Ivan Antipenko is a Ukrainian journalist, photographer and videographer who mostly covers the Russian-Ukrainian war in the South of Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, Russians came to his home, in his hometown of Kherson. On November 13, he returned home, but under shelling and in the water he continues his work. We talk to Ivan Antipenko about favorite destroyed places in Kherson, about occupation and liberation, about flooding and shelling, about the ban and permits for filming.
----I take photos and videos, I also write. However, lately, for the most part, it is the photography that gives me the most pleasure, if you can say so, because the subject matter of the work is sad in fact. In photography, I try to look for inspiration and at least some positive. If we talk about photos ---- I work with Radio Liberty as well as Reuters. I prepare texts, photos and videos for the media “Grunt”, sometimes for Hromadske or “BBC Ukraine”, I cooperate with the regional publication “MOST”. I am now a freelance journalist. I was born in Kherson, grew up in the Kherson region, not in the city itself. But after graduating from school, I entered Kherson State University, and since then I have been living in Kherson. I started working in journalism in 2011. Since 2019, he managed to work in a national project on media literacy. However, during the invasion of Russia, I returned to the media, to freelance. I have never regretted that I chose journalism and this path.
For the first few hours, everyone called me, and so did everyone. We understood that everything started and was developing very quickly. Much of the area was occupied in the early hours. However, at that moment I did not believe that there would be such a large-scale war. I thought that, most likely, there will be some aggravation in the Donbas and, perhaps, the Russians will want to go to the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. But I could not have imagined that almost the entire Kherson region would be occupied so quickly.
On the first day, my colleagues and I saw how quickly the Russians were advancing towards Kakhovka. Acquaintances of law enforcement agencies said that the situation is very unfavorable and it is quite possible that already on February 24 Russian troops will be in Kherson. We were advised to leave the city. Until the last time I thought that I would stay in Kherson and work with the camera. To be honest, I reproached myself a lot for deciding not to be in the occupation. Because our people, as you remember, showed incredible heroism, fearlessness and resistance, going to rallies, to these great Maidaans. Almost every day. I was very upset that I was not there and was not with them, did not record it. Then my journalist friend. Oleha Baturinafrom Kakhovka the Russians held captive and used physical force against him.
All because he continued his journalistic work, he wrote about what was happening in the occupation. Zatim, we all learned that in the Kiev region the Russians killed the media. I realized that the Russian troops do not look at some “PRESS” signs, they violate all the rules and customs of war. Then I did what I could do: I started collaborating with various media and writing about what was happening in Kherson, receiving information from the people who remained in the occupation. Since May, I received accreditation and started working in Nikolaev. I really wanted to cover events in the south. I wanted to go home.
— In September-October 2022, we began to drive to the first liberated villages, then our counteroffensive continued. We were one of the first to visit the villages beyond the Dnipro: Zolota Balka, Mykhailivka, Bilyayivka, Khreshchenivka. Just before the release of Kherson, we handed over all texts and materials. And here I understand that our Defense Forces are already pressing the Russians on the left bank of the Dnieper. And somewhere on November 9-10, I already clearly understood that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow there would already be something like this. I clearly remember November 11 — the dismissal of Muzikivka, Chornobayivka, Kherson. These first shots! My smile didn't leave my face all day. It was an incredible happiness. Happiness and tears. But The biggest euphoria was when I went to Kherson.
We did not receive any special permission, we came in as volunteers. Truths and falsehoods through Chornobayivka, through the airport. But we actually brought humanitarian aid from the Serhiy Prytula Foundation. Thanks to this, and thanks to the familiar military who were there, we were able to pass the checkpoint, see the legendary airport in Chernobayivka and the Russian equipment destroyed there. In the city we saw an incredible picture: people with Ukrainian flags on the streets, boys tear off Russian billboards, on Freedom Square — a holiday. I meet friends and acquaintances, but there was no mobile connection or the Internet at all. People run with starlings and generators. There is also no heating in the city. It was very winter. In this mode, I spent the first night at the second, and on the second - already in my house.
“I met a friend who was in the occupation all the time. We went to my house together, where there was no light, water and heating. I brought a pepsi-cola and a bottle of Kakhovsky brandy, as well as snickers. It was our humble meal. And it was very sad because I came home.
My apartment. My bed, which I made on the 24th in the morning and left. And there everything was and remains. This is probably one of the most vivid impressions of my life ----homecoming. And from the very beginning, when I covered the topic of full-scale invasion and talked specifically about the South, it was always something very personal. No words can describe this feeling of returning such a great loss as home. And if you look at what I write and how I write, then probably the photos themselves say how much I miss, how much it hurts me what is happening now with Kherson and the region. With the left bank, which is occupied and where we cannot go. It hurts behind the right, which is constantly under fire. It hurts for the people who live there.
