Dymtro: A Guitar Lost to War

Oleshky, 2005. In high school, I clung to the dream of playing in a rock band as if it were my only escape. I searched for every possible opportunity and nearly burst with excitement when some older boys finally invited me to join them. My heart ached from longing, especially because I didn’t have an electric guitar of my own.

For a time, that problem was solved by a battered guitar from the local community center—ancient, squeaky, and full of rattles and static, but at least it made sound. But everything changed when I turned 16: my parents gave me the greatest gift of my life. My father took me to a music store in Kherson, and together we chose the most perfect guitar in the world (at least for me)—a Cort X2. From 2008 to 2022, I poured my soul into that guitar, learning to play with both grace and technique. Later, when I went off to university in Kharkiv, I brought it along like a cherished friend. After graduation, it returned home ahead of me and took its place of honor in my old room while I moved to Kyiv to work.

Every time I visited, I would cradle it in my arms, struck by memories of those high school days when my heart pounded in time to the band’s music and my ears rang with the thrill of it all. April 2022. The war broke out, and my family fled Oleshky, leaving the guitar behind, waiting faithfully for our return. Months slipped away, yet we did not come back. Our home became one of the occupiers’ bases. They broke down the door, ransacked every corner. And in the midst of this violation, my beloved guitar vanished. I desperately searched online, scouring Russian websites, hoping to find it—ready to buy it back, no matter the cost. But all my efforts led nowhere.

From April 2022 to now, I tell myself it was just an object—though it held years of precious memories. Compared to the unthinkable tragedies unfolding around us, it seems almost insignificant. But there are millions of these “insignificant” losses in everyone’s lives, each one adding a fresh layer of pain. Together, they form a vast, suffocating black hole in our collective subconscious—one that only grows deeper, one heartbreak at a time.