Ukraine - Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow

On 24 February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine in a steep escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which had begun in 2014, causing Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. The United Nations’ refugee agency says more than six million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their country, estimating 12 million people in total have fled their homes since the invasion, making a quarter of Ukraine’s population and half of the countries children officially displaced.

Most refugees are women, children, and the elderly, or people with disabilities. Male Ukrainian nationals aged 18 to 60 are denied exit from Ukraine as part of mandatory conscription, unless under an exemption.

Enormous challenges lie ahead, as this conflict becomes protracted, in a humanitarian crisis that could last decades, in what threatens the physical, psychological, and material well-being of all those displaced. The war waged by Russia, is not only a war not only against the contemporary political regime within Ukraine but also against future generations. The pain inflicted, and legacy will last years. 

As a photojournalist, we are social documentarians. Sometimes we portray misery and suffering which is important and necessary to be recorded and disseminated. I feel it is equally important, and that we owe it to the people we photograph, to portray and document a more human side to their peoples lives, they are not just victims of circumstance, but individuals, all with a story to tell.

Hopefully the conflict will come to an end soon and as the events and war become part of history I hope that these photographs will stand as a remembrance of the people within them of the conditions they endured and how those conditions came to be.