While documenting the Russian–Ukrainian war, two Kharkiv-based photographers—Olga Kovalova, project manager of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, and Vladyslav Krasnoshchok—came under enemy artillery fire on 19 July 2024 near the front line in the Toretsk sector of Donetsk region. The photographers were working with artillerymen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. That day, the servicemen carried out several shots at the enemy and then took cover in a dugout together with the journalists.
According to photographer Vladyslav Krasnoshchok, while they were in the dugout together with the servicemen, the enemy began returning fire. He adds that 12 strikes hit the field not far from the position. The 13th hit the dugout directly. The photographer sustained shrapnel wounds to the axillary, supraclavicular and upper chest areas and to her arm, as well as a chest fracture. She was hospitalized. Krasnoshchok and the servicemen suffered concussions.
“I have three shrapnel wounds. Doctors managed to remove two fragments from my body. All of them were near major blood vessels. However, for now the medics are not taking the risk of removing one fragment so as not to damage anything. At the moment, my right arm does not function fully,” Olga says.
The servicemen provided the documentarian with first aid, after which she was evacuated to a hospital. Olga Kovalova said that a military medevac took her to the nearest field hospital, then to a military hospital in Pokrovsk, and then to a civilian hospital, where doctors removed two of the three fragments. She is now in a hospital in Kharkiv. Her condition is currently stable.
“Everyone else who was in the dugout is, fortunately, unharmed. I was wounded because I was sitting in a corner near a pipe—an improvised exhaust vent—and fragments fell from it. My body armor and helmet saved me. The fragments hit where there was no protection,” Olga explains. “It’s such a shame this happened on the first day of the assignment.”
The UAPP team wishes Olga Kovalova a speedy recovery.
According to the Institute of Mass Information, over two years since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has killed 70 media workers in Ukraine. Of these, 10 were killed while carrying out journalistic assignments, 47 died as combatants, and 13 were killed as a result of Russian shelling or torture. Overall, over the 10 years since the start of the Russian–Ukrainian war, from 2014 to 2024, 77 Ukrainian and foreign media workers have been killed, including 13 while carrying out journalistic assignments. As of March 2024, 20 Ukrainian photographers have been killed over 10 years of the Russian–Ukrainian war. Some were on editorial assignments, while others went to the front as volunteers.
Worked on the piece:
Researcher, text author: Vira Labych
Photo editor: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yuliia Futei
