A 'dark' tour of Ukraine's war-ravaged cities

Tour companies are offering thrill-seeking tourists packages to visit sights of tragic events, hoping to make money and raise awareness

- 

Spanish traveller Alberto Blasco Ventas looked out at Ukraine's destroyed Irpin bridge, 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.

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.