Warning! The material contains sensitive information and the photographs contain scenes of violence that may shock you.
Radio Liberty journalist Marian Kushnir faced the full-scale invasion in the Donetsk region, where he had often worked before. He says he went to Marinka on the eve of the invasion. Anticipating possible shelling of the town, he moved into an old dormitory with a view of Donetsk from the window. He expected the front line to be shelled, but nothing happened.
"There is a ruined dormitory in Mariinka where we stayed, thinking that there would be shelling, and fighting from the direction of Donetsk. We could see Donetsk from the window, we wanted to film the front line. We stayed there for a long time, but nothing happened. It was around 21-22 February, we knew there would be some kind of movement," Kushnir recalls.
The journalist spent two days in Kharkiv with Max Levin. In the first days, Russian troops tried to enter the city. They did not expect any resistance. The first clashes with Ukrainian forces took place on 24 February. It was at the Kharkiv district police station. According to Kushnir, he and Levin filmed the aftermath of the fighting on the ring road, the shelled northern Saltovka. They spent the night there in a car. Then they went to Kyiv together.
"Max wanted to go to Kyiv. And I thought that all the action was going on near Kyiv. We went to Kyiv and started working. We went everywhere on luck, so we explored where and what was going on," recalls Marian Kushnir. "One night we were looking for an IL-76 that had crashed with Russian troops. The next day Zaluzhnyi told us that our men had shot down a plane near Vasylkiv. We went looking for this Russian landing force and stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning. How many times has our territorial defense tried to kill us."
Then the journalists saw a battle at the Vasylkiv airfield. They tried to get there, but it was a military facility and no one was waiting for journalists.
'In the morning we were allowed to go in, having obtained permission. That night a missile hit the fuel depot. We traveled a lot near Kyiv and the previous experience of working in the front line helped,' says Marian Kushnir.
Later, Kushnir and Levin traveled together to Borodyanka, which had just been shelled by planes, several houses were destroyed, a crashed plane was burning near the town, and there was Russian military equipment piled up at the entrance to the town and on the main road.
UAPP published Marian Kushnir's memories and Max Levin's photos of the trip to Borodyanka earlier: Air strikes on Borodyanka in the photos by Max Levin.
Marian Kushnir says their years of experience in the Joint Forces Operation Area in Donetsk and Luhansk came in handy at the time, especially their experience in communicating with the military at checkpoints.
'Back then you could shoot anything near Kyiv if you knew how. First of all, you need to be experienced. The second is that it's a piece of luck, a lot of luck. And third, is chutzpah. We went where we wanted to go with Max. Our experience of war and driving through checkpoints allowed us to work. In order to get to a place where no one else was, we had to lie somewhere, have an argument somewhere, shout somewhere. We went to Bucha and filmed the artillery firing on Makariv. Later we went to Makarov when it was liberated by the 14th Brigade with paratroopers. We also filmed tankers near Makariv. We filmed a lot of things that Ukrainian journalists did not film because it was total chaos, no one was allowed to film,' the journalist says of the first month of the invasion.
The work was assisted greatly by the contacts that had been made during the war in eastern Ukraine. Thanks to these contacts, Kushnir had a unique opportunity to work throughout the Kyiv region.
"I used to work a lot with the 10th Brigade. My contacts allowed me to work with the brigade because it was defending the Kyiv region. Two battalions were in the north, one was attached to Syrske and fought on the left bank, near Baryshivka, next to the 72nd and 128th or 14th Brigades. These contacts allowed me to do a lot of work and to go where no one else could," explains the journalist.
Kushnir recalls with deep feeling the first time he went on a raid with the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade. The soldiers stormed the village of Rudnytske, near Baryshivka.
"I still don't understand how I didn't get shot in the thigh. Everyone around me was shot in the thigh," laughs Marian.
- These are people who have known me for a long time. The battalion commander called me: "Marian, come here, we're going to have fun. You have never filmed anything like this before." They trusted us because they were sure we would not be a burden to them. We know how to behave, where to stand and when to be there, so they don't have any problems, you know, not to get too excited. And that's actually why they took us in. And that was the first time after the first attack, - he explains.
Marian Kushnir remembers that after that he vowed not to go back with the military to storm the city, but a short time later he went, and then again...
"In fact, the chances of being killed there are so high that... Well, actually, you're going to get killed right now, and you're just waiting for it. You have no place to hide, you have to move as fast as you can. You get an adrenaline rush that is indescribable. And you realise that you are virtually defenceless and there is nothing you can do. If they are still fighting, doing some kind of work, then your job is just to take shots. And so I didn't even really film when they pinned me down with a machine gun, when I was crawling on the ground. I turned the camera on and started filming, but all that was recorded was the camera crawling through the snow. I pumped myself into the hollows because the bullets were right over my head. I could even feel them. It was just brutal. Not like the artillery there...", Marian recalls emotionally.
According to the journalist, all the fear and danger were justified - his video and photos went viral. The story of Ukraine kicking Russia in the teeth was documented. Kushnir is confident that after that, people started talking more about helping Ukraine.
Marian Kushnir, 30, is a Ukrainian journalist, videographer, and photographer who has been working in Radio Liberty's Ukrainian media since 2015. Since then, he has traveled to the frontline to cover the fighting in Ukraine and prepare reports on mass actions. He covered events from hotspots where active hostilities were taking place after Russia's open military attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022. On 11 March 2022, he was injured in the village of Baryshivka, Kyiv region, and sustained a concussion.
He was awarded the Order of Merit III Class (2022).
Photographer's social media:
Facebook
Instagram
We would like to remind you that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has launched a series of materials dedicated to the key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where we will publish memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is being implemented with the support of the ЗМІN.
