IN HARM'S WAY

"I'm always amazed at how people try to continue their daily lives as best they can when they are in or close to conflict zones.

- MARK EDWARD HARRIS 

Any semblance of normalcy seems to help them keep their sanity in an insane situation. Such is the case in present-day Ukraine and to some degree in neighboring Moldova, including Transnistria, the breakaway territory and self-proclaimed independent country that straddles the southern Ukrainian border. Moldova could get caught up in the fighting if Russia is able to secure its gains in eastern Ukraine and extend its territorial ambitions to the south.

In sandbagged and tank-trapped Odesa, with their ports mined and the occasional Russian rocket streaking across the sky toward some seemly arbitrary target, attempts at normalcy were evident on every street corner, or at least those that were not razor-ribboned off. People were also coming to the aid of others, as I witnessed at a refugee center supported by The World Central Kitchen in coordination with the National Tourism Organization of Ukraine.

The pro-Russian enclave of Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, is one of the most unusual places my camera and I have ever traveled. While it's internationally recognized as part of Moldova, it is a de facto independent republic with its own government, parliament, military, and a central bank that issues its national currency, the Transnistrian ruble.

The history of Transnistria meaning "beyond the Dniester River" - dates back almost a century. The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed in 1924 within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.