Attention! The material contains sensitive information, and the photos are scenes of cruelty that can shock you.
Journalist of Radio Svoboda Marian Kushnir met a full-scale invasion in the Donetsk region, where he often worked before. According to him, on the eve of the invasion, he went to Marinka. Waiting for possible shelling of the city, he settled in an old hostel, where Donetsk can be seen from the window. He expected the front line to be attacked, but nothing happened.
“In Mariinka, there is a broken hostel, where we settled, we thought that there would be shelling, fighting from some side of Donetsk. There, Donetsk is already visible from the window, the front line was wanted to be captured. We sat there for a long time, but nothing happened. It was February 21-22, approximately, we understood that there would be some kind of engine,” recalls Kushnir.
The journalist worked for two days in Kharkiv with Max Levin. Russian troops in the early days tried to enter the city without expecting any resistance. The first clashes with the Ukrainian Defense Forces took place on February 24, 2022 in Kharkiv district. According to Kushnir, together with Levin, they filmed the aftermath of the fighting on the district road, the shelled Northern Saltivka and spent the night there in the car. Then they went together to Kiev.
Everywhere we went for luck, took risks
“Max really wanted to go to Kiev. And, in principle, I also thought that the whole apartment goes under Kiev, is carried. We went to Kiev and already worked there. We drove for luck everywhere, that is, we felt where and what was happening,” recalls Maryan Kushnir. “But one night we were looking for a shot down Il-76 with a Russian landing. Zaluzhny said on the second day that our plane was picked up in the Vasilkov area. We went in search of this Russian landing, climbed until 3-4 at night. How many times were we wanted to be killed by our little ones?”
Then the journalists saw that the battle was going on at the military airfield in Vasilkov. They tried to get there, but it was a military facility, no journalists were waiting there.
“In the morning, with the permission of the leadership, we were let into the airfield. That night, a rocket flew into the fuel depot. We traveled a lot near Kiev. Our and Max's previous experience in frontline areas helped,” says Maryan Kushnir.
Subsequently, Kushnir and Levin went together to Borodianka, which had just been shelled by aircraft, several houses were razed to the ground, a downed plane was burning near the city, and there was a fire pit of Russian military equipment at the entrance to the city and on the central street.
Memories of Maryan Kushnir and photos of Max Levin about the trip to Borodyanka UAFF published in the previous material: Air strikes on Borodyanka on photos by Max Levin.
Maryan Kushnir says that in those days they really needed many years of experience in the area of joint forces operation in Donetsk and Luhansk region, especially the experience of communicating with the military at checkpoints.
“Back then, near Kiev, you could shoot anything, if you knew how to do it. First, it is experience. Secondly, it is luck, very big luck. And thirdly, it is bullishness. Max and I went where we wanted to go. Our experience of war and driving through checkpoints allowed us to work. To go where no one was, we had to cheat somewhere, argue somewhere, and shout somewhere. We went to Bucha, shot artillery there, which worked on Makarov. Only then they drove to Makariv, when the 14th Brigade was liberated together with paratroopers. More tankers were shot, also under Makarov. We filmed a lot of what Ukrainian journalists did not shoot, because there was complete chaos, no one let anyone in,” the journalist tells about the first month of the invasion.
The work was greatly helped by contacts gained during the years of war in the East of Ukraine. Thanks to these acquaintances, Kushnir had a unique opportunity to work throughout the Kiev region.
“I worked a lot with the 10th team before. Contacts allowed to work with the brigade, because it was on the defense of Kiev region. Two battalions were in the north, one was attached to Syrsky and fought on the left bank, near Baryshivka, next to the 72nd and 128th or 14th Brigades. These contacts allowed me to work a lot and move where no one could,” explains the journalist.
You're actually going to get killed now, you're just waiting for it
With special emotion, Kushnir recalls the first time he went on an assault with the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade. Then the military stormed the village of Rudnytske, near Baryshivka.
“I still don't understand how I didn't get a bullet in my thigh. Then everyone around me got a bullet in the thigh,” laughs Marian.
These are people who have known me for a long time. The battalion commander himself called me: “Maryan, come, we will have a double. You haven't shot that yet. They trusted us because they were sure that we would not become a burden to them. We know how to act, where to stand, when to be, so that there are no problems in them, well, it is elementary not to linger. And, in fact, that's why they took us with them. And so it was the first time since the first assault,” he explains.
Maryan Kushnir recalls that after that time he decided to go again with the military on the assault, but after a short time he left again, and then again...
“The fact is that the probability of being killed is so high that... Well, you're actually going to get killed there right now, and you're just waiting for it. You have nowhere to hide, you have to navigate the place as quickly as possible. You have such a rush of adrenaline, do not transfer. And you realize that you are actually defenseless and there is nothing you can do. If they are still fighting, doing some work, then you only have a task to shoot. And when they hit the ground with a machine gun, when I passed muzzle on the ground, I didn't even really shoot. I turned on the camera, recorded on the video, but all that was recorded was like a camera crawling through the snow. I was pumping into the recesses because the bullets were just overhead, I could feel them even. And this is a gesture in general. It's not that there is artillery...”, - Maryan emotionally recalls the events.
According to the journalist, all fears and dangers justified themselves - his video and photos were distributed around the world. The story of how Ukraine gives teeth to the Russians has received documentary evidence. Kushnir is sure that after that they began to talk more about helping Ukraine.
Marjan Kushnir (30 years old) — Ukrainian journalist, videographer, photographer, since 2015 he has been working in the Ukrainian editorial office of Radio Svoboda. Since then, he goes to the front and covers the fighting on the territory of Ukraine, prepares reports on mass actions. After Russia's open military attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it covers the events from hot spots where active hostilities are taking place. On March 11, 2022, he received a contusion in the Kiev region, in the village of Baryshivka.
Knight of the Order “For Merit” III degree (2022).
Photographer's social networks:
Facebook
Instagram
Recall that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has started a series of materials dedicated to key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where he publishes memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is implemented thanks to support of ZMIN.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Foutei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
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