Warning! The material contains sensitive information and the photographs contain scenes of violence that may shock you.
Radio Liberty journalist Marian Kushnir faced the full-scale invasion in the Donetsk region, where he had often worked before. He says he went to Marinka on the eve of the invasion. Anticipating possible shelling of the town, he moved into an old dormitory with a view of Donetsk from the window. He expected the front line to be shelled, but nothing happened.
"There is a ruined dormitory in Mariinka where we stayed, thinking that there would be shelling, and fighting from the direction of Donetsk. We could see Donetsk from the window, we wanted to film the front line. We stayed there for a long time, but nothing happened. It was around 21-22 February, we knew there would be some kind of movement," Kushnir recalls.
The journalist spent two days in Kharkiv with Max Levin. In the first days, Russian troops tried to enter the city. They did not expect any resistance. The first clashes with Ukrainian forces took place on 24 February. It was at the Kharkiv district police station. According to Kushnir, he and Levin filmed the aftermath of the fighting on the ring road, the shelled northern Saltovka. They spent the night there in a car. Then they went to Kyiv together.
"Max wanted to go to Kyiv. And I thought that all the action was going on near Kyiv. We went to Kyiv and started working. We went everywhere on luck, so we explored where and what was going on," recalls Marian Kushnir. "One night we were looking for an IL-76 that had crashed with Russian troops. The next day Zaluzhnyi told us that our men had shot down a plane near Vasylkiv. We went looking for this Russian landing force and stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning. How many times has our territorial defense tried to kill us."
Then the journalists saw a battle at the Vasylkiv airfield. They tried to get there, but it was a military facility and no one was waiting for journalists.
'In the morning we were allowed to go in, having obtained permission. That night a missile hit the fuel depot. We traveled a lot near Kyiv and the previous experience of working in the front line helped,' says Marian Kushnir.
Later, Kushnir and Levin traveled together to Borodyanka, which had just been shelled by planes, several houses were destroyed, a crashed plane was burning near the town, and there was Russian military equipment piled up at the entrance to the town and on the main road.
UAPP published Marian Kushnir's memories and Max Levin's photos of the trip to Borodyanka earlier: Air strikes on Borodyanka in the photos by Max Levin.
Marian Kushnir says their years of experience in the Joint Forces Operation Area in Donetsk and Luhansk came in handy at the time, especially their experience in communicating with the military at checkpoints.
'Back then you could shoot anything near Kyiv if you knew how. First of all, you need to be experienced. The second is that it's a piece of luck, a lot of luck. And third, is chutzpah. We went where we wanted to go with Max. Our experience of war and driving through checkpoints allowed us to work. In order to get to a place where no one else was, we had to lie somewhere, have an argument somewhere, shout somewhere. We went to Bucha and filmed the artillery firing on Makariv. Later we went to Makarov when it was liberated by the 14th Brigade with paratroopers. We also filmed tankers near Makariv. We filmed a lot of things that Ukrainian journalists did not film because it was total chaos, no one was allowed to film,' the journalist says of the first month of the invasion.
The work was assisted greatly by the contacts that had been made during the war in eastern Ukraine. Thanks to these contacts, Kushnir had a unique opportunity to work throughout the Kyiv region.
"I used to work a lot with the 10th Brigade. My contacts allowed me to work with the brigade because it was defending the Kyiv region. Two battalions were in the north, one was attached to Syrske and fought on the left bank, near Baryshivka, next to the 72nd and 128th or 14th Brigades. These contacts allowed me to do a lot of work and to go where no one else could," explains the journalist.
Kushnir recalls with deep feeling the first time he went on a raid with the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade. The soldiers stormed the village of Rudnytske, near Baryshivka.
"I still don't understand how I didn't get shot in the thigh. Everyone around me was shot in the thigh," laughs Marian.
- These are people who have known me for a long time. The battalion commander called me: "Marian, come here, we're going to have fun. You have never filmed anything like this before." They trusted us because they were sure we would not be a burden to them. We know how to behave, where to stand and when to be there, so they don't have any problems, you know, not to get too excited. And that's actually why they took us in. And that was the first time after the first attack, - he explains.
Marian Kushnir remembers that after that he vowed not to go back with the military to storm the city, but a short time later he went, and then again...
"In fact, the chances of being killed there are so high that... Well, actually, you're going to get killed right now, and you're just waiting for it. You have no place to hide, you have to move as fast as you can. You get an adrenaline rush that is indescribable. And you realise that you are virtually defenceless and there is nothing you can do. If they are still fighting, doing some kind of work, then your job is just to take shots. And so I didn't even really film when they pinned me down with a machine gun, when I was crawling on the ground. I turned the camera on and started filming, but all that was recorded was the camera crawling through the snow. I pumped myself into the hollows because the bullets were right over my head. I could even feel them. It was just brutal. Not like the artillery there...", Marian recalls emotionally.
According to the journalist, all the fear and danger were justified - his video and photos went viral. The story of Ukraine kicking Russia in the teeth was documented. Kushnir is confident that after that, people started talking more about helping Ukraine.
Marian Kushnir, 30, is a Ukrainian journalist, videographer, and photographer who has been working in Radio Liberty's Ukrainian media since 2015. Since then, he has traveled to the frontline to cover the fighting in Ukraine and prepare reports on mass actions. He covered events from hotspots where active hostilities were taking place after Russia's open military attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022. On 11 March 2022, he was injured in the village of Baryshivka, Kyiv region, and sustained a concussion.
He was awarded the Order of Merit III Class (2022).
Photographer's social media:
Facebook
Instagram
We would like to remind you that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has launched a series of materials dedicated to the key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where we will publish memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is being implemented with the support of the ЗМІN.
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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