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Maxim Dondyuk Photojournalist From Ukraine Documents The Invasion Of His Country. His powerful photos and heartfelt mission to change minds and stop the war reveal the human cost of conflict. Explore his compelling story in this article!
Missile whistles fall in seconds, generating loud and fearful sounds, from the impact of the Russian Military aggression upon Ukraine, sounds, that Maxim will never forget.
He was in Kyiv when all this happened, capturing all the events around, soon to advance to other regions to photograph everything and everyone left behind.
His goal with photography, which is the philosophy of his life, is to change the mindset of people and stop the war.
“I don’t stay here and do this because I am a masochist,” says Dondyuk,
“I do it because sometimes a photo can change people, change societies.”
In his passion for photography, he sees and feels closely the heart beating of events, as he photographs historical moments happening in Ukraine.
This is how he reflects the emotions of the character as well as his own when capturing and documenting events and people.
Read more about artists documenting the invasion of their country through Art
In his career, Dondyuk, 38, finds himself more as a documentary photographer, mostly based in Kyiv, Ukraine, but as the war advanced pictures of soldiers and their war shelters as well as people who ended up in hospitals, are found in his photos showing the many aspects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Like this boy Samyon, who died the next day after Dondyuk, took a photo of him in the hospital.
He will remember this as one of many times when he being broken down by this reality.
“When we show them the children killed by Russian bombs, they will imagine their own children. Our children are the same. Our cities look the same. They will see themselves in us. They will feel it.”
“Images of people with amputated legs in hospitals, dead bodies all over fields – all these seem unreal, your mind can’t believe this is happening now, in the 21st century”
He and his family are split, as his mother had been forced to flee from Ukraine, as a refugee, and his father still living in a town that’s under Russian military occupation.
As the war progressed and the second week came Ukrainians prepared to fight the Russian troops from street to street, not giving up.
Many people fled, but others stayed, helping those who fight, by cooking them meals, filling sandbags, tending bonfires, delivering supplies, and more.
Ukrainian forces at that time had blown up a bridge, that leads south from Irpin into Kyiv, leaving a small walkway over the river just for a few fleeing refugees to cross.
It was March 6, when Dondyuk and two other photographers headed in that direction to capture these moments, not knowing that this will be the place, where he’ll be wounded in the arm.
The assault at that place, continued for two hours, bombarding the place. When the soldiers at the bridge fled, Dondyuk and his two colleagues waited to photograph the incident.
Many were killed.
Still, people were crossing over, even though they saw missiles coming up behind them and dead bodies near them.
The only thought Dondyuk had for these people, was that they had to be fleeing from something far worse, than the horror happening around them.
His images continue to show the extreme of the violence brought upon Ukrainian citizens – from photographs of wounded people in hospitals to those left dead in the forest and other places.
His mission now with his wife Irina, is to post on social media, but only a couple of days or weeks after the event happens, for their own safety.
His own words, as well as his photographs, touch our hearts deeply:
“I hope that the Ukrainian people will stand. And even though there are big losses, blood and victims, the whole country will defend its independence and will not be absorbed by Russia.”
(Res: https://time.com/6158001/ukraine-invasion-in-photos-kyiv-russia/)
