The excerpts from the photo documentation Kyiv depict a Ukraine on the cusp of change — shaped by its post-Soviet legacy, yet already engaged in an early struggle for democracy and sovereignty. Stahr’s images capture the dialogue between people and urban space, symbolically chosen: streets, squares, and crumbling buildings become surfaces of communication for political identity. From today’s perspective, in the shadow of the war since 2014, the photographs appear as a quiet historical document. They point to the continuity of democratic longing and the fragile state between memory and the present. Stahr’s early photographs thus stand as a warning bridge to today’s war in Ukraine.