“She’s going to find a way until Ukraine is free.”
Photojournalist Maranie Staab followed Ukrainian powerlifter Anna Kurkurina as she muscled through her days rescuing the war-torn country’s pets and strays.
Today, Long Lead publishes “Lifting Ukraine,” a photo essay reported by photojournalist Maranie Staab that focuses on 57-year-old Anna Kurkurina, a three-time powerlifting world champion who lives in the Southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.
Since the war with Russia began in early 2022, Kurkurina — with financial support from some of her more than 1 million combined followers on Instagram and YouTube — has dedicated herself to rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming Ukraine’s ever-increasing number of stray cats and dogs. Her mutual aid work goes beyond animals and their caretakers: Kurkurina volunteers with people who have cerebral palsy, training them at the gym she frequents in Mykolaiv.
Depth Perception recently caught up with Staab, a Pittsburgh native, to find out more about the making of “Lifting Ukraine.” “I’ve really never met anyone like Anna before,” she says. “I am also somebody who tends to be pretty high energy — I’m an athlete and people have joked about having a hard time keeping up with me. But with Anna, it was tough for me to keep up with her.” —Mark Yarm
The following interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
What drew you to Anna Kurkurina’s story?
I’m interested in how war affects individuals and societies. So when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, I found a way to get there as soon as possible. I was able to do work for several aid organizations, one of which was World Central Kitchen. While working in Mykolaiv, I asked Julia, one of the women I met [via World Central Kitchen], “Who’s doing exceptional work around here?” And her immediate answer was Anna.
Julia took me to visit Anna, and we spent a handful of hours together. Anna and I immediately hit it off. She doesn’t speak English, but through Julia I was able to learn about who she is and the work that she does with animals. We also went to her gym. Afterward, I couldn’t let Anna’s story go — it stayed in my mind.
After connecting with Long Lead, you went back to visit Anna in 2023. What was that like?
Anna, to my surprise, said, “You can come stay with me.” I lived with Anna in her house for a solid three weeks. I spent every day with her. In the mornings, we’d go to the gym, followed immediately by an entire day of humanitarian efforts — both for people and animals. Being able to be in that proximity to someone was invaluable. We don’t speak the same language, so we communicated using Google Translate quite a bit.
I never saw Anna act with anything less than joy in her work. Which is unusual, even for the best of us. That was contagious and inspirational.
You were in a conflict zone that whole time. Did you feel like you were in danger?
Yes and no. The reason I say it like that is because Mykolaiv was always within range of being hit. While I was there, there was the occasional strike outside of Mykolaiv. Still, it was less dangerous than in 2022. You can do as much as you possibly can to remain safe, but there is an inherent possibility of an air strike. We were all aware of the danger, but when you’re with civilians who are managing to live their daily lives, that tends to fade a little bit.
Which photo from this essay do you think best captures the essence of Anna?
There’s one of her with a boy named Bogdan who has cerebral palsy. I think why that one comes to mind first is because of the joy I saw on Bogdan’s face in Anna's presence. His mother was there too, and she showed what can only be described as profound gratitude for Anna’s work — [Anna] dedicated a lot of time and energy to training this young man, helping him walk when every doctor had told him he’d never be able to. With Anna, it was very clear that she loved both of them.
Of the animals you photographed, were there any that you were tempted to adopt yourself?
There was specifically one kitten that I told Anna she’d have to check my suitcase for because I was going to smuggle him home. I’m smiling as I say this, because, again, we don’t speak the same language, but for the few weeks that I was there, I was always joking about the cat. Anna would call the cat “America,” because she was trying to get me to take it back to America. I did not end up taking the cat — it makes the most sense to try to rehome the animals within Ukraine.
How have things changed for Anna since your last visit?
In November 2023, she competed in a powerlifting competition for the first time in eight years, and she was very successful. She’s currently dealing with another injury, the result of the way she trains. She tends to push herself.
But on the service front, she’s never stopped. Given the nature of the news cycle, and people’s attention spans in general, she says a lot of [social media] interest has dropped off. But when she’s not able to raise funds [online], she spends her own money. Anna’s never, ever stopped. And she’s made very clear that she won’t. She’s going to find a way until Ukraine is free.
Read “Lifting Ukraine” on Long Lead.
