On 2 April 2022, the Ukrainian armed forces liberated the Kyiv region. During the occupation, at least a thousand people died there and new graveyards were created. The Russian army left behind a terrible scene. The streets of towns and villages were covered with the bodies of dead civilians, often with signs of torture - burnt-out remains of tanks and armored vehicles, civilian cars shot up, mass graves on both sides of the settlements, and most of the houses destroyed.
Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers is publishing photographs by Oleksiy Furman from the liberated Kyiv region. Oleksiy has been a member of the association since 2022.
In mid-March 2022, active fighting continued for the Kyiv region. From 13 to 21 March, battles continued in Irpin. In Bucha, the Russian military set up firing positions in residential buildings. On 21 March, the Ukrainian military liberated the Makariv village. By the end of the month, Ukrainian forces had surrounded Irpin, Gostomel, and Bucha. Russian troops began to withdraw from the occupied territories of the Kyiv region. Irpin was liberated from the Russian occupiers on 28 March and Bucha on 31 March.
On 2 April 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated the Kyiv region from Russian troops. The combined efforts of the Defence Forces, volunteers, and residents managed to resist the Russian army and liberate the region. The Ukrainian military has liberated more than thirty settlements in the Kyiv region. "Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel, and the entire Kyiv region have been liberated from the invaders," said Deputy Minister of Defence Hanna Malyar.
At least a thousand people died in the Kyiv region during the Russian occupation. However, the numbers are not exact, as new mass graves continue to be discovered in towns liberated from the Russian army. Civilians in the Kyiv region were found shot dead with their hands tied. The bodies showed signs of torture. Russian soldiers fired on convoys of vehicles marked 'children' and civilians, raped women, men and children, and looting. Several settlements in the Kyiv region were more than half destroyed.
Since 1 April 2022, photographer Oleksiy Furman has been documenting the newly liberated territories of the Kyiv region. Before that, he was on an editorial assignment in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv, and filmed a friend's funeral in the Chernivtsi region. At the end of March, the photographer bought a car and drove with his colleague Stas Kozliuk to Kyiv. On the eve of their departure, information began to emerge that some settlements in the Kyiv region had already been liberated. But the situation was still very uncertain.
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On 1 April, Furman's colleague Sergiy Polezhaka shared his photos from Dmitrovka with Alexey Furman. On the morning of 2 April, Oleksiy also went to Dmytrivka. "What I saw in Dmytrivka reminded me of the scenes I saw repeatedly in the Donetsk region in 2014. Only this time it was near Kyiv, an hour's drive from my home," recalls Oleksiy Furman. He photographed destroyed houses and the burnt-out skeletons of tanks and armored vehicles. He heard the stories of people who were left behind to look after their homes and their memories of the fighting that happened here just a few days before.
"On the very first day of our work, 2 April, there was one of the worst things I saw while working in the Kyiv region. It was a section of the Zhytomyr motorway between Mriya and Myla, the "road of death". There were burnt cars and burnt bodies next to them," Oleksiy Furman recalls, "and a pile of bodies on both sides of the road, which the Russians had probably tried to burn. I took a picture, but I did not publish it - such footage was to be used at the trial in The Hague, but it is "off limits" for publication in the media. A little further on, Oleksiy saw the body of a man with his hands bound. Unfortunately, he would have to see this detail - the taped-up hands - again later, not far from Gostomel.
During April, May and June, Oleksiy Furman was actively photographing in the liberated towns and villages of the Kyiv region. He was in Bucha, Borodyanka, Gostomel, Ozeri, Zaholtsi, Fenevychi, Andriivka, Demydiv, Makariv and others. On 6 April, Oleksiy Furman and a colleague from the UK went to Gostomel - they wanted to take photos at the airport. When they were not given permission to do so, they went to the nearby five-storey buildings. Several of the buildings had their floors collapsed, while others were badly damaged. "As I was taking pictures of one of the buildings with a wide-angle lens, I noticed small wooden crosses near a flower bed. I went closer and saw name tags on the crosses. I took a few photos and sent them to Getty Images, the agency I was working with at the time. They were published that very evening," says Oleksiy. The next day I received a message on Viber from an unknown number: “Tell me, did you take the photos in Gostomel?” - I replied that I had. - “I wanted to thank you for the photo... This is my mother's grave”.
