Oleksandr Klymenko— photojournalist who, even before the beginning of independence, began filming the main events in Ukraine. In addition, he has repeatedly covered armed conflicts in different countries of the world. However, in 2014, he had to put on an armored vest and go with his camera to the war in his country. In the spring of 2024, it will be 10 years since the Russians tried to destroy Ukraine. The main events and figures of this decade of national liberation competitions are in the documentary photos of the war correspondent Oleksandr Klymenko.
1992-2012 — two decades in military conflict zones in Bosnia, Kosovo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kuwait, Congo, South Sudan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria.
So it is said that journalists who film in the war are called military officers. But frankly, I don't like it. We, civilian journalists, document not only war. And the military officers are those who are always at war: the press officers of the units, the journalists of the military media. But let it be. My first business trip to the military conflict zone occurred on April 12, 1992 in Transnistria. Then he traveled to the countries of the former Yugoslavia from 1994 to 2008, then Africa... He covered the events there. Of course, our revolutions of 2004 and 2014.
At some point it seemed that there was nothing left to shoot on the Maidan until the hot phase began. On January 19, 2014 — the first battles on Hrushevsky.
There I was wounded: someone from the militia threw a light-noise grenade, it fell clearly close to my leg, exploded and pierced my calf, damaged the “flounder” muscle. This is where the Maidan is almost over for me. Hospitalization and surgery. And then the Russian-Ukrainian war.
I graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Shevchenko University, so I have always been and still am a photojournalist. Immediately after university, from 1986, he worked for four and a half years in the then most widely circulated newspaper, “Village News”. And then in the newspaper “Voice of Ukraine”, since 1991, from the first to the last day of the publication's existence — 33 years and 3 months. This parliamentary newspaper ceased to exist as a pan-political media on April 1, 2024. Currently, only official information and laws are printed. It was one of the last daily all-Ukrainian newspapers still in print. In 1991, the Voice of Ukraine, against the background of monotonous communist newspapers, had a daily circulation of up to a million copies. I believe that my newspaper is the most accurate textbook of the latest history of Ukraine. Proud of his work in this publication. Also in the early 90's I was a freelance photojournalist in Ukraine for the authoritative German magazine Der Spiegel. It was published in other foreign publications.
I still do not believe that there is a war in my country. It's very bitter. The flower of the nation is dying. My comrades who I knew from peacekeeping missions are dying.
2014—2015 — Oleksandr shot soldiers every month in the ATO zone
Awareness of the war came on January 19, 2014 on Hrushevsky Street during the Revolution of Dignity, when I saw everything there flying, shooting, burning. It was already urban fighting... I covered Ukrainian peacekeeping missions in Africa several times. There I met a lot of our helicopters.
So, in 2014, of course, I wanted to go to helicopters. While I was preparing the necessary permits from the General Staff to get to them, they had already flown from Konotop to Chernihiv airfield. I arrived in Chernihiv on April 30, we talked, I got acquainted. They agreed that I would come again on May 1 and collect them during the flights. I was unable to leave that day. And on May 2, the Russians near Slavyansk shot down two MI-24 helicopters. There are 3 people in each car. The crew consists of: commander, pilot-operator and flight technician. That is, two MI-24s had 6 people: five died, only one escaped. I knew all five of these guys. We met in Africa. That's it.
Now the story is second. I again wanted to visit the military, again obtained the necessary permits for a long time, again applied to helicopters. It was June 4th. Pilots of the 16th Separate Brigade of the Army Aviation “Brody”then were based at the civilian airfield in Dnipro. In the morning we came to the airfield checkpoint, talked with the commander, and on his radio we reported the shooting down of two more of our MI-24s. This is my awareness of war. In the end, in the afternoon, I did fly on the MI-8. We were on Mount Karachun, near Slavyansk. There were just fights going on. Helicopters in general — my pain. Perhaps because I talked a lot with them, I am familiar with many. These are brave warriors. I think that it is more dangerous to fight on a helicopter than on fighters, closer to the ground. But they are fighting. You hear what was shot down there or there, you find out who. Do you read how they are posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, and whether they are awarded posthumously the Order of Helicopters? pilots of the Army Air Forces... Sometimes I catch myself thinking that I do not want to know about their deaths, may they remain alive in my memory.
I tried to go to Donbas at least once a month. With the 95th Brigade in June he again went to Karachun, but already by land. Later I was with them near the village of Kriva Luka. There was hot fighting on a busy beachhead, on June 25, 2014 we drove there in a convoy with paratroopers. The commander of the brigade, one of the first Heroes of Ukraine, Mikhail Zabrodsky, commanded there. It was like some kind of World War II movie. Everyone is running somewhere, someone is carrying a machine gun, shells, somewhere further on the fire the guys are cooking to eat. Later, the artillery of the 95th began to work. Only the art commander was human, everyone else — mobilized.
