina, 45, hiv-positive. She is in the midst of a cocktail of aggressive personality.
She couldn't sit still, she could only walk around. She said to me, "there seems to be something in my body that is bumping into me." Dania (a nickname for da giana) leans against the wall of her small ward to keep her balance.
07
Young serge, who is in the middle of a "hillcard" poppy leaf, is a popular intravenous drug in Ukraine.
He said there was no hope in his life and nothing to cherish.
08
Helsen prison, the only prison in Ukraine that accepts people living with HIV. There is no antiretroviral treatment.
All the inmates know that they are dying and know that nothing can be done.
The doctor in the hospital showed me the new ward that was not completed because of insufficient funds.
A skinny junkie.
09
A thirteen-year-old street boy. He lost his parents because of drugs and AIDS. He's been on the streets for two years -- he's never been an adult.
He used intravenous drugs and used non-disposable needles for more than two years. He lives in Odessa's underage homeless community. Of the 31 underage groups in the local ngo home road, 26 were hiv-positive.
He was going to go to the AIDS test the next day, but I didn't see him in the basement the next day. Other photos are of people living with HIV, vagabonds and drug users.
The photo was given to two other people who were given a needle that was randomly picked from the ground, and they didn't care if they were infected.
A broken house.
Messy home.
Hopeless.
If this is hell.
Hell.
This is still a child.
10
Valojian, a former drug addict. Now working in the small, unofficial group, iegne, they work very actively among people living with HIV.
Valoren's job was to distribute condoms and needles to prostitutes. The following series are street prostitutes serving guests on the poltava road. Average 5 guests per night. She is hiv-positive and drug addict.
Such girls often follow long-distance truck drivers from one city to another, looking for more "oily" customers and spreading the virus across the country.
All the girls on the poltava road were drug addicts.
11
The following series is a small group of former drug addicts in Odessa. ** often found trouble with them, and the young man in this photo, alexey, was recently held for a week because of a needle. He told me it was routine.
12
She had been living with HIV for several years since natasha was six years old. She lives in an orphanage in Kiev, where there are 18 AIDS orphans. Natasha was the biggest, and she didn't seem to be adopted.
Other photos come from the children's home of children in donetsk, the only specialized agency in Ukraine. The country is completely unprepared to deal with abandoned children.
This is the case with a few months old.
13
The photos are of a number of long-term addicts rescued by the Kiev AIDS center, the country's best AIDS treatment agency. The center's chief physician told me that their main problem is that it is difficult to attract relevant doctors to work here with low national wages. The chief physician's monthly salary was $200, which she thought was pretty good.
The newborn's mother is not hiv-positive, and the child's father used to be a drug addict, trying to return to normal life for the child.
The woman's husband died of AIDS two days after taking the photo. Natasha is seriously ill, AIDS. She has four children without any source of life. There was only one thing she was worried about -- how her children would survive her death. Her husband used to use drugs for a long time, and her AIDS came from her husband.