As part of the UAPP grant support for documentary photographers, implemented with the support of the International Press Institute, we continue to share documentary projects of photographers. This time we present the project “Time to live and time to fight” by Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Vyacheslav Ratynsky.
“My father died, now I can go to the army, “I'm sorry I'm numb, after the contusions my head does not boil”, “In order not to waste time, I went to learn to put droppers and injections in the ass”, “The hardest thing was to tell my parents that I was going to fight”, “We are in the forest, without the Internet, without Nothing”, “That village, those houses are no longer there, only the cellars are left.” These are the phrases of the heroes of my story about young people who barely passed twenty and who decided to fight for Ukraine.
In the project, I show the lives of very young people who have decided to fight for their future and for Ukraine. There are not many such people in the Ukrainian army, because the state gave young people the right not to know the horrors of war at least at the front: Ukrainians are mobilized only after 27 years. Instead, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are joined by many young volunteers or officers who joined the army directly from the offices of military academies.
These people were born after 2000. They were children during the key events for the state: both revolutions, the seizure of Crimea and the beginning of hostilities in the east. Perhaps that is why freedom is so valuable to them.
This time I tell the stories of young volunteers — Sasha Makovsky and Karina Bendik. I met Sasha at the front, near the Estuary, at the end of 2022, with Karina on Instagram. Now she is also in the army. Both of them are from Kyiv, and, as it turned out, they are familiar. Before the war, they worked together in Sportlife. Well, the world is tight.
“Can I convert? These three days it was too late! We were in positions, in trenches, the landings were very close, the fragments were flying and stinging,” Oleksandr Makovsky told calmly and emotionally when I first met him after returning from the positions.
A thin, medium height, young guy, despite the three-day fatigue, a bright smile on his face — this is Alexander Makovsky under the nickname Mac. We met when Mak and his brothers were returning from positions near the town of Lyman in Donetsk region.
When the war began in eastern Ukraine, he was only 11, and at the beginning of the full-scale invasion he was 19 years old.
In February 2022, 19-year-old Mac was a student at KPI, studying in his second year in the specialty “Cybersecurity”. He postponed his studies when the war began. At first, volunteers brought food to the military, dismantled rubble after Russian shelling, but constantly looked for an opportunity to join the army.
“I am a student, now I am 20 years old, I was not called up and brothers did not want to join the units of the Armed Forces. At the beginning of the war, I volunteered. Our volunteers helped the battalion “Carpathian Sich”. I found their telegram channel, there I saw that they were conducting a recruitment, but only those with combat experience, and then began to receive everyone. I immediately signed up and was taken in. That is why I chose “Carpathian Sich”, everyone was taken here,” says Mac in the basement of one of the rural houses where his unit lived.
Sasha says she didn't doubt for a minute about her decision to join the army, but the hardest part was telling her parents about her choice.
Since then, Mak together with the battalion “Carpathian Sich” has gone through a lot — this is the Kharkiv campaign, the liberation of Izyum and other cities of the region, the battles for the city of Kreminna in the Donetsk region, where his unit is still located today.
“I'm not too tired, but if it was still warm in the positions, it would be generally chic, like a picnic. Now it is very cold, and in the summer life in positions is much easier,” says Mac about his life on the front line. “If a drone or a tank did not see you, if you sit quietly in a trench, do not walk, then nothing will fly after you. And if the drone noticed you, then everyone begins to cover everything. We don't have any means of dealing with drones. When we know they're going to fly, we just hide in the trenches and we're not seen.”
Next time we will meet in Kyiv at the end of September 2023. Mac got a 10-day vacation and drove an SUV all night to his own wedding. Everything is like in the novels of Remark or Gemingway.
Sasha meets me at the entrance of her parents' house, looks a little tired, laments memory problems, headaches due to contusions, and jokes that she is getting married to write off the army.
“We moved away a little, and the village where we met, those houses, are no longer there, only cellars remain. I am no longer in the infantry now, I no longer spend the night at zero. I'm a pilot in air reconnaissance,” Mac shares the latest news.
