On April 28, 2023, the Russian army launched a missile strike on Uman. Russian missiles hit a nine-story residential building. Twenty-three people were killed, including six children.
On April 28, 2023, the Russian army launched 23 cruise missiles X-101/X-555, of which 21 were shot down. The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said that the strike was carried out by Tu-95 bombers from the waters of the Caspian Sea. The Russian military also used drones to attack Ukraine.
At 4:20 a.m., one of the Russian missiles destroyed part of an apartment building in Uman. The missile strike killed 23 people, including six children. The youngest child was only one and a half years old. Rescuers pulled 17 people from under the rubble.
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Photographer Roman Pylypiy left Kyiv for Uman in the morning, as soon as he read the news about the missile attack on the city. Rescuers were already working at the scene of the tragedy.
“A lot of people were standing near the destroyed high-rise building. They were all waiting for news about their relatives,” recalls photographer Roman Pylypiy. “One man was waiting for news about his children. He was crying, and there was a psychologist by his side. The man said that after the impact everything was dark, nothing was visible, and when he opened the door to the children's room, there was a wasteland in its place.”
Unfortunately, as it turned out later, the children died.
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Roman Pylypiy communicated a lot with local residents. Everyone understood that it was important to tell about the tragedy and shared their impressions and were invited to the accommodation.
“I went into an apartment located opposite the house destroyed by a Russian rocket. An elderly man and a woman were shown windows torn and broken by the blast wave, invited to their balcony. When you go up, everything looks much scarier — because you can see the scale of the destruction,” says the photographer.
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Roman Pylypiy stayed in Uman for a few days. It documented the destruction inflicted by the Russian rocket, the work of rescuers, people who brought flowers and toys to the scene of the tragedy, as well as the burial of the dead children. He met local residents who told about the time and place of the burials. Roman filmed the funerals of two children, whose father he saw on the day of his arrival in Uman.
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On April 30, the photographer went to the village of Apolyanka for the funeral of eight-year-old girl Ulyana Troichuk. She died along with her father, his wife and grandmother. The girl's mother stayed alive because she lived elsewhere.
“I decided to go to Ulyana's funeral because there was not a lot of press expected there. I approached the relatives of the dead child and asked permission to shoot. They did not object. I was the only photographer there,” says Roman.
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Roman Pylypiy— Ukrainian freelance photographer from Kyiv, Ukraine. Member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers since 2023. From 2017 to 2022, he lived and worked in Beijing, China. He worked with the EPA for many years, later with Getty Images. Now Roman works with AFP as a freelancer. The photographer has several significant awards: Photographer of the Year, POY Asia 2022, NPPA Award winner, nominee for The Guardian Photographer of the Year in 2019 and 2022. In 2023, his photo with Bucha became a finalist in the POY competition, and in 2024, Pylypiy became Photographer of the Year according to the Photographer of the year (POY) competition.
Photographer's social networks: Facebook, Instagram
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Kateryna Moskalyuk
Bild-editor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
The project is implemented thanks to support IWM Documenting Ukraine.
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On April 28, 2023, the Russian army launched a missile strike on Uman. Russian missiles hit a nine-story residential building. Twenty-three people were killed, including six children.
On April 28, 2023, the Russian army launched 23 cruise missiles X-101/X-555, of which 21 were shot down. The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said that the strike was carried out by Tu-95 bombers from the waters of the Caspian Sea. The Russian military also used drones to attack Ukraine.
At 4:20 a.m., one of the Russian missiles destroyed part of an apartment building in Uman. The missile strike killed 23 people, including six children. The youngest child was only one and a half years old. Rescuers pulled 17 people from under the rubble.
Photographer Roman Pylypiy left Kyiv for Uman in the morning, as soon as he read the news about the missile attack on the city. Rescuers were already working at the scene of the tragedy.
“A lot of people were standing near the destroyed high-rise building. They were all waiting for news about their relatives,” recalls photographer Roman Pylypiy. “One man was waiting for news about his children. He was crying, and there was a psychologist by his side. The man said that after the impact everything was dark, nothing was visible, and when he opened the door to the children's room, there was a wasteland in its place.”
Unfortunately, as it turned out later, the children died.
Roman Pylypiy communicated a lot with local residents. Everyone understood that it was important to tell about the tragedy and shared their impressions and were invited to the accommodation.
“I went into an apartment located opposite the house destroyed by a Russian rocket. An elderly man and a woman were shown windows torn and broken by the blast wave, invited to their balcony. When you go up, everything looks much scarier — because you can see the scale of the destruction,” says the photographer.
Roman Pylypiy stayed in Uman for a few days. It documented the destruction inflicted by the Russian rocket, the work of rescuers, people who brought flowers and toys to the scene of the tragedy, as well as the burial of the dead children. He met local residents who told about the time and place of the burials. Roman filmed the funerals of two children, whose father he saw on the day of his arrival in Uman.
On April 30, the photographer went to the village of Apolyanka for the funeral of eight-year-old girl Ulyana Troichuk. She died along with her father, his wife and grandmother. The girl's mother stayed alive because she lived elsewhere.
“I decided to go to Ulyana's funeral because there was not a lot of press expected there. I approached the relatives of the dead child and asked permission to shoot. They did not object. I was the only photographer there,” says Roman.
Roman Pylypiy— Ukrainian freelance photographer from Kyiv, Ukraine. Member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers since 2023. From 2017 to 2022, he lived and worked in Beijing, China. He worked with the EPA for many years, later with Getty Images. Now Roman works with AFP as a freelancer. The photographer has several significant awards: Photographer of the Year, POY Asia 2022, NPPA Award winner, nominee for The Guardian Photographer of the Year in 2019 and 2022. In 2023, his photo with Bucha became a finalist in the POY competition, and in 2024, Pylypiy became Photographer of the Year according to the Photographer of the year (POY) competition.
Photographer's social networks: Facebook, Instagram
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Kateryna Moskalyuk
Bild-editor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
The project is implemented thanks to support IWM Documenting Ukraine.
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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