Among the first to arrive in Borodyanka, immediately after the air strikes, were photographer Max Levin and his colleague Marian Kushnir. At that time, Levin's photos were published by Reuters and distributed worldwide.
Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers publishes Max Levin's photographs, as well as the memoirs of Marian Kushnir and Levin's girlfriend, Zoryana.
In early March 2022, Russian troops tried to break through to Kyiv. The town of Borodyanka was on their main route to the capital.
On 1 and 2 March, Russian forces carried out a series of devastating air strikes on Borodyanka. Eight multi-storey buildings, housing at least 600 families, were bombed. Smaller private houses in the surrounding streets were also damaged. The buildings were located on the Warsaw highway and on Tsentralna Street, which runs through the whole city. These streets have been the scene of intense fighting and convoys of Russian vehicles since 25 February.
More than 40 of the residents were killed under the rubble of the high-rise buildings. People tried to hide from the shelling in the basements of their homes. But the air strikes were too powerful, destroying entire sections of the buildings. In addition to the air strikes, the upper floors of many buildings were shelled by Russian artillery. During the subsequent evacuation, Russian troops prevented the rubble from being removed and shot civilians with firearms. ’A plane is circling over Borodyanka. We don't have any idea how much more of this kind of attack there will be on our town. Civilians are being shot at from the plane,’
- Georgiy Yerko, the acting head of the Borodyansky village council, said in a telegram.
Ukrainian photographer Max Levin has been documenting the aftermath of the attacks on Borodyanka. He filmed the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine from day one. His photos from Bucha, Borodyanka, and Irpin showed what was happening a few dozen kilometers north of Kyiv. Contact with the photojournalist was cut off on 13 March - he was killed in Vyshgorod district, Kyiv region.
Max Levin's photographs are still telling the world about Russian war crimes.
'On 24 February, Max was in the east, spending the night with medics in Karlivka. He didn't get in touch when rockets were already flying in Kyiv at five in the morning,' recalls Zoryana, Levin's girlfriend.' He phoned back around 9.30 to ask how I was, and a few minutes later he wrote that he was going to Kyiv.'
Zoryana and Max started talking about a possible Russian invasion at the end of November 2021. In January they prepared food supplies and withdrew money from their cards. 'Maks wrote in his chats (and also in the Fathers' Union) that the men should gather at the training grounds and get ready. Instead, people laughed at him. They said he was causing panic. In the end, he managed to get a few men to the shooting ranges in February,' recalls Zoriana.
Max Levin had been documenting the war since 2014 and knew the nuances of such filming. He often complained about having to explain the importance of his work as a journalist at every checkpoint. 'We were in constant contact. I was living in Boyarka at the time, doing voluntary work and helping Max's mother. He would come, sometimes stay for a few hours, and then leave,' says Zoryana. 'Max often spent the night with the military. Once he texted Zoryana that he had arrived at Vasylkiv airport. At that moment she heard an 'arrival' and saw fire coming from the direction of Vasylkiv. Max did not contact her. He wrote back about half an hour later, saying that an oil depot not far from them had been hit,' Zoryana says of her communication with Max.
Zoryana's relatives, including a cousin with a two-year-old child, stayed in Borodyanka. They survived until the moment when columns of tanks entered the town and began shelling it. Zoryana's family stayed in the cellar all the time, it was dangerous to leave. Max Levin went to Borodyanka to pick up the girl's family.
'We went to Borodyanka at our own risk. We did not know if there were Russians there or not. First of all, Max wanted to take out his girlfriend Zoryana's relatives,' says journalist and photographer Marian Kushnir. On the eve of full-scale war, Marian met Max in Marinka, as Donetsk is not far from there and the boys wanted to film the fighting. 'The next time we met was in Kharkiv. We went to film the damaged vehicles on the ring road. We spent the night in the car on the road at the entrance to Northern Saltovka. That was where the first shelling took place,' says Kushnir. 'But Max really wanted to go to Kyiv.' In the end, Marian and Max went to the capital.
The photographers shot a lot in the suburbs of Kyiv. 'We were on the move everywhere, we had a sense of where things were and what was happening. In the early days of the war, Zaluzhnyi reported that our military had shot down an IL-76 with Russian troops near Vasylkiv. We arrived at the Vasylkiv airfield and there was a small arms battle going on,' says Marian. In the morning, with the permission of the authorities, we were allowed to enter the airfield. That night a rocket hit the fuel depot. We traveled a lot near Kyiv and the previous experience of working in the front line helped Max and me,' says Marian Kushnir.
The journalists decided to go to Borodyanka on 2 March. It took them almost two days to get there. According to Kushnir, it was difficult to get to Borodyanka. All the bridges over the Irpin River had been destroyed, and the bridge in Bilohorodka, which was the only way to get to the Zhytomyr highway, was closed to traffic.
