During the 10 years of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Mariupol managed to survive the Russian occupation, liberation, shelling of the civilian area and re-occupation. The Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers publishes moments from the life of the city of Maria in the period 2014-2022.
For the first time, Russian hybrid formations occupied Mariupol in the spring of 2014. On April 13, militants seized administrative buildings and blocked several streets in the center. During the assault on June 13, Ukrainian forces eliminated key enemy strongholds, managed to destroy enemy equipment and regain control of all captured buildings, including the city council building. Thus, the Ukrainian defense forces liberated Mariupol from the Russians for the first time.
There were another 8 years before the Russian occupation of Mariupol in 2022, photographer Sergey Vaganov left Donetsk, occupied by militants, where he lived for 15 years, and returned to his hometown.
“I am so confused that I returned to Mariupol almost 40 years after I left there as a teenager,” Sergei Vaganov begins the story. “Almost a month after the liberation in Mariupol there were few people, apparently many people just left. The shops did not all work. The city looked half-empty. There are still no inscriptions of militants on the walls, they have not yet had time to paint them everywhere.”
In Mariupol, Serhiy began to meet local journalists, volunteers and activists. Mariupol residents began to actively go to pro-Ukrainian rallies. “Because the war was 20 kilometers away. Therefore, it was very disturbing in Mariupol,” Serhiy explains.
Before the second arrival of Russians in Mariupol — 7 years. On January 24, 2015, Mariupol residents woke up from loud explosions. The Russians shelled their frontline town with heavy weapons. Then 29 residents of the Mariupol neighborhood “Eastern” were killed, about a hundred more were wounded. By 2022, this tragedy was the largest for the city since the beginning of the Russian aggression.
Sergey Vaganov remembers that day well. He learned about the shelling from the news. “The Eastern district is an area of the city that has always looked at the war,” says the photographer. “When I came there, I saw the bodies of people on the street. I started filming it all: the dead, the fire, the destroyed houses, the military and the police who were there. All that horror and all that chaos.”
Sergey Vaganov felt that the city lived in constant anxiety. After the tragedy, Mariupol residents again began to actively go to pro-Ukrainian rallies. “For the people of Mariupol, it was a way to somehow shout “We are here”, - Serhiy shares.
The invasion began. “Due to the fact that we are all used to the sounds of war, it played a bad joke with us in 2022,” says Sergey. “It used to be normal when you relax on the beach or train on the tennis court and hear explosions somewhere. You just think to yourself that somewhere in Vodyany or Shyrokyne they are shooting. And when there was a full-scale invasion, I thought to myself, “We've heard that already!”. I thought our defense forces would be able to hold the city. I have been in their position for four years. But no one could have thought then that Mariupol would be under siege.”
The photographer did not take any pictures while in Mariupol during the full-scale invasion. “Then it was dangerous to walk with a camera, saboteurs and spies were sneaking in everywhere. I was known there as a photographer. There was also intense shelling from Russian aircraft,” Serhiy says.
He and his family were able to leave the surrounded city on March 14. Serhiy, risking his life, took out his archives: photos and videos from Donetsk region, all his journalistic achievements since 1999. The next day, March 15, the documentary filmmaker, founder of the UAFF, Mstislav Chernov, drove along the same road in the direction of free Ukraine. At the same risk, he brought from Mariupol his documentary materials, which testified about the war crimes of the Russians and then became the basis for the film “20 Days in Mariupol”. Then for this film Ukraine for the first time in history receivedThe Oscar Award.
“Although I did not take a single photo from the surrounded city, I, like Mstislav, survived these 20 days in Mariupol. I probably will never dare to watch this film,” Serhiy admits.
Two years later, in March 2024, in Los Angeles from the stage of the Oscar Awards, Mstislav Chernov will say that he would never make this film and will remember Mariupol and its dead inhabitants: “I would like to be able to exchange this for Russia never attacking Ukraine I have never occupied our cities. I would give all this credit for the Russians not killing tens of thousands of my fellow citizens from Ukraine. And that the dead people of Mariupol and those who gave their lives would never be forgotten.”
