The Ukrainian Culture and Sports Atelier, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP) and the Innovation Fund for the Arts of the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, presented a series of exhibition projects that consisted of a photo diary from occupied Mariupol and were exhibited in Stuttgart and Dresden, Germany

The projects were entitled “SMS from Mariupol” — a Ukrainian port city that is going through unbearably dark times, lying in ruins; a city where hundreds of thousands of people have been left without a roof over their heads or a life.

The exhibition tells the personal story of the Koptsov family. Oleg Koptsov, 20, is a student at Kharkiv University. In the first days of the Russian invasion, Oleg was evacuated from Kharkiv to Lviv. However, his parents were forced to remain in Mariupol. From March 4 to 17, his parents hid from shelling in a basement. From the first days of the war, all residents of Mariupol had no internet or mobile communication, and later they were cut off from the power grid and left without gas, heating, and water. 47-year-old Lilia Koptsova wrote messages to her son, describing her life under constant bombardment as if in a diary.

The exhibitions highlighted the experiences of various heroes who found themselves trapped in Mariupol during the war. The photographs on display were taken by Ukrainian photojournalists Yevgen Maloletka and Mstislav Chernov.