At the entrance to the apartment we are met by Mac's father and a dog biting his legs. While Sasha is in the kitchen mixing gin and tonic, his father talks about his son:
“When the war started, we went to the west of the country, and Sasha stayed. At first he was a volunteer, went to Irpin, disassembled rubble in Borodyanka. And then he says that he goes to the military enlistment office. Everyone is in shock. Mom is crying. He is not taken to the military enlistment office, because he is only 19 years old. If they go to Carpathian January, they take them.”
Over time, a wedding Mercedes approaches the house. First we go to the friend, and then to the apartment of the bride — Dasha. Sasha and Dasha are familiar from the university, where they played together in the KVK team. When Mac went to fight, Dasha collected money, bought various useful things for him. They called frequently and were always in touch. Mac says it was very supportive of him.
Karina Bendik wrote to me on Instagram in late summer 2023. She urgently needed funny chevrons for military uniform. I asked where she was serving. It turned out that she was in England at the time, but was soon to return to Ukraine to begin her journey to the army. I was interested in her story and we agreed to meet when she returned to Kyiv.
“I'm Katya, well, that is, Karina, short - Katerok, that's my call sign,” says the slender girl with bright red hair and snow-white skin. She is twenty-three and most of all she wants to join the Ukrainian army, dreams of becoming a combat medic and saving brothers wounded on the battlefield.
We met for the first time near Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. Katerok is dressed in black jeans, a light gray coat and red Nike sneakers. On the neck is a choker. From under the sweater, on the chest, you can see a tattoo - some lines of text. Later, already in the photo, I will see that this is the “Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist” Osip Meshchak.
“Last week I was in Kramatorsk, shooting at the training ground from Kalash with my boys. I want to join them in the unit, in the 3rd Assault Division, and be a combat medic,” Karina says with delight. “I'm about to become a recruit, I can't wait.”
Katya seems to be looking through rose-colored glasses at the army and the unit in which she is going to serve. She is an active girl, learns a lot, volunteers. She recently graduated from one university, in another she is writing a master's thesis, and at the beginning of September she applied to the medical school in order to have the appropriate education.
“I wanted to join the army at the beginning of the invasion in March 2022, but my father wouldn't let me. He was a military man, an ATV, had many different problems because of it. My father forbade me, said that the army was not for girls, not for me, - says Karina. “Then, in the fall, with my sister we went to England. In Kiev, heavy shelling began, the lights were turned off, it was dangerous, we could not study normally, our parents forced us to leave. While I was in England my father died. Now I can go to the Armed Forces.”
Katya says that she did not find herself in England: she tried to photograph, collaborate with the media. She did not give up the idea of returning to Ukraine and joining the army, so she took courses in tactical medicine.
In a short time, I met Katerok at the training ground, where the basic training course was conducted by recruits, recruits of the 3rd Assault Brigade. She stands out a lot from the rest with her bright hair and a constant smile on her face. Despite the strenuous exercise, Katerok laughed a lot and actively communicated with other recruits.
That month, Katya could not get into the army. She had an extra month to prepare documents and pass a military medical commission. In order not to waste time, she agreed with the director of the nearest hospital. Katya will help them, care for the sick, put droppers and give injections to gain experience.
Within a month, Katerok went to take a young fighter's course to the west of the country, from where she wrote: “We are here in the forest, without the Internet, without anything.” A few days later, she went to Western Europe to receive training from foreign instructors.
Vyacheslav Ratynskyi— Ukrainian documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has been working in the field of photojournalism for more than 10 years. Collaborates with international and Ukrainian news agencies and media, including Reuters, The Guardian, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine and others.
He has been published in many Western and Ukrainian media, including: The Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Telegraph, The New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel and others.
Participant in many photo exhibitions in Europe, USA, Japan and South Korea. His photographs have been published in several books.
Vyacheslav Ratinsky works in Ukraine. In his work, the photographer explores the impact of war on society, social and political problems, as well as the lives and problems of Ukrainian youth and children.