Mstislav Chernov believes that the desire to be heard and the knowledge that you are not ignored helps to survive. “It seems to me that our mission, as journalists or documentarians, is not only to tell the world about tragedies, but also to give people hope that they will be heard. Fewer and fewer people believe in the power of journalism, unfortunately. But we cannot stop, and I hope that “20 Days in Mariupol” will contribute to this hope,” Mstislav Chernov said in Interviews after receiving the Oscar.
Mstislav Chernov — Ukrainian photographer, journalist of the Associated Press, director, war correspondent, President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, honorary member of PEN Ukraine and writer. He covered the Revolution of Dignity, the war in eastern Ukraine, the aftermath of the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, the Syrian civil war, the battle of Mosul in Iraq, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including the blockade of Mariupol. For this work, he received Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award, Georgy Gongadze Award, Knight International Journalism Awards, Biagio Agnes Award, Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award, Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award, Free Media Awards. According to the results of 2022, he was included in the ratings “People of NV 2022 in the Year of the War” and “14 songs, photos and art objects that became symbols of Ukrainian resistance” from “Forbes Ukraine”, and video materials from Mariupol became the basis of the film “20 Days in Mariupol”, which in 2024 was for the first time in the history of Ukrainian cinema Awarded an Oscar.
Photographer's social networks:
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Serhiy Vaganov — Ukrainian reportage and documentary photographer. 1958. He graduated from Donetsk Medical Institute, after which he worked as a traumatologist in Avdiivka for 15 years. Since 1999 he worked as a photojournalist in Donetsk. After the de-occupation, he moved to Mariupol, where in 2022 he survived the siege of the city.
Photographer's social networks:
Facebook
Recall that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has started a series of materials dedicated to key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where he publishes memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
During the 10 years of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Mariupol managed to survive the Russian occupation, liberation, shelling of the civilian area and re-occupation. The Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers publishes moments from the life of the city of Maria in the period 2014-2022.
For the first time, Russian hybrid formations occupied Mariupol in the spring of 2014. On April 13, militants seized administrative buildings and blocked several streets in the center. During the assault on June 13, Ukrainian forces eliminated key enemy strongholds, managed to destroy enemy equipment and regain control of all captured buildings, including the city council building. Thus, the Ukrainian defense forces liberated Mariupol from the Russians for the first time.
There were another 8 years before the Russian occupation of Mariupol in 2022, photographer Sergey Vaganov left Donetsk, occupied by militants, where he lived for 15 years, and returned to his hometown.
“I am so confused that I returned to Mariupol almost 40 years after I left there as a teenager,” Sergei Vaganov begins the story. “Almost a month after the liberation in Mariupol there were few people, apparently many people just left. The shops did not all work. The city looked half-empty. There are still no inscriptions of militants on the walls, they have not yet had time to paint them everywhere.”
In Mariupol, Serhiy began to meet local journalists, volunteers and activists. Mariupol residents began to actively go to pro-Ukrainian rallies. “Because the war was 20 kilometers away. Therefore, it was very disturbing in Mariupol,” Serhiy explains.
Before the second arrival of Russians in Mariupol — 7 years. On January 24, 2015, Mariupol residents woke up from loud explosions. The Russians shelled their frontline town with heavy weapons. Then 29 residents of the Mariupol neighborhood “Eastern” were killed, about a hundred more were wounded. By 2022, this tragedy was the largest for the city since the beginning of the Russian aggression.
Sergey Vaganov remembers that day well. He learned about the shelling from the news. “The Eastern district is an area of the city that has always looked at the war,” says the photographer. “When I came there, I saw the bodies of people on the street. I started filming it all: the dead, the fire, the destroyed houses, the military and the police who were there. All that horror and all that chaos.”
