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A Winter in the Fog of War

Young students of Kyiv Polytechnic University take part in a military training, many of them for the first time. The training is organized and supervised by the Chechen Peacekeeping Battalion. Kyiv Oblast, 19.11.2022. The Kyiv suburb of Kozjubynske has been hit by a blackout on the evening of November 25, 2022, following repeated attacks on the Ukrainian capital's energy infrastructure in recent weeks. Kyiv Oblast, 25.11.2022 Police officers and residents watch a civilian house destroyed by Russian missile fire in the Vyshhorod neighborhood on the evening of November 24, 2022. More parts of the building keep collapsing. Kyiv Oblast, Nov. 24, 2022. Zhenya (left) has her brother in Russian captivity and does not know if he is still alive. Her cell phone is always on and always with her, hoping that the relieving call will come from her brother. Katherine (right) lost her apartment in Mariupol in 2022, where she lived with her partner, who is also in unknown status as a Russian prisoner of war. Kyiv, 22.11.2022. Gathered tank barriers in the northwestern city center of Kyiv, always ready for a necessary intervention. Kyiv city, 17.11.2022. Vladyslava, a young female soldier at the end of her military training, is soon to leave for the front to fight. Kyiv Oblast, 10.11.2022. Sandbags on the stairs of the Ukrainian presidential office. Members of the government are top targets of Russia's war of aggression, which can put a great burden on family circumstance. Kyiv, 29.11.2022. Oleg, who according to the law, does not have to fight as a father of 3 children, nevertheless went to the front and was seriously injured. Since a few months he is in the rehabilitation program in Kyiv and back with his family, who pose here together for a portrait in the south of Kyiv. Several missile strikes around Baikove Cemetery in the center of Kyiv hit civilian infrastructure during the end of the funeral ceremony of soldier Serhii Myronov. Kyiv, 23.11.2022. Artur, 25, poses for a portrait at a military training ground in northern Kyiv Oblast. He fled to Kyiv in 2016 from the island of Crimea, where he faced the threat of being drafted by the Russian military. Kyiv Oblast, 19.11.2022. Valentyn, a soldier who has fought for Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, suffered severe back injuries from his deployment and is now attending a rehabilitation program at a Kyiv military hospital. Kyiv, 16.11.2022. On the first Holdomor Memorial Day since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, numerous Ukrainians come to the Holdomor memorial to remember the past suffering of the Ukrainian people.Almost simultaneously with the Holodomor anniversary in 2022, the German government officially recognizes it as genocide. Kyiv, 26.11.2022. Petro Potehin, a colonel in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, poses for a portrait the day before his leg surgery. He was seriously injured during the mission to capture a village in eastern Ukraine, and to this day he hopes he will be able to keep both legs. Kyiv City, 20.11.2022. Volunteers at a military training in northern Kyiv, where a combat situation is simulated. Many of them hesitated at the beginning of the war whether fighting is the right way for them to help Ukraine, now they think it is their duty because they all have numerous friends and relatives who have been doing it for months. Kyiv Oblast, 19.11.2022. The improvised memorial at the Irpin Bridge, which gained sad prominence during the war and was an important strategic point. Kyiv Oblast, 1.12.2022.
Repeatedly threatened by Russian airstrikes targeting civilian infrastructure and homes, the people of the Ukrainian capital face a long winter full of uncertainties and a future that no one can predict. Kyiv, since the outbreak of the Russian full-scale invasion, has been a symbol in this war: of Ukraine‘s resilience, suffering and success. There are currently several important voices saying that Russia will again try to take Kyiv with a large- scale attack in the coming months, which puts further psychological pressure on the population. The photographic work documents protagonists across society:  Soldiers returning wounded from the front, civilians enduring the cold winter, despite destroyed energy infrastructure. Young students who now pick up a gun for the first time in training, feeling guilty that their friends have been fighting and risking their lives for months. People who are living in constant uncertainty because relatives or life partners are in Russian captivity, without contact to the outside world. The price many Ukrainians are paying for their freedom is high.
Fabian Ritter ©2023 - Impressum, general data protection, Info