As part of the UAPP grant support for documentary photographers, implemented with the support of the International Press Institute, we continue to share documentary projects of photographers. This time we present the project “Time to live and time to fight” by Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Vyacheslav Ratynsky.
“My father died, now I can go to the army, “I'm sorry I'm numb, after the contusions my head does not boil”, “In order not to waste time, I went to learn to put droppers and injections in the ass”, “The hardest thing was to tell my parents that I was going to fight”, “We are in the forest, without the Internet, without Nothing”, “That village, those houses are no longer there, only the cellars are left.” These are the phrases of the heroes of my story about young people who barely passed twenty and who decided to fight for Ukraine.
In the project, I show the lives of very young people who have decided to fight for their future and for Ukraine. There are not many such people in the Ukrainian army, because the state gave young people the right not to know the horrors of war at least at the front: Ukrainians are mobilized only after 27 years. Instead, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are joined by many young volunteers or officers who joined the army directly from the offices of military academies.
These people were born after 2000. They were children during the key events for the state: both revolutions, the seizure of Crimea and the beginning of hostilities in the east. Perhaps that is why freedom is so valuable to them.
This time I tell the stories of young volunteers — Sasha Makovsky and Karina Bendik. I met Sasha at the front, near the Estuary, at the end of 2022, with Karina on Instagram. Now she is also in the army. Both of them are from Kyiv, and, as it turned out, they are familiar. Before the war, they worked together in Sportlife. Well, the world is tight.
“Can I convert? These three days it was too late! We were in positions, in trenches, the landings were very close, the fragments were flying and stinging,” Oleksandr Makovsky told calmly and emotionally when I first met him after returning from the positions.
A thin, medium height, young guy, despite the three-day fatigue, a bright smile on his face — this is Alexander Makovsky under the nickname Mac. We met when Mak and his brothers were returning from positions near the town of Lyman in Donetsk region.
When the war began in eastern Ukraine, he was only 11, and at the beginning of the full-scale invasion he was 19 years old.
In February 2022, 19-year-old Mac was a student at KPI, studying in his second year in the specialty “Cybersecurity”. He postponed his studies when the war began. At first, volunteers brought food to the military, dismantled rubble after Russian shelling, but constantly looked for an opportunity to join the army.
“I am a student, now I am 20 years old, I was not called up and brothers did not want to join the units of the Armed Forces. At the beginning of the war, I volunteered. Our volunteers helped the battalion “Carpathian Sich”. I found their telegram channel, there I saw that they were conducting a recruitment, but only those with combat experience, and then began to receive everyone. I immediately signed up and was taken in. That is why I chose “Carpathian Sich”, everyone was taken here,” says Mac in the basement of one of the rural houses where his unit lived.
Sasha says she didn't doubt for a minute about her decision to join the army, but the hardest part was telling her parents about her choice.
Since then, Mak together with the battalion “Carpathian Sich” has gone through a lot — this is the Kharkiv campaign, the liberation of Izyum and other cities of the region, the battles for the city of Kreminna in the Donetsk region, where his unit is still located today.
“I'm not too tired, but if it was still warm in the positions, it would be generally chic, like a picnic. Now it is very cold, and in the summer life in positions is much easier,” says Mac about his life on the front line. “If a drone or a tank did not see you, if you sit quietly in a trench, do not walk, then nothing will fly after you. And if the drone noticed you, then everyone begins to cover everything. We don't have any means of dealing with drones. When we know they're going to fly, we just hide in the trenches and we're not seen.”
Next time we will meet in Kyiv at the end of September 2023. Mac got a 10-day vacation and drove an SUV all night to his own wedding. Everything is like in the novels of Remark or Gemingway.
Sasha meets me at the entrance of her parents' house, looks a little tired, laments memory problems, headaches due to contusions, and jokes that she is getting married to write off the army.
“We moved away a little, and the village where we met, those houses, are no longer there, only cellars remain. I am no longer in the infantry now, I no longer spend the night at zero. I'm a pilot in air reconnaissance,” Mac shares the latest news.