Then we were in Schasta, near the village of Metalist in early July. There he met the (then) colonel of the 30th Brigade, later the commander of the 58th Brigade, and now a general Serhiy Zabolotny. He is now Chief of Staff — Deputy Chief National Defense University of Ukraine. I always remember how I called him back then from Kiev, agreed. Explosions could be heard on the phone, and he answered me in a calm intelligent voice: “Excuse me, please, I'm just leading the fight. Could you call me a little later?” We are friends with this decent man until now.
When on July 8 we reached the position of “thirty”, from which the outskirts of Luhansk are already visible, there was a heavy downpour. The BMP stood in a caponair like in a lake. The artillerymen were preparing for battle, unloading newly brought shells. The tank stood on the edge of a wheat field that no one could collect anymore. In the midst of the rain, the fighters of “Aidar” returned from reconnaissance, looking like ghosts. With artillery powder (because wet), the fighters lit bonfires to cook food. Also a picture from the cinema. But she is real.
On August 24, 2014, a military parade took place in Kiev. The column of paratroopers was led by Mikhail Zabrodsky. To continue the story, I just needed to photograph it. Max Levinthe day before he tells me that he is driving to Ilovaisk and invites me. I tell him about my plan to shoot the parade and say that I will take the train in the evening of August 24 to the Dnieper, and then somehow join them. On August 25, I was already at the field KP near Kurakhovo. On August 26, a column arrived from Ilovaisk. The weary, suffocated colonel, at my request to get into that city, says: “Where are you going? We barely got out of there. The wounded were taken out. It is no longer possible to get there.” So I did not get to Ilovaisk. (Well, you know how Max and his comrades miraculously escaped from Ilovaisk). And in the continuation of this: you make a lot of effort to get somewhere, you get nervous, you ask - and it's not. One wise man told me: so God (or Angel) does not want to let you there, he knows something, so relax and swim in the wave...
Another memorable event is the liberation of Pisky village near Donetsk on July 24, 2014. We got there by chance just at this time. Journalistic luck. The morning began at 5 o'clock with an assault with artillery training. Then infantry on tanks and BMP began to enter the village. All according to military textbooks. Not every day then was it so lucky that you witnessed the liberation of the village. There, by the way, I met the soldiers of the 93rd Brigade and then became friends with many of them: a sniper Oleksandr Mamaluyi(currently serving as Chairman of the Supreme Court of Ukraine), tanker Yevgeny Mezhevikin(Hero of Ukraine, commander of the tactical group “Adam”), others. Even in the distant Congo in 2018, one soldier recognized my last name, came up and said that he was in my photo when taking Sand.
In addition to the newspaper, I made a Facebook post about the event. I mentioned that there, in Pervomaisk, near Pisky, our broken tank lay on the road. And one person wrote to me that he can tell a lot about this particular tank. It was a colonel (then a lieutenant colonel, commander of the 93rd Tank Battalion) Dmytro Kashchenko. We met him, he told us about the heavy battle in which he sustained eight injuries on July 21, 2014. I wrote a great text for the newspaper, which had a lot of reactions. Dmitry Kashchenko in September 2019 was appointed commander of the 58th Brigade. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, the brigade fought in the Chernihiv direction, as you can see, successfully, because Chernihiv was not captured by the enemy. On April 15, 2022, Dmitry Kashchenko was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. We don't see him very often. The last time at the funeral of “Da Vinci”.
I met the new 2015 year together with “Right Sector” in Pisky. I clearly remember my feeling that in 2015 the war will definitely end. It seemed that victory was about to be won. But you see...
Then there was the exit from Debaltsev on February 18, 2015. I was in Bakhmut at that moment and in the morning I saw tanks and other military equipment driving through the city, on which tired men were sitting. I filmed it.
Then he went to the hospital. The wounded were brought there. I asked one national guard, and where were the dead? “How where? In the morgue.” And I went there. On the street lay wooden graves made of unhewn boards. They had soldiers. Their arms and legs peered through the slits. In addition to the graves, there were still black plastic bags with bodies. It was a terrible picture and very bitter emotions.
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This picture on World Press Photo has reached the verification stage. A member of the jury wrote to Alexandra: “Dude, don't be upset, your photo is cool, it has already passed a big selection and a bunch of filters, and I voted for it. But... Well, you keep working and someday you will be a winner.”