'We took a detour through Fastiv, crossed the Zhytomyr motorway and headed for Malyn. The last checkpoint was on the Warsaw road, before Borodyanka. The soldier said there were probably no Ukrainian soldiers left in Borodyanka. We drove slowly and made sure there was no traffic on the road,' says Kushnir. 'We saw a huge fire in front of Borodianka. After the town was liberated, we found out that it was a Russian plane that had been shot down.'
The photojournalists hid their car at the entrance to Borodyanka. Just forty minutes before they arrived, planes were bombing the town. One of the planes crashed. Everything around them was in flames - Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers. The boys took some photographs and went to collect Zoryana's family. 'My family managed to escape to the village of Halynky and Max went there. We spent the night there and in the morning Max took them out. He came back, took pictures of the damaged vehicles and, left for the Zhytomyr motorway,' Zoryana explains.
Marian and Max returned to Borodyanka. ‘The first place we went to was the hospital. There was information that Russian soldiers were wounded there. When we arrived, there were no Russians there. Instead, there were wounded locals,’ says Marian. Then the guys went to film the center of Borodyanka. They took pictures of the broken equipment and the aftermath of the shelling. They returned to the car and drove to another location, where Max took up a drone and flew over the destroyed town.
'A resident told me that a column of Russian vehicles passed through here half an hour ago. We were on the edge of our seats and realised that Borodyanka was occupied,' says Kushnir.
'Max was always very clear and confident. He was very careful during our trip to Kyiv,' says Marian. In the end, he decided to stay and work with a unit. I went to shoot other news'.
'In the first days of the full-scale invasion, Max knew and understood what he had to do - cover the war. The last time he was at home was on 11 March,' says Zoriana, 'he lost his drone and said he had to go get it. Finally, on 13 March, he went to get the drone...'.
Max Levin is a Ukrainian photojournalist and documentary photographer. He worked for over a decade for LB.ua, then Hromadske, and has collaborated with Reuters, the BBC, and the Associated Press. His photographs have been published by the Wall Street Journal, TIME, Radio Liberty, and other international media. For eight years he covered the events of the Maidan in Kyiv and the war in eastern Ukraine. The Georgiy Gongadze Prize awarded a special mention to Max Levin for his outstanding contribution to the development of Ukrainian photography, dedication to the profession, and courage. Max Levin is a holder of the Order of Merit, Class III (2015), and the Order of Courage, Class III (2022, posthumously).
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
Among the first to arrive in Borodyanka, immediately after the air strikes, were photographer Max Levin and his colleague Marian Kushnir. At that time, Levin's photos were published by Reuters and distributed worldwide.
Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers publishes Max Levin's photographs, as well as the memoirs of Marian Kushnir and Levin's girlfriend, Zoryana.
In early March 2022, Russian troops tried to break through to Kyiv. The town of Borodyanka was on their main route to the capital.
On 1 and 2 March, Russian forces carried out a series of devastating air strikes on Borodyanka. Eight multi-storey buildings, housing at least 600 families, were bombed. Smaller private houses in the surrounding streets were also damaged. The buildings were located on the Warsaw highway and on Tsentralna Street, which runs through the whole city. These streets have been the scene of intense fighting and convoys of Russian vehicles since 25 February.
More than 40 of the residents were killed under the rubble of the high-rise buildings. People tried to hide from the shelling in the basements of their homes. But the air strikes were too powerful, destroying entire sections of the buildings. In addition to the air strikes, the upper floors of many buildings were shelled by Russian artillery. During the subsequent evacuation, Russian troops prevented the rubble from being removed and shot civilians with firearms. ’A plane is circling over Borodyanka. We don't have any idea how much more of this kind of attack there will be on our town. Civilians are being shot at from the plane,’
- Georgiy Yerko, the acting head of the Borodyansky village council, said in a telegram.
Ukrainian photographer Max Levin has been documenting the aftermath of the attacks on Borodyanka. He filmed the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine from day one. His photos from Bucha, Borodyanka, and Irpin showed what was happening a few dozen kilometers north of Kyiv. Contact with the photojournalist was cut off on 13 March - he was killed in Vyshgorod district, Kyiv region.
Max Levin's photographs are still telling the world about Russian war crimes.
'On 24 February, Max was in the east, spending the night with medics in Karlivka. He didn't get in touch when rockets were already flying in Kyiv at five in the morning,' recalls Zoryana, Levin's girlfriend.' He phoned back around 9.30 to ask how I was, and a few minutes later he wrote that he was going to Kyiv.'
Zoryana and Max started talking about a possible Russian invasion at the end of November 2021. In January they prepared food supplies and withdrew money from their cards. 'Maks wrote in his chats (and also in the Fathers' Union) that the men should gather at the training grounds and get ready. Instead, people laughed at him. They said he was causing panic. In the end, he managed to get a few men to the shooting ranges in February,' recalls Zoriana.
