DIEGO FEDELE
East of the Dnipro River

As I drove through Izium cemetery, the darkness had almost taken away the day when a sea of crosses appeared in my sight. Looking for mines with every step on the frozen ground, my head, heart, and body were pulled by the heaviness of the dead. Written on the graves: 274, 351, 342—only numbers engraved on the wooden markers for those without names. That's how Russian forces identified most of the 440 Ukrainians that were killed during their six months of occupation of the eastern Ukrainian town.

The war in Ukraine's East continues to escalate a year after Russia's full-scale invasion. Over eight million people escaped the country, and many others are displaced, as the OHCHR has also recorded nearly nineteen thousand civilian casualties. The relentless bombardments have left a trail of destruction, crippling Ukraine's infrastructure, economy, and way of life, leaving every Ukrainian affected by the ongoing conflict.

Author

Diego Fedele is an Italian freelance photographer currently based in Melbourne, Australia. After graduating from a Scientific-Technological Institute, he attended a documentary photography course at the "WSP Photography" in Rome, and it is where his photographic journey began. In 2022, Diego was selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop XXXV edition in New York. His projects focus on migration and social issues. When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine started, he travelled several times through Ukraine to understand the conflict and what people were enduring, committed to a long-term observation of the consequences of the war.
Diego is also a stringer to Australian Associated Press and Getty Images, covering news and politics.

Website
www.diegofedele.net

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