Soft clay slides between their fingers, taking on one shape after another, to the rhythmic hum of the potter’s wheel. Under strong hands, a small cylinder first appears; then, in a few seconds, it takes on the shape of a bowl, finally becoming a cup. Veteran Anton Kuzio, who lost his sight in a frontline shelling, has already created hundreds of such products — unique, moulded only by touch. Today, the man easily does what he considered impossible a year ago.
This article tells the stories of veterans who lost their sight due to the war and found new opportunities through pottery and social rehabilitation courses in Vinnytsia, Ukraine.
“Clay has its own mood. Sometimes I can make ten pieces in an hour, but there are days when everything breaks and goes wrong on the wheel. It may sound strange, but clay seems to sense my mood. When I am calm, it is obedient,” says Anton Kuzio. Before becoming a mortar operator, he worked as a welder at Zaporizhstal Steel Works.
Anton Kuzio. Photo: Hryhorii Vepryk.
Photo: Hryhorii Vepryk.
Pottery appeared in the life of the former soldier after his darkest period — injury, a two-week coma, a complex trepanation operation, and a complete loss of vision.
“The first two days after the coma were the most difficult: I didn’t understand that complete darkness was now my daily reality. I asked the nurse and doctors how I could live like this, what I should do next. I was in shock,” the veteran recalls.
The beginning of a new chapter in the lives of Anton and nine other blind veterans was marked by the project “Pottery in the Dark”, launched with the support of the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine and the Government of Sweden. At the EthnoChary workshop in Vinnytsia, Anton and the other participants learned how to work with clay. After a month and a half of training, four classes a week, and hours of patience, they produced their first original pieces. However, more importantly, they took a step towards a new life. Anton enjoys working with something tangible:
“Now, while making pottery, I feel like I’m calming down. Clay is like a girlfriend to me — it needs tenderness and special attention,” he says.
Among those who are now creating in the dark is Anton Bohach, a veteran of the airborne assault troops who served as a driver on the front line for a year and a half. In September 2023, he suffered severe wounds, entered a coma, and underwent long treatment and rehabilitation.
“After ten days in a coma, I awoke and was unable to speak — my entire body was covered in tubes, my arms and legs were strapped to the bed, but I could feel them and thought, ‘It’s good that they’re still there.’ The darkness did not go away. I thought that my eyes were just burned and that my sight would return over time, but then my wife said that they had been removed and could not be saved,” he recalls.
Anton Bohach. Photo: Hryhorii Vepryk.
Anton adds that he took this fact quite calmly, without panic. He also cannot smell anything; only his hearing remains — and even that was at risk, because after the injury, both eardrums were damaged. Fortunately, his hearing was partially restored after six months and two operations.
After his injury, Anton did not immediately take up pottery. He initially worked as a massage therapist and experimented with IT. But after discovering clay, he realised it was the one thing that brought him real joy and the promise of a future. Today, Anton has dozens of shelves filled with handmade pottery. He also involves his wife in his new occupation: she decorates the dishes, attaches handles to the cups, and assists with sales.
Anton and his wife have many plans. They’re opening a pottery workshop in Kropyvnytskyi and building a brand to sell their creations, hoping it will give them full financial independence. Anton firmly believes that if they don’t lose hope, everything will fall into place. For him, the message is simple: no matter what hardships soldiers face after the front, everyone deserves — and has — a chance at a decent life. What matters most is the will to keep going.
“We get back on our feet, pull ourselves together and continue living in a new way,” he says. “If God gives you a chance, if he hasn’t taken you away, then it means you are needed in this world. If not us, then no one else will lift this country up.”
Anton Bohach. Photo: Hryhorii Vepryk.
The “Pottery in the Dark” project is not only about reclaiming life after a serious injury and loss of sight, but also about embracing the darkness. It also focuses on passing on experience and on those who have already become a source of support for others. Among them is veteran Ivan Shostak, who has been facing war since 2014. He fought in the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation — ed.), returned to civilian life, and, with the start of the full-scale invasion, rejoined the ranks.
In March 2023, Ivan suffered a serious injury that caused him to lose his sight and, with it, his everyday reality, family, and faith in the future. He spent more than half a year in complete isolation, unable to walk even half a kilometre on his own. His comrade, who came to visit during a short leave, convinced Ivan to seek specialised help. This marked the beginning of a lengthy rehabilitation process at the Centre for Complex Rehabilitation “Podillia” in Vinnytsia (a city in central Ukraine — ed.), where he learned to use a cane, a smartphone, navigate in space, and more. However, Ivan confesses, the real turning point in his life came during an excursion to the EthnoChary art space, where he took a master class in pottery. Ivan recalls his feelings when the founder of the space, Victoria Nikolaieva, suggested him trying to work with clay:
“At first, the clay seemed like just a piece of mud — cold, wet, even unpleasant — but as I worked at the potter’s wheel, that piece of earth in my hands turned into a product, a kind of bowl,” he recalls. “The shape I imagined came to life under my hands. It was something magical.”
