Rule of Two Walls

A photojournalist shares glimpses from ground zero from war-torn Ukraine

- Carlo Cozzoli

I reached Ukraine on February 25, 2022, along with Marco Cremonesi and Francesco Maviglia-two young reporters like me. We were all freelancers and it was our first time in a warzone. We had gone there to cover the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. A bus, full of soldiers, took us from the border of Poland to Ukraine. The roads were packed with cars and people were fleeing from Ukraine.

In the initial days of the war, everyone thought that Ukraine would be crushed by Russia in a week. But the territorial and civilian groups-which also had trained civilians in them-fought the Russians and managed to defend themselves. In the first months of 2022, it was difficult to take photographs because photojournalists were being mistaken for spies.