Ukraine sees influx of Western war tourists

Spanish traveller Alberto Blasco Ventas looked out at Ukraine's destroyed Irpin brige, blown up to stop Russian troops in 2022 and now a hotspot for thrill-seeking tourists visiting the country.

Russian forces had planned to cross the bridge in their attempts to seize the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at the beginning of the war.

The Russian army has since retreated hundreds of kilometres away, but launches near-daily missile and drone strikes on the Ukrainian capital that Blasco Ventas chose as his vacation spot.

"It's my first time in a war zone," the 23-year-old software engineer said. "I'm a little bit scared, I'm not going to lie, because you never know."

He was on a "dark tourism" tour offered by one of a dozen or so Ukrainian companies specialising in a marginal but growing sector — allowing tourists to visit locations of tragic events.

To get to Ukraine, he shrugged off concerns expressed by his family and got on a flight to Moldova, followed by an 18-hour train ride.

The wannabe influencer filmed every step of the trip, which he planned to post on his YouTube channel — followed by 115,000 people — where he has already chronicled the "most horrible psychiatric hospital" in the United States and "the most dangerous border" in the world, between China, Russia and North Korea.

Before the war, Ukraine already hosted tens of thousands of tourists every year in Chernobyl, which saw the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

Answering critics that would consider such trips morbid or immoral, Blasco Ventas insisted he was acting "with respect".

War Tours, which organised his visit, said it has accommodated around 30 customers since January, mainly Europeans and Americans paying between 150 euros ($157) and 250 euros ($262) for the whole tour.

Part of the profits are given to the army, said company co-founder Dmytro Nykyforov who insisted the initiative was "not about money, it's about memorialisation of the war."

Svitozar Moiseiv, the manager of tourism company Capital Tours Kyiv, said profits are negligible but the visits have an educational value.

"It's like a vaccine to prevent this from ever happening again," he said.

The visits generally centre around Kyiv and its suburbs that saw alleged massacres from Russian troops in the early 2022.

But some companies come closer to the front — including a visit of several days in southern Ukraine costing up to 3,300 euros.

American Nick Tan, who works in finance for a New York tech company, was among those who wanted to go even further than Kyiv.

So he went in July to Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city that faces constant bombing from Russian forces, located around 20 km away.

"I just wanted to see it because I think our lives in the West are just too comfortable and too easy," the 34-year-old said.

He said he wanted to get even closer to the front but was met with his guide's refusal.

The self-described thrill-seeker said he had already gone skydiving, regularly attended boxing classes and raves.

"Jumping out of planes and partying all night and punching people in the face just didn't do it for me anymore. So what's the next best thing? Going to a war zone."

His quest baffled some residents of the scarred Irpin suburb, who live under the constant threat of Russian air attacks.

"A Shahed drone recently fell 300 metres away from my house. I wouldn't have any desire to live through this kind of experience," said Ruslan Savchuk, 52.