War is always dangerous. You don't know what awaits you in a second. A mine, a projectile can fly, a sniper can be targeted, you can get into an accident... Much more. Every journalist who goes there can tell you that. When you get there, you are in danger. At the end of February 2015, Sergey Nikolaev became the first Ukrainian photographer to die in the war while performing professional duties. They and a fighter who accompanied Sergei PS “Tanchyk” (whom I also knew and filmed) were walking through the Sands — and suddenly a mine flew. But when you are in the heat of work, then somehow this sense of danger, your instinct of self-preservation, is lost. You want to do your job well. Every journalist will say that too. Otherwise, why go there. Sit in Kiev and take your reflections on the war. We are talking about the front. Where are you safe now? In Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, finally in Ukraine?
Well, not only in 2021. Journalists at war usually look for war. Shots and shelling, attacks and fighting. But people want to see something bright. And they celebrate a man with two dogs. On Instagram Reuters, this photo immediately gained 30 thousand likes. The photo was included in three sections of the Best Reiter Photos of 2021. And it is also the only photo from the Russian-Ukrainian war in the entire Reuters sample for 2021.
I understand that, of course, but I don't want to understand it. War is a horror, and it must be shown. Then, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, few people filmed the war, and hardly any foreigners came. It seems to me that then no more than 10 photographers filmed the war systematically and regularly. I love reporter photos, I love when a photo immediately hits the eyes, in the soul. When you look and “fall from that shot” of the reporter.
Could it have been imagined a few years ago that Ukrainian reporters Yevgeny Maloletka and Mstislav Chernov would win all the most prestigious world awards in the field of journalism? I have a lot of respect for them, it's very cool, they did it. Their work, if not stopping the war, showed the world at the very beginning of the Russian aggression what a horror was really happening. I would also like to mention Dmitry Kozatsky. The world saw his photo of Azov fighters from the surrounded Azovstal. It's a miracle: a person surrounded, but thanks to the Internet, managed to transfer those photos.
I respect all Ukrainian photojournalists who film the war, through whose eyes the world sees what is happening in Ukraine. Which often, at the risk of life, honestly do their job. There are not so many of them. There is video, newspaper journalism, but now we see how important photography is, the most effective and effective means of communication with the world.
From February 24, 2022 until now, Alexander has been documenting Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In April 2023, the photographer received a contusion.
I have already told a little about those worthy people with whom work in the war brought. I will continue this topic. FROM Dmytro Kotsyubail, known as “Da Vinci”, I was well acquainted. We met for the first time in June 2015 at the mine “Butovka”. Then, as always, he looked like a young guy. But at the same time he was a confident warrior: “Go! I will show you both, and that!” and in the evening clearly commanded the battle. I had some strange helmet of the Serbian army or airball, “Da Vinci” says: “Take it off, it is weak” and gave me for that evening an already strong, but no less strange, sand color (rather the color of a child..., well, you understood).
Then, in 2016 and 2017, we saw each other, for the last time in 2021, at the base of his unit in Avdiyivka. He showed us videos of how they fight, despite the so-called “truce”. I gave him my book, which is also in it. “Da Vinci” fought constantly, his boys had their own armory, their mortars. He got on a tank of the 24th Brigade and drove to shoot. He was highly respected by brigade commanders, were his friends and trusted. After the invasion, when he became a brigade commander, it was not necessary to see him.
Also since 2017, I am familiar with Oleksandr Vdovichenko, Full knight Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky. His nickname is “Slavic”, at the time of our acquaintance he was the commander of the battalion. And when a full-scale invasion began, under his command the 72nd OmbR named after Chorny Zaporozhtsi defended Kiev.
Also, I have already mentioned Dmytra Kashchenko, its call sign “Kaschei”. In 2019, Kaschea was appointed commander of the 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade. We met him in the spring of 2021 near the place in Pisky, thanks to which we met. It was another piece of material for my paper.
In January 2022, I was in Avdiyivka, Promzon, and there I met a young company commander of the 72nd Brigade, Yaroslav. Very professional commander, although not a personnel officer. Somehow we immediately got along.
Already during the full-scale invasion on March 31, 2022, I was in Gostomel with journalists. The Russians began to flee that day. We waited a long time for some military man to come and tell us everything. And here comes my friend Yaroslav. It was such a super-super warm meeting. We were happy about this coincidence! Yaroslav was wounded, treated a little and escaped from the hospital to his mouth. I have already said that sometimes I am afraid to know the fate of people I am familiar with.
