Russian War in Ukraine
In Eastern Europe, in search of stories, stories lost.
Russo-Ukrainian War
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I am a documentary photographer, writer, and occasional circus nomad currently working in Ukraine. Please, feel free to scroll down and look at some of my selected work.
2019 - 2023
Volodymyr heads toward the field where he will launch the Darts drone
Ukraine 2025
Drone Operators on the Long Haul
Surviving Under Siege: Summer in Avdiyivka
Serhiy smokes a cigarette while a Russian drone circles above
Ukraine 2025
Yevhen’s unit prepares for a drone launch while under tree cover
Ukraine 2025
Serhiy brings back the drone from the fields after an unsacsesful mission
Ukraine 2025
Serhiy launches the reconnaissance drone, called Valkyrie, into the air with a giant slingshot
Ukraine 2025
The Darts winged drone pilot grins moments after the screen cuts to white noise, signaling the strike’s impact
Ukraine 2025
Yevhen and Dmytro guide their drone toward its target, then a red cross locks onto the position as the drone hovers, stabilizing for the drop
Ukraine 2025
Volodymyr attaches the Russian 9N210, pre-formed fragmentation submunition under the drone already placed on the trebuchet system
Ukraine 2025
Two piles of FPV drones next to a pile of prepared bombs
Ukraine 2025
Sawed-down parts of RPGs and scattered explosives lie in the yard where the unit prepares its munitions
Ukraine 2025
A Ukrainian Orthodox Church with ammunition boxes scatered around, which was used by Russians as a military hospital
Ukraine 2025
Fragments from the Road
Surviving Under Siege: Summer in Avdiyivka
An altar in a church with ammunition boxes scattered around.
Ukraine 2025
A rifle hangs next to toiletries and jackets at a frontline military position
Ukraine 2025
Serhii stands by a fallen comrade’s grave in a snow-covered cemetery in Kharkiv, lighting two cigarettes—one for himself, one for his brother-in-arms
Ukraine 2025
Burial of an Ukrainian soldier at the Kharkiv cemetery
Ukraine 2025
Shots in Izium
Ukraine 2025
A soldier embraces a woman in a quiet farewell on the platform of Kramatorsk train station
Ukraine 2025
A Ukrainian soldier greets his wife with a kiss and a bouquet of flowers on a train platform in Kramatorsk
Ukraine 2025
A ruined house in a de-occupied village stands abandoned by the side of a winding road
Ukraine 2025
Trees torn bare by an explosion line a snow-covered road near the de-occupied village of Dovhen'ke
Ukraine 2025
A burned-down forest on the frontline
Ukraine 2025
A column of smoke and debris rises after an airstrike near the Kramatorsk train station
Ukraine 2025
Sappers work in a crater in the aftermath of the Russian attack in Kharkiv on January 2nd
Ukraine 2024
Over Five Hundred Missiles in Five Days
Surviving Under Siege: Summer in Avdiyivka
Firefighters extinguishing a fire from the remains of a missile, reportedly one of the first used by Russia but produced in North Korea
Ukraine 2024
Ivan waits to be treated after sustaining an injury from one of the explosions
Ukraine 2024
A blood-covered slipper, left behind by one of the residents injured in the attack, lies in the rubble of an apartment building
Ukraine 2024
Air raid alert and rattling sound of air defense echoes over the cemetery in Kharkiv as Albina quietly finishes a prayer beside the grave of her son, Andriy
Ukraine 2024
Two Years Later: Still Waiting for Spring
Surviving Under Siege: Summer in Avdiyivka
A devastated church looms over the ravaged village of Bohorodychne liberated during the Kharkiv counteroffensive
Ukraine 2023
Mass graves unearthed shortly after the liberation of Izyum
Ukraine 2024
One of the few remaining residents of a liberated village in Eastern Ukraine fishing on the remnants of a war-damaged bridge
Ukraine 2023
A "cowboy" figurine placed by soldiers on their checkpoint guards the road to the frontline in the Kupiansk direction
Ukraine 2023
An ice-covered rose stands amidst hundreds of flags in Maidan Square that pays tribute to the fallen soldiers
Ukraine 2024
Volunteer Sasha looks over his former neighborhood in his hometown through the window of a bombed-out school.
