During March 10-15, 2025, Ukraine was subjected to intense shelling by the Russian Federation. It was another week of systematic attacks that resulted in significant damage to infrastructure and numerous civilian casualties. Destroyed houses, dead and wounded people - these were the consequences of every day.

Until 2014, Toretsk, a mining town in Donbas, was home to more than 70,000 people. By the end of 2024, only 1,500 remained. Now, in March 2025, the number of people is unknown.

We continue to share the documentary projects of the finalists within the framework of the annual grant support for documentary photographers implemented by UAPP with the support of the International Press Institute.

From March 3 to 8, 2025, Russian troops did not stop devastating attacks on peaceful cities in Ukraine, causing civilian deaths and large-scale destruction of infrastructure. The worst hit was Odessa — the city suffered almost daily from drone strikes and missiles. Oleksandr Gimanov, a local documentary filmmaker and member of the UAFF, did not sleep with the residents — every night and every morning he recorded the consequences of the next Russian strikes. Kharkiv was also under fire: photojournalist Georgy Ivanchenko documented the destruction of a civilian house and an infrastructure object after the strike of the Russian Iskander missile.

One of the thousands of war crimes committed by the Russian occupation forces in the Donetsk region was the shelling of a maternity hospital and a children's hospital in Mariupol. On March 9, 2022, the occupiers dropped several bombs there at a time when the city was supposed to have a regime of silence to evacuate people.

Ukrainian photographer Oksana Parafeniuk told why she has not despaired of photojournalism, even though the camera makes you feel the war deeper, and why she continues to document events in Ukraine, even though she often shoots very vulnerable stories.