He made a wonderful cup, so the founder of the space offered him systematic pottery lessons. After just four months of classes, the novice potter held his first exhibition, where he sold all of his creations — about a hundred of them.
Today, Ivan is not only a potter but also an instructor at the “Pottery in the Dark” project. Thanks to it, he now not only teaches other blind veterans but also helps them believe in themselves, which, he claims, is often a challenging task:
“Everyone who comes to learn pottery has their own story, but they all share the same motivation — to learn to live again and feel needed. After my injury, I spent eight months at home stuck inside four walls, and words cannot describe how awful it is — you feel forgotten and abandoned. Fortunately, there are projects where blind people can find communication, new people, and meaning through work. Then you realise that not everything is as bad as it seems. It’s like a new start in life: the war took my old life away, and now I feel like I have gained so much more. This is what I make sure to convey to newcomers before anything else.”
Ivan also asks his students to work with clay only when they are in a good mood, because he believes that people invest their energy and emotions in their work.
“If a person radiates light, how can anything bad come of it?” he says.
Ivan Shostak. Photo: Hryhorii Vepryk.
Serhii Railan’s wife, Valeriia, also persuaded him to try working with clay. Her name was the first thing the paratrooper said after 20 days in a coma. Together, they went through two years of complex rehabilitation.
“In reality, blind people have a very limited range of activities,” Serhii admits. “On top of that, my legs have been amputated below the knee. I didn’t really want to go to a factory to collect pegs or assemble overshoes. And then suddenly I had the opportunity to learn pottery!”
Serhii said that products of various shapes began to appear in his imagination, but it was not so easy to bring them to life on the potter’s wheel: his hands did not obey him, he lacked patience, and the clay itself wasn’t always cooperative. But after hundreds of failed attempts, the long-awaited products he once imagined began to appear:
“I am a maximalist. I am used to everything working out the first time, but that doesn’t work with clay. It requires relaxation, concentration, and inner peace. Now, working at the potter’s wheel is like therapy for me: I turn on the music, lose myself, and don’t notice how time flies.”
After his injury, Serhiy confessed that he began to joke more and enjoy visiting crowded places dressed in unusual, creative outfits, such as pirate or bard hats or other flamboyant accessories:
“My outfits are not just a style, but a unique way to show others that life goes on even after the worst events,” he says. “Yes, it is different, but it can be beautiful; it all depends on us.”
Serhii Railan with his wife Valeriia. Photo: Hryhorii Vepryk.
Today, the participants of the “Pottery in the Dark” project are not just veterans who have mastered a new profession after losing their sight. These are people who, by their own example, have been able to prove to themselves and others that nothing is impossible in life. Some of them create authentic products in the workshop every day, while others are already teaching pottery to others. And, of course, everyone supports one another in this process and helps the army in various ways.
The material is prepared by
Editor-in-chief:
Natalia Ponedilok
Translation editor,
Editor-in-chief (English):
Oksana Ostapchuk
Photographer:
Hryhorii Vepryk
Photo editor,
Coordinator of photographers:
Sofia Soliar
Content manager,
Coordinator of content managers:
Kateryna Yuzefyk
Graphic designer:
Nataliia Sandryhos
Anna Domanska
Coordinator of the production department:
Maryna Mytsiuk
Chief copywriter:
Sofiia Kotovych
SMM manager:
Anastasiia Danylko
Juan Gonzalez
CEO of Ukraїner:
Yuliia Tymoshenko
Executive lead:
Lyudmyla Kucher
Operations Manager:
Yuliia Kozyriatska
Coordinator of Ukraïner International:
Julia Ivanochko
Editor-in-Chief of Ukraїner International:
Anastasiia Marushevska
Head of marketing and communications:
Karyna Baidalokha
Communications manager:
Marharyta Uvarova
Talent manager:
Anastasiia Kashuba
Partnerships manager:
Halyna Balabanova
Finance Manager:
Tetiana Ushakova
Svitlana Remenets
Accountant:
Olena Mykhaliichuk
Legal advisor:
Kseniia Medrina