My first book was published in 2001, it was about Independence. In 2004, I published a book about peacekeepers. In 2009, a book was published with the eloquent title “Through Fire and Tears”: this is a review of everything that I shot and where I was. There is Africa and Yugoslavia. In 2014, I began to think about preparing a book about the Russian-Ukrainian war. She saw the light in 2016. To tell the truth, it was difficult to choose only 150-200 main photos. I didn't have editors. Even if they are, you are still the author.
Well, there are a lot of them. Constantly looking at the Internet, the best photos of the best reporters. But still separately I want to mention James NachtwayHe is a very cool photojournalist. He filmed the war in Yugoslavia. He documented the genocide in Rwanda. I named it because in 1995, in the town of Aquila near Rome, I stumbled upon his book “The Peace of the 80s, in a bookstore among the rubble. (La pace degli anni '80)”. It has photos from Northern Ireland, Lebanon, El Salvador, Nicaragua, other countries. These photos, qualitatively printed, collected comprehensively in a book, impressed me. Then Nightway published the photo book “Inferno”. I consider it a masterpiece out of time. He also came to document the war in Ukraine. He is now 76 years old. We even met him in Bucha and took pictures. I walked up to him and said, “Thank you! You inspired me to do just that photojournalism!” But then it was not until long conversations, because everyone was focused on filming the exhumation of the mass burial. But I'm glad I got to see him and say words of gratitude!
I've always wanted to shoot something very important. This was taught by the Faculty of Journalism of Kyiv University. When Ukraine became independent in 1991, I filmed it.
Then I was sure that I was living in such a happy time for a photojournalist, and the processes in Ukraine in the late 80's and early 90's, in the end gaining independence, are the most important historical event. And I filmed it, I witnessed the story. I used to think that filming war was very cool. It's drive, adrenaline, hard rock! In fact, over the years, you realize that war is a continuous pain and death, even if it is not visually depicted. When you're young, it's all for you for the first time, and that's why you shoot so emotionally. I have already seen a lot in my professional activity, it seems that everything goes in a circle. Perhaps I no longer have as strong a motivation as younger photographers.
I remember the morning of the invasion. It seemed that at one point, at 5 in the morning of 2022, everything that I had to see in my life in conflicts and wars fell on me: devastation, hungry children, death... Even considering that the war in our country has been going on since 2014, I felt (more than others) at one point with the first explosions in Kyiv at 5 in the morning universal horror, the apocalypse that is approaching Ukraine.
For more than two years, we get used to it and sometimes perceive it as routine. And I get used to it. It's bad.
For a period of time there was a feeling that this war was happening somewhere unknown where, but not in our country. Then I didn't want to shoot, I didn't want to pick up a camera. He shot rather by inertia, by habit.
My whole life is a deadline. At the university, you must pass coursework, exams, diploma work. In the newspaper and in journalism in general, there is a constant deadline. In the room, in the room... With books too — it is so difficult to choose your photos, and again — sooner, sooner...
And so it seemed — you can calm down and write books, quietly remember your life. But in our case, not again.
In April 2023, I got a contusion, but I will work as much as I have to. Yes, I will not be able to shoot some music festivals (although this is important) and photo models. I want to be in the thick of events, together with people who create history, do important things. I'm fine with them. My soul is there. And the warmest meetings are with old acquaintances. I am indebted to the people I have met along my life path. There are a lot of them.
Oleksandr Klymenko was born in Chernihiv region. Graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. From 1991 to 2024 — photocorrespondent of the newspaper “Voice of Ukraine”. In 1992, he documented events in Transnistria, then in the former Yugoslavia, as well as Lebanon, Kuwait, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the Revolution of Dignity, being in the very epicenter of events, Alexander was wounded. Since the beginning of the Russian military aggression in 2014 in the East, he has been filming events at the front. Oleksandr is the author of several photo albums, including: “Ukraine. 10 years of progress” (2001), “Peacekeeping activities of the Ukrainian army. The First Decade” (2004), “Through Fire and Tears” (2009), “Front Album” (2016). “The latest history of Ukrainian journalism. From Maidan to Maidan” co-authored with Yuriy Nesteryak, Julia Nesteryak (2022). Had personal photo exhibitions at UN Headquarters in New York (2012), NATO Headquarters in Brussels (2012, 2013, 2014), Lithuania (2015), Poland (2015, 2016, 2023), Luxembourg (2015), Norway (2023), Latvia (2022), participated in collective exhibitions on the war in Ukraine in the parliaments of Great Britain (2015) and Denmark (2014).
