Evgeniy Maloletka (Ukraine)

Donbas

Upheaval in Ukraine began with anti-governmental protests on Kiev’s Independence Square, dividing the citizens of my country into two camps. Political elites in Kiev have for years been pitting Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking citizens against each other. They were flirting with Europe, but at the same time maintaining close ties with Russia.

Predictably, people from eastern Ukraine, the so-called Donbas region, distrusted the new Kiev government and some wanted to split off from Ukraine and join Russia the same way as Crimea did.

When things in Donbas region started to heat up, I went there to see everything with my own eyes. Even though there were no signs of an impending war in the beginning, a miracle did not happen. A conflict erupted with the ensuing consequences: people became embittered because of their neighbours’ deaths; lies and propaganda were spreading rapidly.

Anger and a desire to take revenge for the deaths of family and friends blurred rational thinking and an ability to make responsible decisions.

The entire Ukraine felt the ripples of disturbances. It seemed like the whole country was plunged into chaos.

I come from the south-east of Ukraine, from the city of Berdyansk in the Zaporizhya region. My hometown is now very close to the war zone. I worry about the future of my country, my home town and my people. With every passing day, the war in eastern Ukraine would throw my country backward, bringing deaths to the families of soldiers and civilians, destroying the economy and creating conditions for social injustice. 

Evgeniy Maloletka is a Ukrainian freelance photojournalist based in Kiev, Ukraine, originally from the city of Berdyansk, in the Zaporizhya region in the eastern Ukraine.

Before trying his hand at other things, he discovered photojournalism. Maloletka started his career in 2009 as a staff photographer for local news agencies UNIAN and PHL.

 He spent a month working on a photo project called House of Hope about a child cancer centre in the capital Kiev. The photographs were auctioned off at a charity event, helping to raise $5,000 for sick children whose families could not afford treatment.

Maloletka was deeply involved in the coverage of the Ukrainian revolution since the beginning before moving to cover the conflicts in Crimea and eastern Ukraine for various international media.

Beyond that, Maloletka is also working on his personal projects: the Hutsul project about the ethnic Hutsul community in western Ukraine, their traditions and daily life, and Donbas about the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, which brought grief to the families of killed civilians and soldiers, destroyed the economy and wreaked havoc in the entire country.

Maloletka graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute in 2010 with a degree in electronics.

In 2015, he was selected to participate in the Eddie Adams Workshop in New York.

His work was published in numerous prominent media: TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, Newsweek, The Independent, El Pais, The Guardian, The Telegraph and others.

He spent most of his time in eastern Ukraine working on assignment for The Associated Press, also contributing video content. My footage was widely aired on the BBC, Euronews, NBC and other international TV stations.