Ever since the first rockets rained down in the capital, Anton Boyko - who had tried in vain to enlist - somehow works on the front line.
Alone with his lens, locked in the laboratory, he became the artist of the relics of this war: pendants, medallions, rings made with the splinters that wounded the soldiers under the bombs or even a plate made for a kamikaze.
The most popular, however, are the faiths to the 'warriors' who want to get married and other precious things for the displaced who have lost their homes.
The 38-year-old from Kiev became the jeweler of Ukrainian soldiers overnight, when waiting in the long lines of the registry he tried to join the army as a volunteer, while customer orders began to become more and more pressing.
Then came the request of a soldier who asked for a wedding ring to get married: he would have made an official statement to his girlfriend before going to the front.
"From there I realized that I could be useful with my work," explains Anton.
He, who is self-taught and has learned the art of melting precious metals from an early age, had published a post on social media a month and a half ago offering to make jewelry for free.
"I hear from many quarters that in the last few days many children have been born and that many couples have decided to get married. That is why I have decided that I will continue to work as long as I remain a civilian and until my laboratory is bombed. I will make everything by hand. , I have a little silver left, some gems and titanium - we read in the post of last March 7 still published on his bulletin board - I managed to buy various materials just twelve hours before the bombing began. people everything will be absolutely free:
I will give priority to the military, for which I will be honored to provide my contribution.
I will make symbols of faith, just something beautiful that can restore hope to a person.
I realize that mine isn't the most important job today, but maybe someone needs it.
It is time for beauty to begin to represent what it was created for. "
From that day on, 80% of orders received by Anton concern wedding rings of any metal, from silver to titanium, which he makes free but which are worth from three thousand hryvnia (about 90 euros) upwards, depending on the materials.
Many people try to repay him in many other ways, but he - he says - does not accept.
The real revenues, he hopes, will perhaps come from abroad and the soldier's jeweler in that case would also be ready to donate contributions to support the army.
In the meantime he continues to create unthinkable things, which he gets above all to those at the front: "A soldier asked me to make a ring with the fragments of an object that wounded him in the field while another ordered a medallion to engrave his data. He was a kamikaze, someone who had decided to blow himself up. In one way or another in war everyone risks their lives, but this time dedicating something to those who make such a gesture has shaken me ".
A medal forged for an announced suicide.