Ukraine 2023
Surviving Under Siege: Summer in Avdiyivka
Surviving Under Siege: Summer in Avdiyivka
Lila and Ljona look up as a shell whistles by the entrance to their destroyed apartment.
Ukraine 2023
As a shell lands nearby, the shed's small windows rattle, causing ripples in the milk Tetyana Ishinko collects in a pail from one of the last remaining cows in her besieged hometown.
Ukraine 2023
Leonid Tarasov tends to his apiary in an orchard behind his house, just 2 kilometers from Russian positions.
Ukraine 2023
Volunteers sort through supplies before they are delivered to their besieged hometown.
Ukraine 2023
Locals in Avdiyivka form a human chain to help with the distribution of pre-packed food boxes from the World Food Programme.
Ukraine 2023
In towns along the frontline, there are many playgrounds but all children left.
Ukraine 2023
Russia's destruction of the Khakhovka dam
Russia's destruction of the Khakhovka dam
The streets of Kherson flooded after Russia destroyed the Khakovka HPP dam.
Ukraine 2023
Local volunteers risk their lives to deliver food to residents in flood-hit Kherson.
Ukraine 2023
Volunteer Pavel works on rescue and distribution of humanitarian aid in his flood-hit hometown, Kherson.
Ukraine 2023
Volunteer Yura returns to the shore on a shrapnel-pierced boat. The boat was attacked by Russian artillery, injuring two volunteers.
Ukraine 2023
Winter on the Frontline: Living in Cellars
Winter on the Frontline: Living in Cellars
Vitalii, braving incoming Russian artillery, ventures into the center of his hometown to examine a crater left in the wake of recent shelling.
Ukraine 2023
For the past year, Svitlana has lived in the cellar beneath the ruined building that was once her house.
Ukraine 2023
Valeriy's hometown, having undergone some of the fiercest battles along the front line in the Donbas region, has been long stripped of basic necessities like electricity, heat, and running water.
Ukraine 2023
Iryna and her son cook in their shrapnel-perforated hallway, where smoke ventilation is easier than in their cellarf. A few months ago, a shell landed in their backyard, costing Iryna her right leg.
Ukraine 2023
Military Training
Nearby Kyiv
U.S. Army veteran John Roberts from Newport Beach, California, who has been teaching through the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine since May 2022 leads a military training at a remote site outside Kyiv.
Ukraine 2023
Ukrainian soldiers train outside Kyiv.
Ukraine 2023
A close-up of a bulletproof vest as the 114th Territorial Defense Brigade trains outside Kyiv.
Ukraine 2023
Ukrainian soldiers train outside Kyiv.
Ukraine 2023
Russians Retreats from Kyiv
The remnants of a bridge that civilians used to flee Russian shelling in Irpin, which Ukraine’s Army had blown up in order to slow Russia’s advance on the capital.
Ukraine 2022
Destroyed vehicles across a bridge in Irpin.
Ukraine 2022
Two members of territorial defense forces examine a destroyed Russian tank in Irpin.
Ukraine 2022
Larisa and Andriy stand outside of their damaged home in Bucha.
Ukraine 2022
Streets in the suburbs of Kyiv are littered with destroyed Russian armory and human bodies.
Ukraine 2022
A residential building destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka.
Ukraine 2022
Dmytro approaches a rocket lodged in the road near Hostomel airport.
Ukraine 2022
Burned bodies of horses lying by the road leading to Hostomel.
Ukraine 2022
Ukrainain soldiers walks past by destroyed tanks from the battle for Hostomel airport.
