Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – group of teens and young adults partyong in a dark room
Photos: Gena Kagermanov
Photography

Moments of Joy in War-Torn Ukraine

In these photos taken during the Donbas conflict, the pain of what was lost intertwines with scenes of fleeting happiness.
LP
Brussels, BE

This article originally appeared on VICE Belgium.

Born in Chechnya in 1990, photographer Gena Kagermanov fled to Belgium with his family when he was 10. In 2015, one year after the Donbas conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine, he travelled to the region to do some photographic work for local NGOs. Then, starting in 2020, he returned regularly to the war-torn area to document how people live their lives in the region. His last trip ended shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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“Instead of focusing on destruction, I wanted to portray the larger social context as an essential element of the war,” says Kagermanov. “I think that’s often marginalised in war photography, which usually focuses on misery and the universality of violence.” The photos have now been collected in the series On War and Other Trivialities.

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – young man floating on his back in a lake

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

The Donbas is a vast region in eastern Ukraine sharing a long border with Russia. Back in 2014, this Russian-speaking region tried to break away from Ukraine following a series of political events that brought the country closer to Europe. Russian-backed forces seized large swaths of the territory and established two proxy republics: the Donetsk and the Luhansk People's Republic. The Donbas conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

In February 2022, days before the invasion, Russian President Putin officially recognised the two republics as independent states, claiming the Ukrainian government had committed genocide in the region. These supposed human rights violations were one of the main reasons Putin cited for the war in Ukraine. Since March 2022, the so-called liberation of the region is also the main military goal for Russia. Both the republics of Donetsk and Luhansk were officially annexed by Russia in September 2022.

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Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – young man piggy backing a woman on a platform on a lake in a sunny day

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

“This series is a journal of my travels and the people I’ve met on the old front between Ukraine and the separatist republics,” Kagermanov says. The situation there is tense but mostly stable, he explains. “Everyone is trapped in a strange reality: teenagers, elderly people, minors, soldiers – they live in a routine of boredom and occasional celebrations of the victories of the war.”

In this series, Kagermanov wanted to try to reconsider wartime photography. Instead of focusing his lens on reporting atrocities, he decided to capture daily life under conflict. “War is not only about suffering; it’s also about daily trivialities,” he explained. “Partying, falling in love, getting drunk, getting bored, burying loved ones, among other things. Pain, agony and happiness are intertwined.”

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – a table with some biscuits, a tea cup and bullets laid on it. Background: sandbags

"One morning I saw this still life image on the frontline," Kagermanov says. Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Kagermanov is currently working on the last part of the project, a book combining his pictures with words by A. Jelyzaveta, a 19-year-old Ukrainian student from the Donbas who came to Belgium as a refugee in 2022. “After the invasion, the whole region changed in unrecognisable ways, and we began to look at this series from a totally different perspective – nostalgically,” he says. “This sentiment has perverted everything we’ve tried to recreate in this book.”

Scroll down to see more photos from the series:

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – straight couple posing in a field with a dead tree.

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – the shell of a completely destroyed building.

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – four smartly dressed teenagers (three boys and one girl) wearing decorative sashes and a bell around their neck.

Students celebrating the last day of school with the Last Bell ceremony, where a student rings a bell and teachers and parents give speeches. Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – dog eating on the floor of a dirty concrete building next to two rifles.

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – four men wearing helmets ad headlamps with faces covered in coal, standing inside an arched wooden structure.

The Donbas region was once one of the main industrial areas of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. After the Russian invasion, numerous coal mines were closed, either because they were poorly maintained or because they were on the frontlines. Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – man in military green clothes, on the doorstep of a blue house, carrying a giant snake around his body.

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – group of seven men digging up a grave in a cemetery

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – group of people in uniform carrying signs during a march

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – column of dark smoke on the horizon of an area covered in fields

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – group of young people dancing inside a club

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – two young men dancing in a tango-like formation as a third watches and laughs

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – night sky lit by a red explosion

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – group of young kids standing in a line, wearing an all white outfit complete with a small hat and gold detailing.

The kids in uniform are part of the Club of Young Patriots, a military-inspired youth organisation that has become increasingly common in the Donetsk People's Republic. Here, they are posing for a Victory Day celebration on the 9th of May. Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – young skinny man with pale skin sitting topless inside a wooden cabin and smoking a cigarette

One tattoo representing the coal mining history of the Donbas, another referring to the local football club Shakhtar Donetsk and one on the chest reading "Life is in the hands of the Creator, death is in the hands of a fool". Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – a fish inside a plastic cup filled with water placed on a rock

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – white statue of a man with a hand on his hip in the middle of nowhere in the woods.

Photo: Gena Kagermanov

Gena Kagermanov, Donbas Ukraine War – two young men bathing in green water, taking a break and holding on to a pavement

Photo: Gena Kagermanov