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Text worked on: Vira Labych, Oleksandr Klymenko
Oleksandr Klymenko— photojournalist who, even before the beginning of independence, began filming the main events in Ukraine. In addition, he has repeatedly covered armed conflicts in different countries of the world. However, in 2014, he had to put on an armored vest and go with his camera to the war in his country. In the spring of 2024, it will be 10 years since the Russians tried to destroy Ukraine. The main events and figures of this decade of national liberation competitions are in the documentary photos of the war correspondent Oleksandr Klymenko.
1992-2012 — two decades in military conflict zones in Bosnia, Kosovo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kuwait, Congo, South Sudan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria.
So it is said that journalists who film in the war are called military officers. But frankly, I don't like it. We, civilian journalists, document not only war. And the military officers are those who are always at war: the press officers of the units, the journalists of the military media. But let it be. My first business trip to the military conflict zone occurred on April 12, 1992 in Transnistria. Then he traveled to the countries of the former Yugoslavia from 1994 to 2008, then Africa... He covered the events there. Of course, our revolutions of 2004 and 2014.
At some point it seemed that there was nothing left to shoot on the Maidan until the hot phase began. On January 19, 2014 — the first battles on Hrushevsky.
There I was wounded: someone from the militia threw a light-noise grenade, it fell clearly close to my leg, exploded and pierced my calf, damaged the “flounder” muscle. This is where the Maidan is almost over for me. Hospitalization and surgery. And then the Russian-Ukrainian war.
I graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Shevchenko University, so I have always been and still am a photojournalist. Immediately after university, from 1986, he worked for four and a half years in the then most widely circulated newspaper, “Village News”. And then in the newspaper “Voice of Ukraine”, since 1991, from the first to the last day of the publication's existence — 33 years and 3 months. This parliamentary newspaper ceased to exist as a pan-political media on April 1, 2024. Currently, only official information and laws are printed. It was one of the last daily all-Ukrainian newspapers still in print. In 1991, the Voice of Ukraine, against the background of monotonous communist newspapers, had a daily circulation of up to a million copies. I believe that my newspaper is the most accurate textbook of the latest history of Ukraine. Proud of his work in this publication. Also in the early 90's I was a freelance photojournalist in Ukraine for the authoritative German magazine Der Spiegel. It was published in other foreign publications.
I still do not believe that there is a war in my country. It's very bitter. The flower of the nation is dying. My comrades who I knew from peacekeeping missions are dying.
2014—2015 — Oleksandr shot soldiers every month in the ATO zone
Awareness of the war came on January 19, 2014 on Hrushevsky Street during the Revolution of Dignity, when I saw everything there flying, shooting, burning. It was already urban fighting... I covered Ukrainian peacekeeping missions in Africa several times. There I met a lot of our helicopters.
So, in 2014, of course, I wanted to go to helicopters. While I was preparing the necessary permits from the General Staff to get to them, they had already flown from Konotop to Chernihiv airfield. I arrived in Chernihiv on April 30, we talked, I got acquainted. They agreed that I would come again on May 1 and collect them during the flights. I was unable to leave that day. And on May 2, the Russians near Slavyansk shot down two MI-24 helicopters. There are 3 people in each car. The crew consists of: commander, pilot-operator and flight technician. That is, two MI-24s had 6 people: five died, only one escaped. I knew all five of these guys. We met in Africa. That's it.
Now the story is second. I again wanted to visit the military, again obtained the necessary permits for a long time, again applied to helicopters. It was June 4th. Pilots of the 16th Separate Brigade of the Army Aviation “Brody”then were based at the civilian airfield in Dnipro. In the morning we came to the airfield checkpoint, talked with the commander, and on his radio we reported the shooting down of two more of our MI-24s. This is my awareness of war. In the end, in the afternoon, I did fly on the MI-8. We were on Mount Karachun, near Slavyansk. There were just fights going on. Helicopters in general — my pain. Perhaps because I talked a lot with them, I am familiar with many. These are brave warriors. I think that it is more dangerous to fight on a helicopter than on fighters, closer to the ground. But they are fighting. You hear what was shot down there or there, you find out who. Do you read how they are posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, and whether they are awarded posthumously the Order of Helicopters? pilots of the Army Air Forces... Sometimes I catch myself thinking that I do not want to know about their deaths, may they remain alive in my memory.
I tried to go to Donbas at least once a month. With the 95th Brigade in June he again went to Karachun, but already by land. Later I was with them near the village of Kriva Luka. There was hot fighting on a busy beachhead, on June 25, 2014 we drove there in a convoy with paratroopers. The commander of the brigade, one of the first Heroes of Ukraine, Mikhail Zabrodsky, commanded there. It was like some kind of World War II movie. Everyone is running somewhere, someone is carrying a machine gun, shells, somewhere further on the fire the guys are cooking to eat. Later, the artillery of the 95th began to work. Only the art commander was human, everyone else — mobilized.