There are many such places, most of them near the water. Now it is scary and dangerous to go there, but we still went and filmed. Here, for example,city embankment. There are several exits to the Dnieper. Near the hotel “Fregat” there is a shot bus, which was attacked by the Russians. And this is such a very painful place that had to be filmed. There used to be various small festivals. We always walked there. This is a memorable place. When it's bad and when it's good ---- you go to the Dnieper. Just look at the water, see which ships enter Kherson, from which countries they are and what happens there in general.
Another special place for me, which was damaged by the Russians and I had to shoot it, ---- this Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Oles Honchar. It is located above the Dnieper itself. Literally on the shore. Such a large building. There are large panoramic windows and incredible views overlooking the left bank. Wide, beautiful Dnieper and view of Oleshky. The Dnieper flows right under you. And in August last year, I filmed there after the Russian attacks on the library. There were already a few holes in the walls and, accordingly, these all these huge glass showcases were sprinkled.
This shooting caused me a lot of nostalgia, because in my student days I was often there for various events. The Olesy Gonchar Library is a cult place, iconic. And I'm from the generation when the internet was in the library. It was such a way out into the world. During the shooting, we walked with the director and everyone looked at it, she showed me how the workers saved these books. This is such a sad story about the library. We took photos for project UNESCO and IMI on cultural heritage, and this object is on the list, I shot it. At the time of shooting, there were also explosions, and then a thick column of smoke on that bank. A few months after the shooting, the Russians launched a rocket attack there and the building burned down heavily.
And recently he shot his native Kherson State University after another Russian shelling. This time it flew on the main hull. Destroyed walls, knocked out portholes, crushed classrooms and teaching materials. I studied here for five years. To see it all in ruins is very painful.
Traditionally, it all started with calls. At 7 o'clock in the morning I wake up in Odessa on a train and see that my phone breaks. Everyone is asking something. I read the news: “Russians blew up the Kakhovsk hydroelectric power plant.” At first I had no idea how serious it was. We arrive and start working non-stop all June and until the beginning of July. First we documented flooding, people on boats, evacuations, animal rescues. And then they removed the effects of flooding.
When everyone left, the water was gone — and people were left alone with this trouble. We saw the real scale of the disaster. Thousands of families were left without homes. People told us: “The Russians didn't finish us, they flooded.” But at such an important moment, they often told me: “We can handle it anyway, if only they didn't come back here. It was worse during the occupation.” People wanted to live in Ukraine, to own their land. The value of freedom for these people, for all of us, is vital.
Again, I lived it all very personally. Also, when the water had already gone everywhere, there was still water in the Kalinovsky community in the north of the region. There the Ingulets River emerged from the banks, this is also a consequence of the explosion of the hydroelectric power plant. And almost no one wrote or filmed about it. There, people formed artificial large ponds in vegetable gardens. We drove and filmed. Because, in the end, that's one of my tasks: to go and show places and people where nothing seems to be happening, even though there are really strong stories and important events hidden there.
---- Previously, in Kherson and the region with civil issues there were no problems at all, there was no need for any approvals. Then the so-called zoning was introduced. Then Natalia Humeniuk headed the press center in OK “South”. Media workers began to have difficulties in covering civilian and military topics. After the explosion of the hydroelectric power plant, all these areas were flooded with water from the Dnieper. It was necessary to show the scale of this disaster, and then just the press center really did not help, but mostly hindered. When we tried to negotiate simply to work in Kherson, and constantly contacted pressofitters, the press center constantly talked about certain restrictions. “You can't go there, you can't go here. There is shelling, and there is something else,” we were constantly told. We understand this as journalists and as professionals. We consciously take that risk. But I went to certain places anyway, just by negotiating with locals or with volunteers, or with anyone.
We wanted to go and show what was going on there. Actually, this is the function of the media: show reality, show facts. So, perhaps, by contradiction, and not thanks to the work of official structures, it was possible to shoot and show something in pieces somewhere. The people in charge of access should understand that journalists are not enemies. We need to communicate with us, contribute in the work. Because we recorded the war crimes of the Russians, the scale of a huge tragedy in the center of Europe.
If Associated Press journalists had not remained in surrounded Mariupol in March 2022, risking their lives along with medics, military, police, and other people, the world would not have received reliable facts about the atrocities of the Russian army in this city. Or these facts would be significantly less and they would not sound so loud. Whether we like it or not, the people and states that support us trust not only the official reports, but also the live, real stories that reporters prepare in the fields. And the latter are still trusted more.
