Ukrainian photographer Maksim Levin remembered as an advocate for photographers' safety and a doting father of four

• Ukrainian photographer Maksim Levin is one of at least seven journalists killed in Ukraine since Feb. 24.
• Levin, a father of four, was missing for two weeks. His body was recovered in a village outside Kyiv.

"The war dragged us all in."

Evgeniy Maloletka, the Ukrainian photojournalist who helped grabbed the world's attention documenting the unfolding misery in Mariupol, including the bombing of a maternity hospital, was speaking about his colleague, Maksim Levin.

Levin was found dead on April 1 in a village outside Kyiv. He had been missing since March 12. The area was under the control of Russian soldiers, and his body was recovered after Ukrainian forces retook the area. According to a preliminary report, he was unarmed and had been shot twice.

Levin is one of at least seven journalists killed in Ukraine since the Russian attack began on February 24. The others are: Oleksandra Kuvshynova, Brent Renaud, Evgen Sakun, Oksana Baulina, Mantas Kvedaravicius, and Pierre Zakrzewski.

"We were lucky to get out," said Maloletka, who just weeks ago made a dramatic exit from Mariupol alongside his Associated Press colleague, video journalist Mstyslav Chernov. "And he is not… I have no words."

Levin, who was 40, is survived by his four sons. He was a regular contributor to Reuters, the independent Ukrainian outlet LB.UA, among other outlets. He was a passionate journalist and a doting father, according to his friends and colleagues.

Just a few months ago, Levin was discussing plans for a union of Ukrainian photographers to advocate for their safety. Unlike international media, who were outfitted with bulletproof vests and ballistic helmets, most Ukrainian journalists have been covering the years-long conflict with Russia on a limited budget and without protective gear or the sort of insurance that would allow them to be airlifted to a hospital.

Levin was also known to encourage his fellow journalists to talk openly about the stress they experienced covering Ukraine's ongoing conflict. Iryna Zemlyana, who works with the Institute of Mass Information, a Ukrainian NGO, remembers Levin being especially proactive at an event where she screened the film "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" for Ukrainian journalists, and encouraged a conversation about how stress and trauma impacted their lives.

"He said, 'Let's admit to ourselves honestly, that we can't sleep because we're traumatized. Let's do something about it,'" Zemlyana said. "He probably didn't know how to help with it, but at least he said so."

'We all wanted to tell what was really going on'

Maloletka and Levin became friends in 2014, when both men covered the first months of Ukraine's 8-year-old conflict with Russia.

Popular protests had just forced out Ukraine's Russia-allied president, Viktor Yanukovych. Soon after, Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatist groups began seizing territory in the Donbass, in the far east of Ukraine.

That April, Maloletka, Levin, and several other photographers traveled east to cover the conflict in the Donbass, sharing a hotel room in Slavyansk, near Donetsk. To be a photographer in Ukraine was to be a conflict photographer, Maloletka said.

"The ones who wanted, and the ones who did not, became conflict reporters," Maloletka said. "We all wanted to show what was really going on."

At the time, Levin was mostly working with LB.UA, an independent outlet that was viewed by some in Ukraine's east as pro-Ukrainian. Working in the area was risky for him, but Levin insisted he needed to be there.

Being dismissed as a propagandist is something Maloletka knows well. After he published a series of devastating photos from a bombed-out maternity hospital in Mariupol, Russia's UK Embassy put out a tweet claiming the photos were staged.

But Maloletka says Ukrainian journalists have a duty to inform the public, just as doctors have a duty to save lives.

"We live here. Our families are here. Our cities are destroyed. Russia is trying to wipe out Ukraine," Maloletka said. "Maks did it well. It is very strong photography. It is a big loss for all of us."

'Friends, we can't believe we're alive'

In August, Russian troops invaded Ukraine in a bid to help liberate the separatist areas in the Donbass.

Levin and another photographer, Markiian Lyseyko, traveled to Ilovaisk. The city, which remained in Ukrainian control, was encircled by pro-Russian militias and the Russian army.

Levin, Lyseiko, and two other journalists managed to escape through what was supposed to be a "green corridor," but they came under mortar fire from pro-Russian militias and three bullets hit the car. Levin, who was driving, suffered a minor injury.

"Friends, we can't believe we're alive," he wrote in a post on Facebook.

Russia denied its army had entered Ukraine—a contention that was debunked in a 2019 report commissioned by the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), which concluded there had been 300 Russian military vehicles around Ilovaisk and Luhansk.

Levin and Lyseyko dedicated years to documenting the conflict. Together, they launched AfterIlovaisk, a multimedia project that gathered testimonies, photographs, and videos documenting the battle in Ilovaisk.

"We wanted the international community to know that it is Russia fighting there. It was their regular army and the militias of quasi-republics that were given instructions from Russia. It was not an internal conflict or civil war," Lyseyko said.

The two collaborators also developed a close friendship. They went hiking in the mountains, skiing, and kayaking together and spent time with the other's family.

"He loved and cared for his sons a lot," Lyseyko said.

Beyond his work as a photographer, Levin co-founded the Dad's Club, which encouraged Ukrainian men to actively participate in children's upbringing, as well to take paternity leave — an uncommon practice in Ukraine. The club organized hiking and kayaking trips for groups of fathers and their kids, as well as forums where fathers could learn about positive parenting as well as practical skills, like how to feed babies.

'Someone has to show it'

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Levin decided to report on the war from his home in Boyarka, a Kyiv suburb.

Despite the large number of international journalists arriving in Ukraine, there were many areas that the Western press considered too unsafe to go. It fell on local journalists to tell those stories. (According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, local reporters make up 93% of all journalists killed since 1993.)

"Journalists working for international media are often restricted by particular safety protocols, for others it is too much personal risk," Lyseyko explained. "But the war is happening in our home, and someone has to photograph and show it."

The village where Levin was killed, Huta Mezhyhirska, had seen heavy shelling. A memorial service for Levin was held at St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv on April 4.

"Maks has provided compelling photos and video from Ukraine to Reuters since 2013," John Pullman, Reuters' global managing editor for visuals, said in a statement. "His death is a huge loss to the world of journalism."

He was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage by President Zelensky.