Valery Melnikov

俄羅斯,今日俄羅斯通訊社

長期專題 第一名

烏克蘭不幸的日子

2016年7月,在斯巴達克村,一名男子在澆花。

2014年4月,支持俄羅斯的民族獨立份子佔領了烏克蘭最東的頓內次克及盧干斯克的部份地區,烏克蘭政府對此發動了軍事作戰計劃。一個夏天過去後,衝突越演越烈,進入全面開戰的狀態。俄羅斯提供反叛軍訓練及設備上的支援。攝影師在2014年初夏首次進入盧干斯克,目睹了這個國家隨著戰事加劇所發生的改變。他相信在任何一場衝突中,最重要的一方是第三方——也就是被牽扯進戰爭暴力裡的平民。他認為溫和的人民,像是婦女、孩童以及老年人,是與衝突的毫無直接關聯的族群,卻是受苦最深的一群人。頓內次克及盧干斯克的平民需要在不時斷水斷電、反覆砲擊、經歷房子被毀、親友身亡的種種困境下存活下來。

Valery Melnikov

Russia, Rossiya Segodnya

Long-Term Projects 1st Prize

Black Days of Ukraine

A man waters flowers in the village of Spartak in July 2016.

In April 2014, pro-Russian separatists seized parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in easternmost Ukraine. The Ukrainian government launched a military operation in response, and over the course of the summer the conflict escalated into full-scale hostilities. Russia gave support in training and equipment to the rebels. The photographer first went to Luhansk in the early summer of 2014, and witnessed conditions change as hostilities intensified. He believes that the most important side to any conflict is the third one: that of the ordinary people caught up in the violence. He considers the peaceful people—the women, children and the elderly who have little direct concern with the conflict—to be the ones who suffer the most. Civilians in Luhansk and Donetsk had to survive often without running water or electricity, under repeated shelling, experiencing the destruction of their homes and the deaths of friends and relatives.