At the entrance to the apartment we are met by Mac's father and a dog biting his legs. While Sasha is in the kitchen mixing gin and tonic, his father talks about his son:
“When the war started, we went to the west of the country, and Sasha stayed. At first he was a volunteer, went to Irpin, disassembled rubble in Borodyanka. And then he says that he goes to the military enlistment office. Everyone is in shock. Mom is crying. He is not taken to the military enlistment office, because he is only 19 years old. If they go to Carpathian January, they take them.”
Over time, a wedding Mercedes approaches the house. First we go to the friend, and then to the apartment of the bride — Dasha. Sasha and Dasha are familiar from the university, where they played together in the KVK team. When Mac went to fight, Dasha collected money, bought various useful things for him. They called frequently and were always in touch. Mac says it was very supportive of him.
Karina Bendik wrote to me on Instagram in late summer 2023. She urgently needed funny chevrons for military uniform. I asked where she was serving. It turned out that she was in England at the time, but was soon to return to Ukraine to begin her journey to the army. I was interested in her story and we agreed to meet when she returned to Kyiv.
“I'm Katya, well, that is, Karina, short - Katerok, that's my call sign,” says the slender girl with bright red hair and snow-white skin. She is twenty-three and most of all she wants to join the Ukrainian army, dreams of becoming a combat medic and saving brothers wounded on the battlefield.
We met for the first time near Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. Katerok is dressed in black jeans, a light gray coat and red Nike sneakers. On the neck is a choker. From under the sweater, on the chest, you can see a tattoo - some lines of text. Later, already in the photo, I will see that this is the “Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist” Osip Meshchak.
“Last week I was in Kramatorsk, shooting at the training ground from Kalash with my boys. I want to join them in the unit, in the 3rd Assault Division, and be a combat medic,” Karina says with delight. “I'm about to become a recruit, I can't wait.”
Katya seems to be looking through rose-colored glasses at the army and the unit in which she is going to serve. She is an active girl, learns a lot, volunteers. She recently graduated from one university, in another she is writing a master's thesis, and at the beginning of September she applied to the medical school in order to have the appropriate education.
“I wanted to join the army at the beginning of the invasion in March 2022, but my father wouldn't let me. He was a military man, an ATV, had many different problems because of it. My father forbade me, said that the army was not for girls, not for me, - says Karina. “Then, in the fall, with my sister we went to England. In Kiev, heavy shelling began, the lights were turned off, it was dangerous, we could not study normally, our parents forced us to leave. While I was in England my father died. Now I can go to the Armed Forces.”
Katya says that she did not find herself in England: she tried to photograph, collaborate with the media. She did not give up the idea of returning to Ukraine and joining the army, so she took courses in tactical medicine.
In a short time, I met Katerok at the training ground, where the basic training course was conducted by recruits, recruits of the 3rd Assault Brigade. She stands out a lot from the rest with her bright hair and a constant smile on her face. Despite the strenuous exercise, Katerok laughed a lot and actively communicated with other recruits.
That month, Katya could not get into the army. She had an extra month to prepare documents and pass a military medical commission. In order not to waste time, she agreed with the director of the nearest hospital. Katya will help them, care for the sick, put droppers and give injections to gain experience.
Within a month, Katerok went to take a young fighter's course to the west of the country, from where she wrote: “We are here in the forest, without the Internet, without anything.” A few days later, she went to Western Europe to receive training from foreign instructors.
Vyacheslav Ratynskyi— Ukrainian documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has been working in the field of photojournalism for more than 10 years. Collaborates with international and Ukrainian news agencies and media, including Reuters, The Guardian, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine and others.
He has been published in many Western and Ukrainian media, including: The Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Telegraph, The New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel and others.
Participant in many photo exhibitions in Europe, USA, Japan and South Korea. His photographs have been published in several books.
Vyacheslav Ratinsky works in Ukraine. In his work, the photographer explores the impact of war on society, social and political problems, as well as the lives and problems of Ukrainian youth and children.
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