The destruction of war in Ukraine has never been closer for Okanagan students.

In a two-day exhibition, the War Up Close Project was held in Kelowna to showcase and enlighten individuals on the scale and aggressiveness of the Russian-Ukraine war, now more than 1,000 days in.

Attendees at Okanagan College and UBC Okanagan had the opportunity to watch a Virtual Reality exhibition on Monday and Tuesday, Dec 2-3. The four-minute VR journey takes viewers through before-and-after 3D imaging of areas in Ukraine that were impacted by the war.

Mykola Omelchenko, one of the project organizers, is a photojournalist. Initially, he was enlisted as a trusted Google photographer to update areas in the country via street view.

However, Google declined to publish the images publicly, citing too much violence. That is when the idea for an alternative use of the images came about, according to Omelchenko.

"They told me you cannot publish the images because there is too much violence. I said, but it's the truth," Omelchenko told Black Press Media. "Even right now, you cannot publish anything related to war on the site, so we decided to pivot and publish the images elsewhere. 

Using state-of-the-art technologies, including drone imagery and 3D mapping, Omelchenko, along with collaborators from Discover.ua and Freegengroup, were able to put together the exhibition. After initially setting a goal of 1,000 people to come out to its first hosted event held in Berlin, a whopping 2,500 showed up, which has expedited the globetrotting project. 

"It has spread rapidly," said Omelchenko. "Without words, we can tell and pass stories of what we have heard first-hand."

The collection of imaging wasn't without its challenges, as Omelchemko outlined harrowing experiences in the war-torn Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine.

"We had police with us everywhere, and a couple of times they saved our lives," he said. "Once, we almost drove on an unexploded missile. The police saw that and stopped us, and we were inches from it detonating on top of us."

The VR experience was chilling itself, yet Omelchenko still had to censor many of the videos, including the blurring of dead bodies and graphic injuries.

"People still get killed every day," he said. "But, we will continue to show these images until the war ends."

The feedback from the exhibition has been eye-opening. 

"Not many had comprehended before the massiveness of the destruction," said Omelchenko. "For them, the war was something they briefly saw on the news. But now, for four minutes, being immersed in the streets of Ukraine (virtually), most of them didn't know that it was happening and now want to get involved."

"That is the goal, let people know the war is still there. Nothing has changed."

Omelchenko thanked Olena Heichenko, who is the coordinator for the War Up Close project in Canada, for her support in bringing the event to Kelowna. David Lisoway, a volunteer with the , was also thanked, for his help in organizing.

For additional information and to see up-close images from The War Up Close, visit .