The military says that sometimes it seems to them that there is no war in the south. Everyone knows only about the fighting in the east. We only see towns and villages being shelled. And who protects us here, the faces of these people, these real heroes of our time, who work in Krynki and in other difficult areas in the Kherson region - no one knows.
My colleagues and I shouted for us to be given permission to work adequately in the south. Every adequate journalist who has been working on military topics for more than one year, I think, has a sufficient level of self-awareness of the situation, no one wants to harm. In my opinion, it is wrong to completely close the direction. For example, Ukrainians often heard about Krinka from Kremlin messages and propaganda channels, and not from the Ukrainian media. If there is no communication, there is a vacuum, then it will be filled by fictions, hostile IPSOs and messages taken out of context.
On February 25 of this year, after the press conference of President Zelensky, I wrote post, who has become a little entrenched in the network, it was spread by colleagues from various publications: “Why do we learn about Krynek from Tiktok and Shoigu's reports? How does this direction differ from Avdiyivka, Kupiansk, Robotyne in the sense that we are forbidden even to mention the left bank? How does the struggle of morpists and TROs in the Kherson region differ from the struggle of other brigades in other directions?” I was told that this message did reach the Ministry of Defense and certain conversations were held with the responsible persons.
After media called on the country's military leadership replace spokesman of OK “South” and Dmitry Pletenchuk was appointed in her place, the situation with access to Kherson region has improved somewhat, says Ivan. Now requests for work with civilians will be considered in an accelerated mode.
“If necessary, the creation of material without the participation of military requests is processed according to a shortened scheme: only by agreeing the route (and strictly following it on your part) with the appropriate pressofiter in the direction,” - said the head of the Center for Strategic Communications of the Southern Defense Forces, Captain 3 rank Dmytro Pletenchuk.
Ivan Antipenko — Ukrainian journalist, photographer and videographer who covers the Russian-Ukrainian war in Southern Ukraine. Cooperates with Ukrainian and international media: “Radio Svoboda”, “Grunt”, Reuters, Hromadske, “MOST”, “BBC Ukraine” and others.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Bildeditor: Ivan Antipenko
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
Ivan Antipenko is a Ukrainian journalist, photographer and videographer who mostly covers the Russian-Ukrainian war in the South of Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, Russians came to his home, in his hometown of Kherson. On November 13, he returned home, but under shelling and in the water he continues his work. We talk to Ivan Antipenko about favorite destroyed places in Kherson, about occupation and liberation, about flooding and shelling, about the ban and permits for filming.
----I take photos and videos, I also write. However, lately, for the most part, it is the photography that gives me the most pleasure, if you can say so, because the subject matter of the work is sad in fact. In photography, I try to look for inspiration and at least some positive. If we talk about photos ---- I work with Radio Liberty as well as Reuters. I prepare texts, photos and videos for the media “Grunt”, sometimes for Hromadske or “BBC Ukraine”, I cooperate with the regional publication “MOST”. I am now a freelance journalist. I was born in Kherson, grew up in the Kherson region, not in the city itself. But after graduating from school, I entered Kherson State University, and since then I have been living in Kherson. I started working in journalism in 2011. Since 2019, he managed to work in a national project on media literacy. However, during the invasion of Russia, I returned to the media, to freelance. I have never regretted that I chose journalism and this path.
For the first few hours, everyone called me, and so did everyone. We understood that everything started and was developing very quickly. Much of the area was occupied in the early hours. However, at that moment I did not believe that there would be such a large-scale war. I thought that, most likely, there will be some aggravation in the Donbas and, perhaps, the Russians will want to go to the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. But I could not have imagined that almost the entire Kherson region would be occupied so quickly.
On the first day, my colleagues and I saw how quickly the Russians were advancing towards Kakhovka. Acquaintances of law enforcement agencies said that the situation is very unfavorable and it is quite possible that already on February 24 Russian troops will be in Kherson. We were advised to leave the city. Until the last time I thought that I would stay in Kherson and work with the camera. To be honest, I reproached myself a lot for deciding not to be in the occupation. Because our people, as you remember, showed incredible heroism, fearlessness and resistance, going to rallies, to these great Maidaans. Almost every day. I was very upset that I was not there and was not with them, did not record it. Then my journalist friend. Oleha Baturinafrom Kakhovka the Russians held captive and used physical force against him.