This week’s Long List is centered on mystery, deception, and uncertainty, from a brilliant Rolling Stone piece about dishonest documentarians to a Bloomberg Businessweek story about how new technology may help us uncover ancient knowledge. Plus, I’ve got a documentary recommendation from a couple years back that is sadly still relevant. —Parker Molloy
“Emails Reveal How Anti-Trans Doc Tried To Dupe LGBTQ Allies Into Participating” by Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone (Feb. 10, 2024)
In a follow up to her June report, “A New Documentary Is Courting Trans Voices. It Has a Big Right-Wing Secret”, Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the deceptive tactics used by conservative filmmakers to trick unwitting LGBTQ voices into participating in anti-LGBTQ documentaries. This time, McCann Ramirez looks at the production of The War on Children, a film that demonizes LGBTQ people as “groomers” of children intent on “sexualizing” them through drag performances as part of a plot to create “lifelong left-wing voters.”
These types of right-wing documentary-style pieces of anti-LGBTQ propaganda have become increasingly common in recent years, and McCann’s articles on the topic are required reading for anyone interested in understanding this modern ideological battlefield.
“A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld” by Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker (Feb. 5, 2024)
This enthralling modern mystery unfolds the tale of Zac Brettler, a youthful Londoner who had been masquerading as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. Brettler’s story takes a dramatic turn when he meets a grim fate, plummeting from the window of a gangster’s apartment building, only to be found dead in the cold embrace of the River Thames. The circumstances surrounding his death are shrouded in mystery: Was this a desperate act of suicide, or could it be the result of sinister foul play?
You’ll want to set aside a healthy amount of time for this one, but I promise you, it is a story that is worth every second.
“Disinformation poses an unprecedented threat in 2024 — and the U.S. is less ready than ever” by Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News (Jan. 18, 2024)
NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny provides a chilling look at just how unprepared the U.S. is for wide-scale disinformation attacks, originating at home and abroad. A multi-year effort to smear fact-checkers and disinformation experts as censors has successfully helped partisans and promoters of false information sow widespread distrust among the general public. This work has resulted in social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to dial back efforts to confront misinformation head-on.
Combine all this with a fragmented media environment in which there will always be someone willing to tell readers and viewers what they want to hear, as well as the new prevalence of generative artificial intelligence products like ChatGPT, and the 2024 election — along with the country itself — could plunge into chaos.
Zadrozny’s work is always a good read — her recent story on the anti-vaccine movement downplaying measles outbreaks is a worrisome yet worthwhile story — the quotes from experts on the direct and indirect effects of disinformation may have you wondering if the very idea of reality is itself a relic.
“Bused From Texas to Manhattan, an Immigrant Struggles to Find Shelter” by Seth Freed Wessler, ProPublica (Feb. 7, 2024)
Seth Freed Wessler provides readers with a glimpse into the life of Rogelio Ramon, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker navigating New York City’s overwhelmed shelter system, which was “hastily launched” in 2022 after Texas Governor Greg Abbott began sending migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to liberal cities. In the last two years, New York has experienced an influx of more than 170,000 migrants, though not all of them were sent from Texas.
The story notes that New York is the “only major U.S. city that’s required, pursuant to a four-decade-old consent decree, to provide a shelter to anyone in need.” This is complicated by a strain on space and other resources, along with a new city rule limiting single adult migrants to 30-day stays in shelters. They have the option to reapply after their 30 days are up, but the wait can be long.
This story puts a sympathetic name and face to migrants, who are often spoken about as if they were less than human. Ramon is just a man who ended up in New York City, trying his best to make a life for himself.
“Can AI Unlock the Secrets of the Ancient World?” by Ashlee Vance and Ellen Huet, Bloomberg Businessweek (Feb. 5, 2024)
With the power of artificial intelligence, we may soon be able to read hundreds of ancient scrolls that were long thought inaccessible to human eyes. These scrolls, the Herculaneum papyri, were “flash-fried” in the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius, rendering them perfectly preserved but extraordinarily fragile. Past attempts to read these delicate documents, which were recovered during excavations of the site, have been unsuccessful. New technology, which involves scanning the scrolls whole, digitally “unrolling” them and making use of AI to read trace amounts of ink and piece them together.
This brilliant piece explains how the process works, why there is an “army of nerds” on the case, and what we might learn about ancient society in the process. Plus, there are some really helpful animations.
“Lifting Ukraine” is Long Lead’s first photo essay. In our latest newsletter, Creative Director Sarah Rogers shares why this newsroom standby was ripe for reinvention.
We Need to Talk About Cosby, Showtime (2022)
For my other newsletter, I recently interviewed W. Kamau Bell. Ahead of that conversation, I watched his 2022 four-part documentary, We Need to Talk About Cosby, and I highly recommend checking it out if you missed it when it was first released. Bell, himself a stand-up comedian, wrestles with Bill Cosby’s tarnished legacy and journey from being “America’s Dad” to being prosecuted for sexual assault.