Max Levin had been documenting the war since 2014 and knew the nuances of such filming. He often complained about having to explain the importance of his work as a journalist at every checkpoint. 'We were in constant contact. I was living in Boyarka at the time, doing voluntary work and helping Max's mother. He would come, sometimes stay for a few hours, and then leave,' says Zoryana. 'Max often spent the night with the military. Once he texted Zoryana that he had arrived at Vasylkiv airport. At that moment she heard an 'arrival' and saw fire coming from the direction of Vasylkiv. Max did not contact her. He wrote back about half an hour later, saying that an oil depot not far from them had been hit,' Zoryana says of her communication with Max.
Zoryana's relatives, including a cousin with a two-year-old child, stayed in Borodyanka. They survived until the moment when columns of tanks entered the town and began shelling it. Zoryana's family stayed in the cellar all the time, it was dangerous to leave. Max Levin went to Borodyanka to pick up the girl's family.
'We went to Borodyanka at our own risk. We did not know if there were Russians there or not. First of all, Max wanted to take out his girlfriend Zoryana's relatives,' says journalist and photographer Marian Kushnir. On the eve of full-scale war, Marian met Max in Marinka, as Donetsk is not far from there and the boys wanted to film the fighting. 'The next time we met was in Kharkiv. We went to film the damaged vehicles on the ring road. We spent the night in the car on the road at the entrance to Northern Saltovka. That was where the first shelling took place,' says Kushnir. 'But Max really wanted to go to Kyiv.' In the end, Marian and Max went to the capital.
The photographers shot a lot in the suburbs of Kyiv. 'We were on the move everywhere, we had a sense of where things were and what was happening. In the early days of the war, Zaluzhnyi reported that our military had shot down an IL-76 with Russian troops near Vasylkiv. We arrived at the Vasylkiv airfield and there was a small arms battle going on,' says Marian. In the morning, with the permission of the authorities, we were allowed to enter the airfield. That night a rocket hit the fuel depot. We traveled a lot near Kyiv and the previous experience of working in the front line helped Max and me,' says Marian Kushnir.
The journalists decided to go to Borodyanka on 2 March. It took them almost two days to get there. According to Kushnir, it was difficult to get to Borodyanka. All the bridges over the Irpin River had been destroyed, and the bridge in Bilohorodka, which was the only way to get to the Zhytomyr highway, was closed to traffic.
'We took a detour through Fastiv, crossed the Zhytomyr motorway and headed for Malyn. The last checkpoint was on the Warsaw road, before Borodyanka. The soldier said there were probably no Ukrainian soldiers left in Borodyanka. We drove slowly and made sure there was no traffic on the road,' says Kushnir. 'We saw a huge fire in front of Borodianka. After the town was liberated, we found out that it was a Russian plane that had been shot down.'
The photojournalists hid their car at the entrance to Borodyanka. Just forty minutes before they arrived, planes were bombing the town. One of the planes crashed. Everything around them was in flames - Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers. The boys took some photographs and went to collect Zoryana's family. 'My family managed to escape to the village of Halynky and Max went there. We spent the night there and in the morning Max took them out. He came back, took pictures of the damaged vehicles and, left for the Zhytomyr motorway,' Zoryana explains.
Marian and Max returned to Borodyanka. ‘The first place we went to was the hospital. There was information that Russian soldiers were wounded there. When we arrived, there were no Russians there. Instead, there were wounded locals,’ says Marian. Then the guys went to film the center of Borodyanka. They took pictures of the broken equipment and the aftermath of the shelling. They returned to the car and drove to another location, where Max took up a drone and flew over the destroyed town.
'A resident told me that a column of Russian vehicles passed through here half an hour ago. We were on the edge of our seats and realised that Borodyanka was occupied,' says Kushnir.
'Max was always very clear and confident. He was very careful during our trip to Kyiv,' says Marian. In the end, he decided to stay and work with a unit. I went to shoot other news'.
'In the first days of the full-scale invasion, Max knew and understood what he had to do - cover the war. The last time he was at home was on 11 March,' says Zoriana, 'he lost his drone and said he had to go get it. Finally, on 13 March, he went to get the drone...'.
Max Levin is a Ukrainian photojournalist and documentary photographer. He worked for over a decade for LB.ua, then Hromadske, and has collaborated with Reuters, the BBC, and the Associated Press. His photographs have been published by the Wall Street Journal, TIME, Radio Liberty, and other international media. For eight years he covered the events of the Maidan in Kyiv and the war in eastern Ukraine. The Georgiy Gongadze Prize awarded a special mention to Max Levin for his outstanding contribution to the development of Ukrainian photography, dedication to the profession, and courage. Max Levin is a holder of the Order of Merit, Class III (2015), and the Order of Courage, Class III (2022, posthumously).
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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