All because he continued his journalistic work, he wrote about what was happening in the occupation. Zatim, we all learned that in the Kiev region the Russians killed the media. I realized that the Russian troops do not look at some “PRESS” signs, they violate all the rules and customs of war. Then I did what I could do: I started collaborating with various media and writing about what was happening in Kherson, receiving information from the people who remained in the occupation. Since May, I received accreditation and started working in Nikolaev. I really wanted to cover events in the south. I wanted to go home.
— In September-October 2022, we began to drive to the first liberated villages, then our counteroffensive continued. We were one of the first to visit the villages beyond the Dnipro: Zolota Balka, Mykhailivka, Bilyayivka, Khreshchenivka. Just before the release of Kherson, we handed over all texts and materials. And here I understand that our Defense Forces are already pressing the Russians on the left bank of the Dnieper. And somewhere on November 9-10, I already clearly understood that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow there would already be something like this. I clearly remember November 11 — the dismissal of Muzikivka, Chornobayivka, Kherson. These first shots! My smile didn't leave my face all day. It was an incredible happiness. Happiness and tears. But The biggest euphoria was when I went to Kherson.
We did not receive any special permission, we came in as volunteers. Truths and falsehoods through Chornobayivka, through the airport. But we actually brought humanitarian aid from the Serhiy Prytula Foundation. Thanks to this, and thanks to the familiar military who were there, we were able to pass the checkpoint, see the legendary airport in Chernobayivka and the Russian equipment destroyed there. In the city we saw an incredible picture: people with Ukrainian flags on the streets, boys tear off Russian billboards, on Freedom Square — a holiday. I meet friends and acquaintances, but there was no mobile connection or the Internet at all. People run with starlings and generators. There is also no heating in the city. It was very winter. In this mode, I spent the first night at the second, and on the second - already in my house.
“I met a friend who was in the occupation all the time. We went to my house together, where there was no light, water and heating. I brought a pepsi-cola and a bottle of Kakhovsky brandy, as well as snickers. It was our humble meal. And it was very sad because I came home.
My apartment. My bed, which I made on the 24th in the morning and left. And there everything was and remains. This is probably one of the most vivid impressions of my life ----homecoming. And from the very beginning, when I covered the topic of full-scale invasion and talked specifically about the South, it was always something very personal. No words can describe this feeling of returning such a great loss as home. And if you look at what I write and how I write, then probably the photos themselves say how much I miss, how much it hurts me what is happening now with Kherson and the region. With the left bank, which is occupied and where we cannot go. It hurts behind the right, which is constantly under fire. It hurts for the people who live there.
There are many such places, most of them near the water. Now it is scary and dangerous to go there, but we still went and filmed. Here, for example,city embankment. There are several exits to the Dnieper. Near the hotel “Fregat” there is a shot bus, which was attacked by the Russians. And this is such a very painful place that had to be filmed. There used to be various small festivals. We always walked there. This is a memorable place. When it's bad and when it's good ---- you go to the Dnieper. Just look at the water, see which ships enter Kherson, from which countries they are and what happens there in general.
Another special place for me, which was damaged by the Russians and I had to shoot it, ---- this Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Oles Honchar. It is located above the Dnieper itself. Literally on the shore. Such a large building. There are large panoramic windows and incredible views overlooking the left bank. Wide, beautiful Dnieper and view of Oleshky. The Dnieper flows right under you. And in August last year, I filmed there after the Russian attacks on the library. There were already a few holes in the walls and, accordingly, these all these huge glass showcases were sprinkled.
This shooting caused me a lot of nostalgia, because in my student days I was often there for various events. The Olesy Gonchar Library is a cult place, iconic. And I'm from the generation when the internet was in the library. It was such a way out into the world. During the shooting, we walked with the director and everyone looked at it, she showed me how the workers saved these books. This is such a sad story about the library. We took photos for project UNESCO and IMI on cultural heritage, and this object is on the list, I shot it. At the time of shooting, there were also explosions, and then a thick column of smoke on that bank. A few months after the shooting, the Russians launched a rocket attack there and the building burned down heavily.
And recently he shot his native Kherson State University after another Russian shelling. This time it flew on the main hull. Destroyed walls, knocked out portholes, crushed classrooms and teaching materials. I studied here for five years. To see it all in ruins is very painful.
Traditionally, it all started with calls. At 7 o'clock in the morning I wake up in Odessa on a train and see that my phone breaks. Everyone is asking something. I read the news: “Russians blew up the Kakhovsk hydroelectric power plant.” At first I had no idea how serious it was. We arrive and start working non-stop all June and until the beginning of July. First we documented flooding, people on boats, evacuations, animal rescues. And then they removed the effects of flooding.