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While filming in the Kyiv region, Oleksiy and his colleagues met many brave, open-minded, and very kind people. In Bucha, they got to know an entire building, and within half an hour of meeting them, the brother and sister who had been in Bucha throughout the occupation were giving the photographers a tour of the liberated town. Oleksiy Furman found out that the brother and sister's neighbor had been delivering food to people in the neighboring district on his bicycle during the occupation. "I go with him, and in front of me, a woman crying, holding a fresh loaf of bread. She gives me a handmade doll as a souvenir," says Furman. He adds that many people from the Kyiv region have not spoken to their families for several weeks. The next day, the photographer and his colleagues brought in several old mobile phones to give to the locals. For several days in a row, the old ladies at the entrance treated us to tea brewed on bricks in their yard. This genuine hospitality from people who have lost so much is always very touching," says Oleksiy Furman.
The photographer has seen dozens of people wandering through the ashes of their homes, trying to catch a glimpse of something familiar and loved. "What impressed me most was probably the resilience of our people," says Oleksiy Furman. "Within days of the liberation of Ukrainian cities, towns and villages, people whose flats or houses had been irreparably damaged were already working - re-roofing, putting in new windows, cleaning up".
Life quickly returned to the Kyiv region, and the photographer wanted to capture it in one story. Walking around Borodianka in June, he saw a girl on a swing near the destroyed nine-story buildings and took a picture. "The locals loved the picture so much that there is now a monument near the playground, the sculptors of which were inspired by my photo," smiles Oleksiy Furman, "It's a pleasure to be involved in a creative process that is antagonistic to the terrible destruction we have experienced.
Oleksiy Furman is a Ukrainian visual storyteller, a graduate of the University of Missouri, and co-founder of New Cave Media, an immersive storytelling studio in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers. He covered the Ukrainian revolution of 2013-2014, and the annexation of Crimea, and continues to work on documenting the war in Ukraine. Oleksiy's coverage of the conflict has been recognized by POYi, NPPA, PDN Photo Annual, and the Bayeux-Calvados War Correspondent Award. His work has been published in TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera America, 6MOIS, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, De Standard, and the Financial Times. For the past two years, Oleksiy has been photographing severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers returning home.
Photographer’s social media:
Facebook
Instagram
We would like to remind you that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has launched a series of materials dedicated to the key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where we will publish memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is being implemented with the support of the ЗМІN.
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
On 2 April 2022, the Ukrainian armed forces liberated the Kyiv region. During the occupation, at least a thousand people died there and new graveyards were created. The Russian army left behind a terrible scene. The streets of towns and villages were covered with the bodies of dead civilians, often with signs of torture - burnt-out remains of tanks and armored vehicles, civilian cars shot up, mass graves on both sides of the settlements, and most of the houses destroyed.
Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers is publishing photographs by Oleksiy Furman from the liberated Kyiv region. Oleksiy has been a member of the association since 2022.
In mid-March 2022, active fighting continued for the Kyiv region. From 13 to 21 March, battles continued in Irpin. In Bucha, the Russian military set up firing positions in residential buildings. On 21 March, the Ukrainian military liberated the Makariv village. By the end of the month, Ukrainian forces had surrounded Irpin, Gostomel, and Bucha. Russian troops began to withdraw from the occupied territories of the Kyiv region. Irpin was liberated from the Russian occupiers on 28 March and Bucha on 31 March.
On 2 April 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated the Kyiv region from Russian troops. The combined efforts of the Defence Forces, volunteers, and residents managed to resist the Russian army and liberate the region. The Ukrainian military has liberated more than thirty settlements in the Kyiv region. "Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel, and the entire Kyiv region have been liberated from the invaders," said Deputy Minister of Defence Hanna Malyar.
At least a thousand people died in the Kyiv region during the Russian occupation. However, the numbers are not exact, as new mass graves continue to be discovered in towns liberated from the Russian army. Civilians in the Kyiv region were found shot dead with their hands tied. The bodies showed signs of torture. Russian soldiers fired on convoys of vehicles marked 'children' and civilians, raped women, men and children, and looting. Several settlements in the Kyiv region were more than half destroyed.
Since 1 April 2022, photographer Oleksiy Furman has been documenting the newly liberated territories of the Kyiv region. Before that, he was on an editorial assignment in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv, and filmed a friend's funeral in the Chernivtsi region. At the end of March, the photographer bought a car and drove with his colleague Stas Kozliuk to Kyiv. On the eve of their departure, information began to emerge that some settlements in the Kyiv region had already been liberated. But the situation was still very uncertain.