Then we were in Schasta, near the village of Metalist in early July. There he met the (then) colonel of the 30th Brigade, later the commander of the 58th Brigade, and now a general Serhiy Zabolotny. He is now Chief of Staff — Deputy Chief National Defense University of Ukraine. I always remember how I called him back then from Kiev, agreed. Explosions could be heard on the phone, and he answered me in a calm intelligent voice: “Excuse me, please, I'm just leading the fight. Could you call me a little later?” We are friends with this decent man until now.
When on July 8 we reached the position of “thirty”, from which the outskirts of Luhansk are already visible, there was a heavy downpour. The BMP stood in a caponair like in a lake. The artillerymen were preparing for battle, unloading newly brought shells. The tank stood on the edge of a wheat field that no one could collect anymore. In the midst of the rain, the fighters of “Aidar” returned from reconnaissance, looking like ghosts. With artillery powder (because wet), the fighters lit bonfires to cook food. Also a picture from the cinema. But she is real.
On August 24, 2014, a military parade took place in Kiev. The column of paratroopers was led by Mikhail Zabrodsky. To continue the story, I just needed to photograph it. Max Levinthe day before he tells me that he is driving to Ilovaisk and invites me. I tell him about my plan to shoot the parade and say that I will take the train in the evening of August 24 to the Dnieper, and then somehow join them. On August 25, I was already at the field KP near Kurakhovo. On August 26, a column arrived from Ilovaisk. The weary, suffocated colonel, at my request to get into that city, says: “Where are you going? We barely got out of there. The wounded were taken out. It is no longer possible to get there.” So I did not get to Ilovaisk. (Well, you know how Max and his comrades miraculously escaped from Ilovaisk). And in the continuation of this: you make a lot of effort to get somewhere, you get nervous, you ask - and it's not. One wise man told me: so God (or Angel) does not want to let you there, he knows something, so relax and swim in the wave...
Another memorable event is the liberation of Pisky village near Donetsk on July 24, 2014. We got there by chance just at this time. Journalistic luck. The morning began at 5 o'clock with an assault with artillery training. Then infantry on tanks and BMP began to enter the village. All according to military textbooks. Not every day then was it so lucky that you witnessed the liberation of the village. There, by the way, I met the soldiers of the 93rd Brigade and then became friends with many of them: a sniper Oleksandr Mamaluyi(currently serving as Chairman of the Supreme Court of Ukraine), tanker Yevgeny Mezhevikin(Hero of Ukraine, commander of the tactical group “Adam”), others. Even in the distant Congo in 2018, one soldier recognized my last name, came up and said that he was in my photo when taking Sand.
In addition to the newspaper, I made a Facebook post about the event. I mentioned that there, in Pervomaisk, near Pisky, our broken tank lay on the road. And one person wrote to me that he can tell a lot about this particular tank. It was a colonel (then a lieutenant colonel, commander of the 93rd Tank Battalion) Dmytro Kashchenko. We met him, he told us about the heavy battle in which he sustained eight injuries on July 21, 2014. I wrote a great text for the newspaper, which had a lot of reactions. Dmitry Kashchenko in September 2019 was appointed commander of the 58th Brigade. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, the brigade fought in the Chernihiv direction, as you can see, successfully, because Chernihiv was not captured by the enemy. On April 15, 2022, Dmitry Kashchenko was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. We don't see him very often. The last time at the funeral of “Da Vinci”.
I met the new 2015 year together with “Right Sector” in Pisky. I clearly remember my feeling that in 2015 the war will definitely end. It seemed that victory was about to be won. But you see...
Then there was the exit from Debaltsev on February 18, 2015. I was in Bakhmut at that moment and in the morning I saw tanks and other military equipment driving through the city, on which tired men were sitting. I filmed it.
Then he went to the hospital. The wounded were brought there. I asked one national guard, and where were the dead? “How where? In the morgue.” And I went there. On the street lay wooden graves made of unhewn boards. They had soldiers. Their arms and legs peered through the slits. In addition to the graves, there were still black plastic bags with bodies. It was a terrible picture and very bitter emotions.
This picture on World Press Photo has reached the verification stage. A member of the jury wrote to Alexandra: “Dude, don't be upset, your photo is cool, it has already passed a big selection and a bunch of filters, and I voted for it. But... Well, you keep working and someday you will be a winner.”