Sergey Vaganov felt that the city lived in constant anxiety. After the tragedy, Mariupol residents again began to actively go to pro-Ukrainian rallies. “For the people of Mariupol, it was a way to somehow shout “We are here”, - Serhiy shares.
The invasion began. “Due to the fact that we are all used to the sounds of war, it played a bad joke with us in 2022,” says Sergey. “It used to be normal when you relax on the beach or train on the tennis court and hear explosions somewhere. You just think to yourself that somewhere in Vodyany or Shyrokyne they are shooting. And when there was a full-scale invasion, I thought to myself, “We've heard that already!”. I thought our defense forces would be able to hold the city. I have been in their position for four years. But no one could have thought then that Mariupol would be under siege.”
The photographer did not take any pictures while in Mariupol during the full-scale invasion. “Then it was dangerous to walk with a camera, saboteurs and spies were sneaking in everywhere. I was known there as a photographer. There was also intense shelling from Russian aircraft,” Serhiy says.
He and his family were able to leave the surrounded city on March 14. Serhiy, risking his life, took out his archives: photos and videos from Donetsk region, all his journalistic achievements since 1999. The next day, March 15, the documentary filmmaker, founder of the UAFF, Mstislav Chernov, drove along the same road in the direction of free Ukraine. At the same risk, he brought from Mariupol his documentary materials, which testified about the war crimes of the Russians and then became the basis for the film “20 Days in Mariupol”. Then for this film Ukraine for the first time in history receivedThe Oscar Award.
“Although I did not take a single photo from the surrounded city, I, like Mstislav, survived these 20 days in Mariupol. I probably will never dare to watch this film,” Serhiy admits.
Two years later, in March 2024, in Los Angeles from the stage of the Oscar Awards, Mstislav Chernov will say that he would never make this film and will remember Mariupol and its dead inhabitants: “I would like to be able to exchange this for Russia never attacking Ukraine I have never occupied our cities. I would give all this credit for the Russians not killing tens of thousands of my fellow citizens from Ukraine. And that the dead people of Mariupol and those who gave their lives would never be forgotten.”
Mstislav Chernov believes that the desire to be heard and the knowledge that you are not ignored helps to survive. “It seems to me that our mission, as journalists or documentarians, is not only to tell the world about tragedies, but also to give people hope that they will be heard. Fewer and fewer people believe in the power of journalism, unfortunately. But we cannot stop, and I hope that “20 Days in Mariupol” will contribute to this hope,” Mstislav Chernov said in Interviews after receiving the Oscar.
Mstislav Chernov — Ukrainian photographer, journalist of the Associated Press, director, war correspondent, President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, honorary member of PEN Ukraine and writer. He covered the Revolution of Dignity, the war in eastern Ukraine, the aftermath of the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, the Syrian civil war, the battle of Mosul in Iraq, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including the blockade of Mariupol. For this work, he received Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award, Georgy Gongadze Award, Knight International Journalism Awards, Biagio Agnes Award, Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award, Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award, Free Media Awards. According to the results of 2022, he was included in the ratings “People of NV 2022 in the Year of the War” and “14 songs, photos and art objects that became symbols of Ukrainian resistance” from “Forbes Ukraine”, and video materials from Mariupol became the basis of the film “20 Days in Mariupol”, which in 2024 was for the first time in the history of Ukrainian cinema Awarded an Oscar.
Photographer's social networks:
Facebook
Instagram
Serhiy Vaganov — Ukrainian reportage and documentary photographer. 1958. He graduated from Donetsk Medical Institute, after which he worked as a traumatologist in Avdiivka for 15 years. Since 1999 he worked as a photojournalist in Donetsk. After the de-occupation, he moved to Mariupol, where in 2022 he survived the siege of the city.
Photographer's social networks:
Facebook
Recall that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has started a series of materials dedicated to key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where he publishes memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
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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