On 1 April, Furman's colleague Sergiy Polezhaka shared his photos from Dmitrovka with Alexey Furman. On the morning of 2 April, Oleksiy also went to Dmytrivka. "What I saw in Dmytrivka reminded me of the scenes I saw repeatedly in the Donetsk region in 2014. Only this time it was near Kyiv, an hour's drive from my home," recalls Oleksiy Furman. He photographed destroyed houses and the burnt-out skeletons of tanks and armored vehicles. He heard the stories of people who were left behind to look after their homes and their memories of the fighting that happened here just a few days before.
"On the very first day of our work, 2 April, there was one of the worst things I saw while working in the Kyiv region. It was a section of the Zhytomyr motorway between Mriya and Myla, the "road of death". There were burnt cars and burnt bodies next to them," Oleksiy Furman recalls, "and a pile of bodies on both sides of the road, which the Russians had probably tried to burn. I took a picture, but I did not publish it - such footage was to be used at the trial in The Hague, but it is "off limits" for publication in the media. A little further on, Oleksiy saw the body of a man with his hands bound. Unfortunately, he would have to see this detail - the taped-up hands - again later, not far from Gostomel.
During April, May and June, Oleksiy Furman was actively photographing in the liberated towns and villages of the Kyiv region. He was in Bucha, Borodyanka, Gostomel, Ozeri, Zaholtsi, Fenevychi, Andriivka, Demydiv, Makariv and others. On 6 April, Oleksiy Furman and a colleague from the UK went to Gostomel - they wanted to take photos at the airport. When they were not given permission to do so, they went to the nearby five-storey buildings. Several of the buildings had their floors collapsed, while others were badly damaged. "As I was taking pictures of one of the buildings with a wide-angle lens, I noticed small wooden crosses near a flower bed. I went closer and saw name tags on the crosses. I took a few photos and sent them to Getty Images, the agency I was working with at the time. They were published that very evening," says Oleksiy. The next day I received a message on Viber from an unknown number: “Tell me, did you take the photos in Gostomel?” - I replied that I had. - “I wanted to thank you for the photo... This is my mother's grave”.
While filming in the Kyiv region, Oleksiy and his colleagues met many brave, open-minded, and very kind people. In Bucha, they got to know an entire building, and within half an hour of meeting them, the brother and sister who had been in Bucha throughout the occupation were giving the photographers a tour of the liberated town. Oleksiy Furman found out that the brother and sister's neighbor had been delivering food to people in the neighboring district on his bicycle during the occupation. "I go with him, and in front of me, a woman crying, holding a fresh loaf of bread. She gives me a handmade doll as a souvenir," says Furman. He adds that many people from the Kyiv region have not spoken to their families for several weeks. The next day, the photographer and his colleagues brought in several old mobile phones to give to the locals. For several days in a row, the old ladies at the entrance treated us to tea brewed on bricks in their yard. This genuine hospitality from people who have lost so much is always very touching," says Oleksiy Furman.
The photographer has seen dozens of people wandering through the ashes of their homes, trying to catch a glimpse of something familiar and loved. "What impressed me most was probably the resilience of our people," says Oleksiy Furman. "Within days of the liberation of Ukrainian cities, towns and villages, people whose flats or houses had been irreparably damaged were already working - re-roofing, putting in new windows, cleaning up".
Life quickly returned to the Kyiv region, and the photographer wanted to capture it in one story. Walking around Borodianka in June, he saw a girl on a swing near the destroyed nine-story buildings and took a picture. "The locals loved the picture so much that there is now a monument near the playground, the sculptors of which were inspired by my photo," smiles Oleksiy Furman, "It's a pleasure to be involved in a creative process that is antagonistic to the terrible destruction we have experienced.
Oleksiy Furman is a Ukrainian visual storyteller, a graduate of the University of Missouri, and co-founder of New Cave Media, an immersive storytelling studio in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers. He covered the Ukrainian revolution of 2013-2014, and the annexation of Crimea, and continues to work on documenting the war in Ukraine. Oleksiy's coverage of the conflict has been recognized by POYi, NPPA, PDN Photo Annual, and the Bayeux-Calvados War Correspondent Award. His work has been published in TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera America, 6MOIS, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, De Standard, and the Financial Times. For the past two years, Oleksiy has been photographing severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers returning home.
Photographer’s social media:
Facebook
Instagram
We would like to remind you that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has launched a series of materials dedicated to the key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where we will publish memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is being implemented with the support of the ЗМІN.
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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