Ukrainian photographer George Ivanchenko shows a different side to the war in his home country. The 22-year-old captures the experiences of locals in the frontline cities of Kherson and Bakhmut, as well as in the formerly occupied cities of Chernihiv and Bucha. With his pictures, Ivanchenko brings the viewer into the everyday lives of Ukrainians living with the war.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Lviv, Feb 27, 2022
This photo was taken on the second or third day of the full-scale invasion, in Lviv in my apartment. My friend, his girlfriend and their cat are in the photo. They evacuated from Vinnytsia to Lviv. Why is it so valuable to me? Because this is the moment when the decision was made: Nastia and my girlfriend were going to the Czech Republic, that we would not see them for a long time.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Borodyanka, Kyiv region, April 2022
I went to Borodyanka the first day of de-occupation because I was born in a village near there. I remember its buildings, I remember where I got my hair cut for a Kinder egg, I remember the market and the main street. This building was hit by a Russian airstrike and at the moment the photo was taken, the State Emergency Service was still working to free people under the rubble in the basement.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Synkivka, Chernihiv region, April 2022
I was in a small village with old wooden houses. I looked into a yard and I happened to see this. It is a shell, probably from a hurricane or tornado missile. This is situated only 600 meters from where the three borders of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia meet. There is a monument called the three sisters and, symbolically, from that place they were shelling the Chernihiv region.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, April 2023
A canal divides Chasiv Yar and there's one such district across the canal in the direction of Bakhmut - the side of hell - it's quite a dangerous area. In one apartment block there is a tank next to a crater from a missile, in which a soldier is probably buried. There is no more information, but it's an incredibly sad and incredibly horrible picture and situation.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, April 2023
Serhiy, age 17, is on the right, and the owner of a beautiful red Lada, 27-year-old Dmytro, is on the left. They are washing their car while a house burns, caused by phosphorus bombs. I like this situation because they are doing something routine. Despite the fact that there is a war and they are four kilometers from the front line, they are so easygoing, carefree, washing their car.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, April 2023
The road to Bakhmut goes through Chasiv Yar. This is a local woman, her name is Zinaida. She is 72 years old. She is Orthodox and she took us to her apartment. The whole room is covered with paper icons and to her left, there is an altar with a candelabrum where she prays. She told me that her day usually starts at 3 am with a 3-hour prayer.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Bakhmut, Donetsk region, June 2023
This is a girl named Milana, she is about 11 years old. We became good friends at that moment. We played monopoly, had tea, talked. It was so warm, so cozy, so nice. I don't think I've ever felt like that in my family home, as I did in that basement in Bakhmut. As far as I know, Milanka is not evacuated, although many people with their children fled the building after the missile hit it.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Mykolaiv city, June 2022
It's a hot summer in Mykolaiv which is a near-frontline city. I thought it would be safe there. But every morning from 5-5:40 am the city was shelled with five to twelve cruise or ballistic missiles. This photo shows workers returning home because a missile hit an oil warehouse. The warehouse was burning for two or three days and when it was put out, it started to burn again.
-
George Ivanchenko: Unbreakable
Kherson, November 2022
This is during the liberation of the Kherson region. This region is important to me because I lived there for five years. I captured the joy and delight after the Russian occupiers had finally left the city. Although now I look at it with a different perspective in the sense that the city suffers so much every day from shelling and many people are killed. But that moment was a moment of victory.
Ivanchenko, a DW Akademie MediaFit scholarship recipient, has been published in The Washington Post, the New York Times and on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's social media. His images were also the subject of a multimedia photo exhibition at the 2023 Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany. The exhibition will once again be available during the open house event "Tag der offenen Tür" in Berlin at the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on August 19 and 20. The photos are accompanied by stories from Ivanchenko. Here you can see a selection of the images and read excerpts from his account of the war.
The exhibition "Unbreakable" was created as part of the EU and BMZ-funded project "MediaFit Programme for Southern and Eastern Ukraine". Through the Creators Fund, MediaFit supports journalists and media professionals from the south and east of Ukraine, like George Ivanchenko.