Ukraine 2022
The corpse of an unidentified man in civilian clothes lies prone on a street leading to Bucha.
Ukraine 2022
Bucha
Massacre
Zhena with his dog in Bucha.
Ukraine 2022
Sergey's corpse lies by the train tracks in Bucha. There are too many bodies in the streets and not enough hands to clear them away.
Ukraine 2022
Covered in dirt, Sergey's uncovered hands show the first signs of decay. His water-soaked fingers are turning blue. His fingernails are already purple.
Ukraine 2022
A pile of corpses lying near a pile of debris in Bucha were reported to have been brought by Russians on a tank, dumped, and set on fire.
Ukraine 2022
One of six charred civilian bodies - three women, one teenager girl and two men who were found at a residential area in Bucha.
Ukraine 2022
The collected bodies were brought for burial at a local cemetery in Bucha.
Ukraine 2022
Evacuation
Trains
Aurika stays quiet on the evacuation transport from Avdiyvka to Pokrovsk and blankly stares at the ground. More than five million people have fled across Ukraine’s borders, and more than seven million remain displaced within the country.
Ukraine 2022
On the 29th of March, Lenca's home on the frontline got hit by a phosphor shell. After two weeks without a place to stay, she and her family decided to leave their hometown in search of a new life.
Ukraine 2022
Valerina knows that even after fleeing immediate danger on the frontline, a bright new life is far from guaranteed.
Ukraine 2022
The road leading to the Ukrainian military outpost nearby a destroyed coal mine called Butovka.
Ukraine 2021
Life on the Frontline Before the Full-Scale Invasion
"Machmud" takes cover in a trench on the frontline facing Donetsk.
Ukraine 2021
A Ukrainian soldier looks out towards the enemy positions on the frontline in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Ukraine 2019
A school library on the frontline in the village Opytne.
Ukraine 2020
Soldiers have been training on the paintings of the children, as their faces are marked with bullet holes.
Ukraine 2020
“Do you remember something from the time before the war?” asks Sveta her granddaughter. “I don’t even remember when the war started it just always been here,” her granddaughter answers.
Ukraine 2020
“Pipi pi pi pip that’s you, a little chick,” Anja imitates the sound and then continues: “ta ta ta ta, machine gun and fiiiiii BUFFFF, that's a mortar shell. When you hear ‘fiiiii’ we run and hide.”
Ukraine 2021
Ukrainian soldier examines his gun on the frontline nearby Donetsk.
Ukraine 2019
A Ukrainian soldier stands at a block post on the frontline in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Ukraine 2019
A mural depicting a local teacher of Ukrainian languages on a building ruined by the war, in Avdiyivka.
Ukraine 2021
Oleksiy and Svetlana are sitting in their kitchen. They don't know what awaits them. The possibility of a new full-blown invasion seems real and with that also the fear that they might need to flee their home on the frontline once again.
Ukraine 2021
Nearly every building along the frontline in the Donbas region of Ukraine bares scars of war.
Ukraine 2020
A Ukrainian soldier stands in a trench on the frontline nearby Donetsk.
Ukraine 2021
Ukrainian soldier walks with dog Patric toward an outpost on Donetsk's highway H-20.
Ukraine 2021
Drone Operators on the Long Haul
Ukraine 2025
Fragments from the Road
Ukraine 2025
Over Five Hundred Russian Missiles in Five Days
Ukraine 2024
Two Years Later: Still Waiting for Spring
Ukraine 2024
Surviving Under Siege: Summer in Avdiyivka
Ukraine 2023
Russia's destruction of the Khakhovka dam
Ukraine 2023
Military Training Nearby Kyiv
Ukraine 2023
Winter on the Frontline: Living in Cellars
Ukraine 2023
Russians Retreats from Kyiv
Ukraine 2022
Bucha Massacre
Ukraine 2022
Evacuation Trains
Ukraine 2022
Life on the Frontline Before the Full-Scale Invasion
Ukraine 2019 - 2021