When everyone left, the water was gone — and people were left alone with this trouble. We saw the real scale of the disaster. Thousands of families were left without homes. People told us: “The Russians didn't finish us, they flooded.” But at such an important moment, they often told me: “We can handle it anyway, if only they didn't come back here. It was worse during the occupation.” People wanted to live in Ukraine, to own their land. The value of freedom for these people, for all of us, is vital.
Again, I lived it all very personally. Also, when the water had already gone everywhere, there was still water in the Kalinovsky community in the north of the region. There the Ingulets River emerged from the banks, this is also a consequence of the explosion of the hydroelectric power plant. And almost no one wrote or filmed about it. There, people formed artificial large ponds in vegetable gardens. We drove and filmed. Because, in the end, that's one of my tasks: to go and show places and people where nothing seems to be happening, even though there are really strong stories and important events hidden there.
---- Previously, in Kherson and the region with civil issues there were no problems at all, there was no need for any approvals. Then the so-called zoning was introduced. Then Natalia Humeniuk headed the press center in OK “South”. Media workers began to have difficulties in covering civilian and military topics. After the explosion of the hydroelectric power plant, all these areas were flooded with water from the Dnieper. It was necessary to show the scale of this disaster, and then just the press center really did not help, but mostly hindered. When we tried to negotiate simply to work in Kherson, and constantly contacted pressofitters, the press center constantly talked about certain restrictions. “You can't go there, you can't go here. There is shelling, and there is something else,” we were constantly told. We understand this as journalists and as professionals. We consciously take that risk. But I went to certain places anyway, just by negotiating with locals or with volunteers, or with anyone.
We wanted to go and show what was going on there. Actually, this is the function of the media: show reality, show facts. So, perhaps, by contradiction, and not thanks to the work of official structures, it was possible to shoot and show something in pieces somewhere. The people in charge of access should understand that journalists are not enemies. We need to communicate with us, contribute in the work. Because we recorded the war crimes of the Russians, the scale of a huge tragedy in the center of Europe.
If Associated Press journalists had not remained in surrounded Mariupol in March 2022, risking their lives along with medics, military, police, and other people, the world would not have received reliable facts about the atrocities of the Russian army in this city. Or these facts would be significantly less and they would not sound so loud. Whether we like it or not, the people and states that support us trust not only the official reports, but also the live, real stories that reporters prepare in the fields. And the latter are still trusted more.
The military says that sometimes it seems to them that there is no war in the south. Everyone knows only about the fighting in the east. We only see towns and villages being shelled. And who protects us here, the faces of these people, these real heroes of our time, who work in Krynki and in other difficult areas in the Kherson region - no one knows.
My colleagues and I shouted for us to be given permission to work adequately in the south. Every adequate journalist who has been working on military topics for more than one year, I think, has a sufficient level of self-awareness of the situation, no one wants to harm. In my opinion, it is wrong to completely close the direction. For example, Ukrainians often heard about Krinka from Kremlin messages and propaganda channels, and not from the Ukrainian media. If there is no communication, there is a vacuum, then it will be filled by fictions, hostile IPSOs and messages taken out of context.
On February 25 of this year, after the press conference of President Zelensky, I wrote post, who has become a little entrenched in the network, it was spread by colleagues from various publications: “Why do we learn about Krynek from Tiktok and Shoigu's reports? How does this direction differ from Avdiyivka, Kupiansk, Robotyne in the sense that we are forbidden even to mention the left bank? How does the struggle of morpists and TROs in the Kherson region differ from the struggle of other brigades in other directions?” I was told that this message did reach the Ministry of Defense and certain conversations were held with the responsible persons.
After media called on the country's military leadership replace spokesman of OK “South” and Dmitry Pletenchuk was appointed in her place, the situation with access to Kherson region has improved somewhat, says Ivan. Now requests for work with civilians will be considered in an accelerated mode.
“If necessary, the creation of material without the participation of military requests is processed according to a shortened scheme: only by agreeing the route (and strictly following it on your part) with the appropriate pressofiter in the direction,” - said the head of the Center for Strategic Communications of the Southern Defense Forces, Captain 3 rank Dmytro Pletenchuk.
Ivan Antipenko — Ukrainian journalist, photographer and videographer who covers the Russian-Ukrainian war in Southern Ukraine. Cooperates with Ukrainian and international media: “Radio Svoboda”, “Grunt”, Reuters, Hromadske, “MOST”, “BBC Ukraine” and others.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Bildeditor: Ivan Antipenko
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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