Capturing the war: more Ukrainian photographers share their most significant images

Thanks to the work of photojournalists, people can see events that are happening thousands of kilometers away in other cities and countries.

Ukrainian photographers have been documenting the consequences of Russia’s full-scale invasion in the hottest spots of the front line and across the country for over two years. Their photos tell the stories of people amid the war, counter Russian disinformation, and become key evidence of human rights violations.

Here are the stories of Ukrainian photographers and their most iconic photo series, as well as the importance of documentation during wartime.

Kostia and Vlada Liberov

On the first day of the full-scale invasion, Kostia and Vlada Liberov packed their bags to leave Ukraine. Friends were waiting for them at the border. They picked up their suitcases, stepped out of their apartment door, but then returned home in silence, never talking about leaving again. Kostia and Vlada realized that they did not want to leave Ukraine.

During the first week of the invasion, they volunteered in Odesa, looking for fuel, warm clothes, and thermal underwear for the territorial defense forces. In the second week, Vlada asked Kostia to take his camera. He took pictures at the Odesa railway station of men saying goodbye to their wives and children.

The series of photos went viral, and Kostia and Vlada then knew that photography was still an important way of sharing information, countering Russian propaganda, and maintaining hope among the people.

“It is really hard to choose the most important photos, but this photo collection resonates with us the most. It includes the coke plant that was shelled by Russian KABs the day before our troops withdrew from Avdiivka, a new life, the exchange, and the condition of our guys after the exchange,” say Kostia and Vlada.

The photographers say it is important to them that future generations do not have questions like “Why did this war start?” or “Who was the aggressor in this war?”

According to them, Ukraine had repeatedly returned to friendly relations with Russia, falling under its influence and starting to lose its national identity. This always ended the same way —with aggression, bloodshed, and an “Executed Renaissance” (literary and artistic generation of the 1920s and early 1930s in Ukraine that was exterminated by the Soviet government — ed.). Kostia and Vlada see their main task as truthfully showing the terrible pain and cruelty of this war, especially what Russia is doing to Ukrainian cities and people.

Photographers note that they always capture details because that is where the most important things are.

“Sometimes you think you’ve just come to the military position to take some portraits, and then you find out that some of them are no longer alive. You realize that this is a very important shoot for their families, their loved ones, and for you because you captured them alive and smiling,” Vlada and Kostia conclude.

Viacheslav Ratynskyi

Viacheslav Ratynskyi’s most important photo series, “New Ordinary,” captures the key moments of this war. According to the photographer, the title may have become outdated because this reality is no longer new for Ukrainians. After more than two years, it has become part of everyday life.

The idea of the series is to show how different Ukrainians — both civilians and military, as well as Viacheslav himself — are living through this war.

In one photo, men in tracksuits with wooden guns are seen, and in another, a mother and her child are standing in the subway. A photo taken from the roof of Viacheslav’s house shows the city covered in smoke, with a TV tower visible through it. This has been happening since the first day.

“We don’t know what the enemy will prepare for us tomorrow, but as a documentary photographer, I try to capture everything,” says Viacheslav.

When Viacheslav talks about the importance of photographers’ work, he notes that it helps to tell the world about the war in detail. He is currently working on the border between Ukraine’s Sumy region and Russia’s Kursk regions, photographing the advance of Ukrainian troops into Russian territory, the evacuation of civilians, and farmers rescuing their animals.

“I have a series from the Maidan. Now, 10 years later, I realize how important it was to be there every day. Sometimes I think I should have spent more time there because photographs are our history,” Viacheslav recalls.

The series “New Ordinary” was published in the photo book “13 Stories of War” by the “Ukrainian Warchive” project.

Oleksandr Mahula

On July 4, 2023, Oleksandr photographed the burial of soldier Oleh “Malysh” Fadieienko. Many servicemen, including the unit’s command, came to bid farewell to their brother-in-arms, and Oleksandr assumes this is why the Russian army struck Pervomaiske, the Kharkiv region.

As a result of the strike on a residential area, 43 people were injured, including 12 children, and 18 residential buildings were damaged. The missile hit just 800 meters from the farewell ceremony.

Oleksandr’s photo from that day was included in Time’s selection of 100 photos of 2023.

“No one died that day, but small children were among the injured. I remember seeing an injured baby covered in blood and taking a photo almost mechanically,” Oleksandr recalls.

Another important case for him followed the shelling of the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region. On October 5, 2023, local residents were gathering in a cafe for the wake of their fellow villager when the Russian army fired an Iskander missile at the village. The attack killed 59 civilians and injured 5 others.

“My colleague and I then told the story of the Mukhovatyi family. Twenty-three-year-old Sasha lost his mother, father, and grandmother all at once. After the story was published, my colleague started a fundraising campaign for the family and we managed to raise 320,000 hryvnias ($7,700). That was when I realized that journalism can do very important and good things,” says Oleksandr.

Commenting on the importance of photographers’ work, Oleksandr notes that photography is a fact, a documentation of reality. Thanks to photographs, people 100 years from now will be able to understand the period and see the consequences of the war in history textbooks.

“We live in an era of fast content, so during the endless scrolling of social media feeds, it’s photography that can grab attention and tell the story of the war,” Oleksandr concludes.

Written by Viktoriia Mankovska
Translated by Taisiia Blinova