This month Mary Page talks with Anna Bowles, a pro-Ukrainian activist and blogger from the UK who since Russia’s full-scale invasion has spent a great deal of time travelling and working in that country, mostly in east Ukraine, in particular with her friends the Freefilmers NGO providing assistance at a local level to victims of the Russian violence. Anna holds an MA in Russian Studies from the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies in London and works as a freelance editor for publishing houses in central London.
Anna returned to London from her latest trip in late May 2025. We are delighted to speak with her about her latest visit to Ukraine. You can see Mary’s earlier conversation with Anna from 2024 here. You can read Anna’s Substack here. Anna recently won second prize in the 2025 Edward Thomas Poetry Competition with a poem entitled ‘Tania’s House’. We reprint the poem below by kind permission.
This interview was recorded on 29 May 2025
Mary’s questions
- We spoke to you last in April 2023. What you have been doing since then?
- What is the situation in Ukraine like at the moment? How has it changed since we last spoke two years ago?
- Is it possible to say what public opinion in Ukraine thinks about the war?
- Tell us about your writing – you have continued to publish your excellent pieces on Substack.
- I’d like to focus in some detail on stories you have written about on Substack. You wrote a number of articles about the Ukrainian organisations you met in Kramatorsk. Can you talk about your time there?
- Other stories you wrote included one about Marina, a 79-year-old woman who decided to remain in her home in Kherson city during the Russian occupation, and Volodymyr, who looked after fifty children there. Tell us about them.
- Another piece is one called Village Nurse about work done by the Freefilmers NGO providing medical supplies to deoccupied villages in Ukraine, funded by the UK charity BEARR Trust. Can you tell us more about that work – and we know the Freefilmers are your good friends – remind us who they are. And what is the BEARR Trust?
- And you wrote about Nataliia Feodorevna, the ‘best starosta’. What is a starosta and why did you write about her?
- The last story I’d like to ask you about is one called ‘Tania’s House,’ part of which is about a group of British volunteers repairing village houses destroyed during the war – in this case one belonging to Tania.
- And finally, huge congratulations on your recent successes with poetry about your experiences in Ukraine. In fact, you won second place in the 2025 Edward Thomas Poetry Competition with a poem called ‘Tania’s House’. It would be wonderful if you would read it to us.
