Documentary photographer Serhiy Korovaynyi visits de-occupied villages and towns in Kharkiv and Donetsk regions and captures how people survived the occupation and gradually come back to life.
“Survived! Survived!” shouted the Ukrainian officer Yuriy and Galina from Malaya Komyshuvakha, having met them again after their release. His brigade held defenses here in the spring of 2022. The elderly couple communicated well with the military, and they painfully left the village, retiring to more comfortable borders with heavy fighting.
The war swept through Slobozhanshchyna, leaving behind ruined cities and ruined human lives. Because of its strategic location, the city of Izyum and the surrounding villages were a key fighting point for the Russian and Ukrainian armies.
In the autumn of 2022, the Armed Forces conducted a lightning offensive in Kharkiv and liberated territories in Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, including Izyum. The de-occupied territories opened the world to the next crimes of the Russian Federation: the mass grave, where 449 Ukrainians are buried, is the strongest example.
But with the end of the occupation, the poverty did not end for the local residents of the Izyum region. Destroyed infrastructure, ruined buildings, hard memories. Yuriy and Galina still have no light, gas and communication in the village. Reconstruction is difficult. Fields and forests are mined. Mice and rats filled the dwellings. However, there is a place for warmth (from the bourgeoisie and from family mutual assistance), joy from simple things, children's laughter.
In the Izyum region, life continues in the second winter of martial law.
Serhiy Korovaynyi — photojournalist and portrait photographer. Collaborates with international publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Guardian, Financaial Times and others. He makes his documentary projects, where he focuses on the topics of the Russian-Ukrainian war, ecology, and various aspects of Ukrainian modernity. He was educated in the United States in the Master's Program in Visual Storytelling as a Fulbright Program Fellow. In 2018, he joined The Gate, a leading Ukrainian photo agency. Sergey's works have been exhibited at numerous personal and collective exhibitions in Ukraine, USA and EU.
The program is supported by the International Press Institute.
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