Attention! The material contains sensitive information, and the photos are scenes of cruelty that can shock you.
On the morning of April 8, 2022, the Russian Federation struck a Point-U ballistic missile on the railway station of the city of Kramatorsk. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the station in the city has been the largest evacuation point for people from combat areas.
On the night of April 5, 2022, Russian troops carried out an air raid on the overland near the Barvinkove station in the Izyum district of Kharkiv region. Departure by rail from the cities of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Lyman was blocked. Three evacuation trains in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk were blocked and passengers were placed at Kramatorsk station. Hundreds of people were at the station at the time of the attack. 61 people were killed and 121 were injured as a result of the attack.
Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers publishes photos and memories of Anatoly Stepanov about the consequences of the missile strike on the Kramatorsk station. At the request of the author, we save the text in the author's edition.
“I was already leaving the apartment to go to Rubezhnaya to the National Guard, when a distant explosion was heard from the street, after which there was a frequent rumbling. Bach, bah, bach - as if dozens of basketball balls rolled down the floor of the gym... From the balcony on the eighth floor, the clouds of smoke rising in the old city were clearly visible. A thought flashed in my head that had flown in the area of the station, but I did not want to believe it. Evacuation trains have been coming from the station for several days and there were always a lot of people there. Siren fast spo
nodded to the movement. On the way to the station, it became obvious that something terrible had happened. From all ends of Kramatorsk, overtaking each other, ambulances and evacuation military beads were carried towards the station.
Closer to the station, there were no doubts. People ran to meet whole families. In the station square, firefighters extinguished burning cars, near the passage to the platform were the first wounded. It seemed that the entire medical staff of the city gathered here. Military medics and just soldiers ran to the station. A small area near the gate was quickly filled with wounded. People groaned, someone fainted in front of their eyes, blood pooled from the girl's broken legs and gathered in puddles on the asphalt. Nearby, an elderly woman with bloodied lips was loaded into the ambulance. A military medic shouted at shocked policemen. Zoyks all around. I tried to shoot it all... I was just doing mechanical action. As in the craze, he raised the camera, pressed, lowered, raised again, pressed... There were no more living people on the platform. Only scattered things smeared with blood, suitcases, children's toys. A smeared bloody spot fell into his eyes, as if someone had dragged a giant brush along the asphalt. Through the tracks, rescuers carried bodies on stretchers. A boy of ten years old on a bench... More than a year and a half has passed since that day, but I remember him all the time. His face... Chin, lips, and then just a light cloth instead of his face... Apparently he felt nothing, no pain, no fright. Iron in an instant inexorably interrupted his little life.
“Pulse, there is a pulse!” - the policeman leans towards the elderly woman. Abandoned head, waxed skin... Two soldiers try to help him. “Everything!” - briefly, as if exhaling, the policeman. Everyone rises and goes away from her. Minute. A minute from hope to judgment.
Nearby, a woman stands near the dead bodies and dials her husband's phone number. It is visible in this place that the ammunition burst and the people were terribly mutilated. She wants to make sure that his body might ring somewhere in his pocket... She just walked away for a few minutes and that's what happened... Under the fence on the bench, a little toy terrier is trembling. The fragment pierced the dog's upper jaw through. Frightened eyes, bloodstained fur. Near beyond recognition, the mutilated body of the host. Some girl takes the dog. A young woman is led past the body, who is fighting in a tantrum.
The police have already recovered from the shock and are beginning to test journalists from the platforms. I go to the square in front of the station. In a flower bed near the Christmas trees, the engine from the Point U rocket was buried in the ground. The inscription in large white letters in Russian “FOR THE CHILD”, visible on its remains, catches the eye. Everyone is recovering little by little. Bodies, many bodies covered with tarpaulins, lie near the station. People who had gathered for evacuation now ran across nearby streets and courtyards. On the street leading to the station, I see a young couple with a child on a bench. They sit hugging with blank stares. They just went out to eat...”
Anatoly Stepanov— Ukrainian photojournalist who has been documenting the war in Ukraine since 2014.
In 2004, he completed a course at the school Viktora Marushchenko. Since then, he has worked in the field of professional photography as a freelancer and as a full-time photographer. Works as a photojournalist for the AFP agency; had publications in magazines: National Geographic, Spiegel, Stern, Time and others.
Photographed Euromaidan. December 1, 2013, during the storming of Bankova Street, the “Berkutovets” beat Anatoly: they broke his head, broke his arm, crushed the equipment[1].
In 2014, he began photographing the war in the territory Donetsk and Luhansk areas. Author of the photo project “Nezalezni” (m. Chicago, USA), one of the film's cinematographers “My war. Two Lives of Vasily Slipak”(2017).
Participant of collective and personal photo exhibitions in Ukraine, Germany, France, USA.
Photographer's social networks:
Instagram
Facebook
Recall that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has started a series of materials dedicated to key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where he publishes memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is implemented thanks to support of ZMIN.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
Attention! The material contains sensitive information, and the photos are scenes of cruelty that can shock you.
On the morning of April 8, 2022, the Russian Federation struck a Point-U ballistic missile on the railway station of the city of Kramatorsk. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the station in the city has been the largest evacuation point for people from combat areas.
