Winner
Diego Fedele – ‘In the Shadow of a Deadly Sky’
Publication
Getty Images
Year
2024
Category
Feature/Photographic Essay
The war in Eastern Ukraine grinds into its third year since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The relentless bombardments have been aimed at crippling Ukraine’s infrastructure, economy and way of life.
Fedele’s 12 images were taken in Ukraine’s eastern regions, Kharkiv and Donetsk, and in the area around the capital Kyiv. As part of his long-term project recording the impact of war on civilians, Fedele travelled to Ukraine in 2023 and 2024.
On 5 October 2023, a Russian Iskander ballistic missile attack killed 59 people in Hroza in eastern Ukraine. Next to the cafe, a children’s playground was strewn with casualties. They were civilians attending the reburial wake of Andriy Kozyr, a
Ukrainian soldier who had died earlier in the conflict.
Fedele said: “Around 6.30 the following morning, I was thrown out of bed by the deafening noise of another Russian Iskander missile that flew over our hotel and exploded a few blocks away, striking a
residential building and killing two civilians. People were still escaping when we arrived at the scene, where I took the picture of the man fleeing with blood on his forehead.”
Judges’ comments:
“We’ve seen so many pictures of the conflict in Ukraine there’s a risk of becoming desensitized. But Diego Fedele’s images are impossible to ignore or forget. His shot of the officer sitting beside the bodies in the playground is both horrific and heart-rending. In every shot he captures the dignity and resilience of the Ukrainian people as they struggle to survive.”