War is always dangerous. You don't know what awaits you in a second. A mine, a projectile can fly, a sniper can be targeted, you can get into an accident... Much more. Every journalist who goes there can tell you that. When you get there, you are in danger. At the end of February 2015, Sergey Nikolaev became the first Ukrainian photographer to die in the war while performing professional duties. They and a fighter who accompanied Sergei PS “Tanchyk” (whom I also knew and filmed) were walking through the Sands — and suddenly a mine flew. But when you are in the heat of work, then somehow this sense of danger, your instinct of self-preservation, is lost. You want to do your job well. Every journalist will say that too. Otherwise, why go there. Sit in Kiev and take your reflections on the war. We are talking about the front. Where are you safe now? In Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, finally in Ukraine?
Well, not only in 2021. Journalists at war usually look for war. Shots and shelling, attacks and fighting. But people want to see something bright. And they celebrate a man with two dogs. On Instagram Reuters, this photo immediately gained 30 thousand likes. The photo was included in three sections of the Best Reiter Photos of 2021. And it is also the only photo from the Russian-Ukrainian war in the entire Reuters sample for 2021.
I understand that, of course, but I don't want to understand it. War is a horror, and it must be shown. Then, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, few people filmed the war, and hardly any foreigners came. It seems to me that then no more than 10 photographers filmed the war systematically and regularly. I love reporter photos, I love when a photo immediately hits the eyes, in the soul. When you look and “fall from that shot” of the reporter.
Could it have been imagined a few years ago that Ukrainian reporters Yevgeny Maloletka and Mstislav Chernov would win all the most prestigious world awards in the field of journalism? I have a lot of respect for them, it's very cool, they did it. Their work, if not stopping the war, showed the world at the very beginning of the Russian aggression what a horror was really happening. I would also like to mention Dmitry Kozatsky. The world saw his photo of Azov fighters from the surrounded Azovstal. It's a miracle: a person surrounded, but thanks to the Internet, managed to transfer those photos.
I respect all Ukrainian photojournalists who film the war, through whose eyes the world sees what is happening in Ukraine. Which often, at the risk of life, honestly do their job. There are not so many of them. There is video, newspaper journalism, but now we see how important photography is, the most effective and effective means of communication with the world.
From February 24, 2022 until now, Alexander has been documenting Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In April 2023, the photographer received a contusion.
I have already told a little about those worthy people with whom work in the war brought. I will continue this topic. FROM Dmytro Kotsyubail, known as “Da Vinci”, I was well acquainted. We met for the first time in June 2015 at the mine “Butovka”. Then, as always, he looked like a young guy. But at the same time he was a confident warrior: “Go! I will show you both, and that!” and in the evening clearly commanded the battle. I had some strange helmet of the Serbian army or airball, “Da Vinci” says: “Take it off, it is weak” and gave me for that evening an already strong, but no less strange, sand color (rather the color of a child..., well, you understood).
Then, in 2016 and 2017, we saw each other, for the last time in 2021, at the base of his unit in Avdiyivka. He showed us videos of how they fight, despite the so-called “truce”. I gave him my book, which is also in it. “Da Vinci” fought constantly, his boys had their own armory, their mortars. He got on a tank of the 24th Brigade and drove to shoot. He was highly respected by brigade commanders, were his friends and trusted. After the invasion, when he became a brigade commander, it was not necessary to see him.
Also since 2017, I am familiar with Oleksandr Vdovichenko, Full knight Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky. His nickname is “Slavic”, at the time of our acquaintance he was the commander of the battalion. And when a full-scale invasion began, under his command the 72nd OmbR named after Chorny Zaporozhtsi defended Kiev.
Also, I have already mentioned Dmytra Kashchenko, its call sign “Kaschei”. In 2019, Kaschea was appointed commander of the 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade. We met him in the spring of 2021 near the place in Pisky, thanks to which we met. It was another piece of material for my paper.
In January 2022, I was in Avdiyivka, Promzon, and there I met a young company commander of the 72nd Brigade, Yaroslav. Very professional commander, although not a personnel officer. Somehow we immediately got along.
Already during the full-scale invasion on March 31, 2022, I was in Gostomel with journalists. The Russians began to flee that day. We waited a long time for some military man to come and tell us everything. And here comes my friend Yaroslav. It was such a super-super warm meeting. We were happy about this coincidence! Yaroslav was wounded, treated a little and escaped from the hospital to his mouth. I have already said that sometimes I am afraid to know the fate of people I am familiar with.
