Thread by @NinaByzantina

Children of war hiding in a cellar in Donbass, 2014, is the quintessential image of the region’s suffering that the western establishment would rather ignore. A conflict longer than WWII.

📷 Photojournalist Andy Rochelli who died under Ukrainian Army’s fire with his interpreter

The same photo series of families escaping from the Ukrainian Army’s shelling in Donbass by Andy Rochelli (2014).

A child celebrating his birthday in Donbass. Three candles stuck in a slice of bread. This one really gets me. 💔

Source unknown.

Look into the Eyes of Donbass, a photo project by Dan Levy, about the children of war in the breakaway republics. Veronica, Arina, Vika, and Igor. I don’t need to editorialize—their eyes do speak volumes.

Donetsk airport which was bombed by Ukraine’s forces early on during this war. Eerie images right out of Tarkovsky’s Stalker.

📷 Dan Levy.

Shelling Donbass by Ukraine’s troops — a reality for its residents since 2014.

📷 Dan Levy, 2015.

This dog is named Khan. He was injured in the chest by a shelling in a small Donbass village located in the borderlands between the breakaway republics and the rest of Ukraine. The owner’s son is a medic and managed to save the dog. Five cats in total did not survive.
📷 Dan Levy

Doctors treating two children with shrapnel wounds in Donetsk. They got hurt at a playground. One did not survive.

📷 Dan Levy, 2017.

A Mona Lisa reproduction in a damaged nine-story building next to the ruins of the Donetsk airport.

📷 Dan Levy, 2017.

Donbass residents after Ukraine's shelling in 2014.

📷 Photojournalist Andrei Stenin (RIA) who was also killed that year while documenting the war in Donbass. He was 34.

Donbass residents hiding from Ukraine's shelling in 2014.

📷 Photojournalist Andrei Stenin (RIA) (1980-2014)

By the end of 2015, several dozen Orthodox churches were damaged or completely leveled in Donetsk and Lugansk areas, *each*, in what appears to have been deliberate shelling by Ukraine's military.

Donbass, 2019.

📷 Dan Levy.

Donbass exactly three years ago with buildings destroyed by Ukraine’s strikes in the background.

📷 Dan Levy.

Another dystopian landscape by Dan Levy featuring one of the dozens of Donbass Orthodox churches hit by Ukraine’s shelling as part of the ethnic cleansing that has gone on since 2014.

Prayer in a Donbass church damaged by Ukraine’s shelling.

📷 Dan Levy, 2018.

More images from Dan Levy's children of war photo series from Donbass. For these children, living under Ukraine's fire became the norm. Their eyes speak volumes. This series was later published as a book.

The Alley of Angels in Donetsk commemorates the Donbass children who died in Ukraine’s war on the region since 2014. Where was the self-described civilized international community then?

A room in Donbass by Dan Levy. Miniature Christmas trees in the background. And then there is the table...

Donbass during the initial stages of Ukraine's onslaught in 2014.

Captured by the photojournalist Andrei Stenin who was killed that same year.

A girl waiting for food rations. A man mourning his daughter who died from Ukraine’s shelling while in a queue for humanitarian aid. A woman sheltering from explosions in a mine she’s worked for 35 years. These are the faces of Donbass that the “int’l community” ignores.

Ukraine's previous President, Poroshenko, and his policy on Donbass: "We will have jobs—they will not. We will have pensions—they will not. [....] Our children will go to schools and kindergartens—theirs will hide in the basements (cellars)."

This is Kristina (23) and Kira (10 months) Zhuk who became the symbols of Donbass' suffering in summer 2014. They were killed during Ukraine's shelling. She never let go of her child (too graphic to post) and has since been known as the Madonna of Gorlovka ("Горловская мадонна").

The tragic and preventable story of Kristina, the Madonna of Gorlovka, was covered by @EvaKBartlett who traveled to Donbass.

mintpressnews.com/under-fire-fro…

The people of Donbass describe what it’s been like to live under Ukraine’s siege (subtitled). Hearing young children talk about serious weapons like Grads—and even know what they are—is surreal .💔

Casualties of the war in Donbass, the first three years, per UN: “From 14 April 2014 to 15 November 2017, at least 2,523 civilians were killed: 1,399 men, 837 women, 91 boys, 47 girls and 149 adults whose sex is unknown. […]”

reliefweb.int/sites/reliefwe…

Civilian casualties in Donbass 2014-2021 from mine-related incidents.

Source: UN.

ukraine.un.org/sites/default/…

UN estimates the total number of conflict-related casualties in the Donbass region from 14 April 2014 to 31 December 2021 to be 51,000–54,0008, of which 14,200-14,400 were killed, and of which 7-9,000 injured were civilians. Specifically civilian deaths:

ukraine.un.org/sites/default/…

Donetsk Iberian Monastery shelled by the Ukrainian Army in 2014.

Source pravoslavie.ru/112369.html

One of Ukraine's main media sources, Hromadske, discussing Donbass as a region that has a "huge number of absolutely useless people." Of the 4M in Donetsk area at the time, 1.5M are "superfluous," and "simply must be killed." Donbass is just a "source of resources."

Lugansk area, summer 2020. The building is labeled "PEOPLE" so that the emergency services would know from where to retrieve its residents should it get shelled & collapse. A totally normal sign to have during the Minsk ceasefire.
📷 Dmitri Steshin, a well-known war correspondent

A teaser for a would-be documentary about Donbass by Dan Levy and Maksim Fadeyev made 4 years ago. So heartbreaking to see these working-class people face hell. 😞

Again, I am posting this for context to underscore the fact that the ongoing war in Donbass began in 2014.