On the night of April 5, 2022, Russian troops carried out an air raid on the overland near the Barvinkove station in the Izyum district of Kharkiv region. Departure by rail from the cities of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Lyman was blocked. Three evacuation trains in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk were blocked and passengers were placed at Kramatorsk station. Hundreds of people were at the station at the time of the attack. 61 people were killed and 121 were injured as a result of the attack.
Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers publishes photos and memories of Anatoly Stepanov about the consequences of the missile strike on the Kramatorsk station. At the request of the author, we save the text in the author's edition.
“I was already leaving the apartment to go to Rubezhnaya to the National Guard, when a distant explosion was heard from the street, after which there was a frequent rumbling. Bach, bah, bach - as if dozens of basketball balls rolled down the floor of the gym... From the balcony on the eighth floor, the clouds of smoke rising in the old city were clearly visible. A thought flashed in my head that had flown in the area of the station, but I did not want to believe it. Evacuation trains have been coming from the station for several days and there were always a lot of people there. Siren fast spo
nodded to the movement. On the way to the station, it became obvious that something terrible had happened. From all ends of Kramatorsk, overtaking each other, ambulances and evacuation military beads were carried towards the station.
Closer to the station, there were no doubts. People ran to meet whole families. In the station square, firefighters extinguished burning cars, near the passage to the platform were the first wounded. It seemed that the entire medical staff of the city gathered here. Military medics and just soldiers ran to the station. A small area near the gate was quickly filled with wounded. People groaned, someone fainted in front of their eyes, blood pooled from the girl's broken legs and gathered in puddles on the asphalt. Nearby, an elderly woman with bloodied lips was loaded into the ambulance. A military medic shouted at shocked policemen. Zoyks all around. I tried to shoot it all... I was just doing mechanical action. As in the craze, he raised the camera, pressed, lowered, raised again, pressed... There were no more living people on the platform. Only scattered things smeared with blood, suitcases, children's toys. A smeared bloody spot fell into his eyes, as if someone had dragged a giant brush along the asphalt. Through the tracks, rescuers carried bodies on stretchers. A boy of ten years old on a bench... More than a year and a half has passed since that day, but I remember him all the time. His face... Chin, lips, and then just a light cloth instead of his face... Apparently he felt nothing, no pain, no fright. Iron in an instant inexorably interrupted his little life.
“Pulse, there is a pulse!” - the policeman leans towards the elderly woman. Abandoned head, waxed skin... Two soldiers try to help him. “Everything!” - briefly, as if exhaling, the policeman. Everyone rises and goes away from her. Minute. A minute from hope to judgment.
Nearby, a woman stands near the dead bodies and dials her husband's phone number. It is visible in this place that the ammunition burst and the people were terribly mutilated. She wants to make sure that his body might ring somewhere in his pocket... She just walked away for a few minutes and that's what happened... Under the fence on the bench, a little toy terrier is trembling. The fragment pierced the dog's upper jaw through. Frightened eyes, bloodstained fur. Near beyond recognition, the mutilated body of the host. Some girl takes the dog. A young woman is led past the body, who is fighting in a tantrum.
The police have already recovered from the shock and are beginning to test journalists from the platforms. I go to the square in front of the station. In a flower bed near the Christmas trees, the engine from the Point U rocket was buried in the ground. The inscription in large white letters in Russian “FOR THE CHILD”, visible on its remains, catches the eye. Everyone is recovering little by little. Bodies, many bodies covered with tarpaulins, lie near the station. People who had gathered for evacuation now ran across nearby streets and courtyards. On the street leading to the station, I see a young couple with a child on a bench. They sit hugging with blank stares. They just went out to eat...”
Anatoly Stepanov— Ukrainian photojournalist who has been documenting the war in Ukraine since 2014.
In 2004, he completed a course at the school Viktora Marushchenko. Since then, he has worked in the field of professional photography as a freelancer and as a full-time photographer. Works as a photojournalist for the AFP agency; had publications in magazines: National Geographic, Spiegel, Stern, Time and others.
Photographed Euromaidan. December 1, 2013, during the storming of Bankova Street, the “Berkutovets” beat Anatoly: they broke his head, broke his arm, crushed the equipment[1].
In 2014, he began photographing the war in the territory Donetsk and Luhansk areas. Author of the photo project “Nezalezni” (m. Chicago, USA), one of the film's cinematographers “My war. Two Lives of Vasily Slipak”(2017).
Participant of collective and personal photo exhibitions in Ukraine, Germany, France, USA.
Photographer's social networks:
Instagram
Facebook
Recall that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has started a series of materials dedicated to key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where he publishes memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is implemented thanks to support of ZMIN.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
UAPP is an independent association of professional Ukrainian photographers, designed to protect their interests, support, develop and promote Ukrainian photography as an important element of national culture.
UAPP's activities span educational, social, research and cultural initiatives, as well as book publishing.
UAPP represents Ukrainian professional photography in the international photographic community and is an official member of the Federation of European Photographers (FEP) — an international organization representing more than 50,000 professional photographers in Europe and other countries around the world.
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