My first book was published in 2001, it was about Independence. In 2004, I published a book about peacekeepers. In 2009, a book was published with the eloquent title “Through Fire and Tears”: this is a review of everything that I shot and where I was. There is Africa and Yugoslavia. In 2014, I began to think about preparing a book about the Russian-Ukrainian war. She saw the light in 2016. To tell the truth, it was difficult to choose only 150-200 main photos. I didn't have editors. Even if they are, you are still the author.
Well, there are a lot of them. Constantly looking at the Internet, the best photos of the best reporters. But still separately I want to mention James NachtwayHe is a very cool photojournalist. He filmed the war in Yugoslavia. He documented the genocide in Rwanda. I named it because in 1995, in the town of Aquila near Rome, I stumbled upon his book “The Peace of the 80s, in a bookstore among the rubble. (La pace degli anni '80)”. It has photos from Northern Ireland, Lebanon, El Salvador, Nicaragua, other countries. These photos, qualitatively printed, collected comprehensively in a book, impressed me. Then Nightway published the photo book “Inferno”. I consider it a masterpiece out of time. He also came to document the war in Ukraine. He is now 76 years old. We even met him in Bucha and took pictures. I walked up to him and said, “Thank you! You inspired me to do just that photojournalism!” But then it was not until long conversations, because everyone was focused on filming the exhumation of the mass burial. But I'm glad I got to see him and say words of gratitude!
I've always wanted to shoot something very important. This was taught by the Faculty of Journalism of Kyiv University. When Ukraine became independent in 1991, I filmed it.
Then I was sure that I was living in such a happy time for a photojournalist, and the processes in Ukraine in the late 80's and early 90's, in the end gaining independence, are the most important historical event. And I filmed it, I witnessed the story. I used to think that filming war was very cool. It's drive, adrenaline, hard rock! In fact, over the years, you realize that war is a continuous pain and death, even if it is not visually depicted. When you're young, it's all for you for the first time, and that's why you shoot so emotionally. I have already seen a lot in my professional activity, it seems that everything goes in a circle. Perhaps I no longer have as strong a motivation as younger photographers.
I remember the morning of the invasion. It seemed that at one point, at 5 in the morning of 2022, everything that I had to see in my life in conflicts and wars fell on me: devastation, hungry children, death... Even considering that the war in our country has been going on since 2014, I felt (more than others) at one point with the first explosions in Kyiv at 5 in the morning universal horror, the apocalypse that is approaching Ukraine.
For more than two years, we get used to it and sometimes perceive it as routine. And I get used to it. It's bad.
For a period of time there was a feeling that this war was happening somewhere unknown where, but not in our country. Then I didn't want to shoot, I didn't want to pick up a camera. He shot rather by inertia, by habit.
My whole life is a deadline. At the university, you must pass coursework, exams, diploma work. In the newspaper and in journalism in general, there is a constant deadline. In the room, in the room... With books too — it is so difficult to choose your photos, and again — sooner, sooner...
And so it seemed — you can calm down and write books, quietly remember your life. But in our case, not again.
In April 2023, I got a contusion, but I will work as much as I have to. Yes, I will not be able to shoot some music festivals (although this is important) and photo models. I want to be in the thick of events, together with people who create history, do important things. I'm fine with them. My soul is there. And the warmest meetings are with old acquaintances. I am indebted to the people I have met along my life path. There are a lot of them.
Oleksandr Klymenko was born in Chernihiv region. Graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. From 1991 to 2024 — photocorrespondent of the newspaper “Voice of Ukraine”. In 1992, he documented events in Transnistria, then in the former Yugoslavia, as well as Lebanon, Kuwait, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the Revolution of Dignity, being in the very epicenter of events, Alexander was wounded. Since the beginning of the Russian military aggression in 2014 in the East, he has been filming events at the front. Oleksandr is the author of several photo albums, including: “Ukraine. 10 years of progress” (2001), “Peacekeeping activities of the Ukrainian army. The First Decade” (2004), “Through Fire and Tears” (2009), “Front Album” (2016). “The latest history of Ukrainian journalism. From Maidan to Maidan” co-authored with Yuriy Nesteryak, Julia Nesteryak (2022). Had personal photo exhibitions at UN Headquarters in New York (2012), NATO Headquarters in Brussels (2012, 2013, 2014), Lithuania (2015), Poland (2015, 2016, 2023), Luxembourg (2015), Norway (2023), Latvia (2022), participated in collective exhibitions on the war in Ukraine in the parliaments of Great Britain (2015) and Denmark (2014).
The material was worked on:
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
Text worked on: Vira Labych, Oleksandr Klymenko
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