Men Ukraine

Men Ukraine documents the journey of young men as they transform from ordinary civilians into soldiers. Focused on close friends since 2022, it offers a human-scale look at masculinity, wartime pressure, and survival from within the country.

Men Ukraine is the documentation of a journey: the quiet metamorphosis of young Ukrainian men (once students, DJs, and IT workers—in short, ordinary civilians) who transformed overnight into soldiers.

This transition from civilian to soldier is an evolution I have witnessed from the inside through my close friendships with Sasha, Ilya, and Danylo, whom I met in 2019 and started photographing regularly in 2022. It is around them that the series revolves. Since moving to Ukraine in 2024, I watch my friends adapt to what feels unimaginable: a whole swath of society asking themselves questions like, 'Am I willing to die?' I feel this is often left unexamined in Western reporting.

Since 2022, all men aged 18 to 60 have been barred from leaving the country. While many join voluntarily, others avoid the draft, managing to secure an exemption or, in more drastic cases, remaining inside their homes for fear of being forcibly mobilized. The Territorial Recruitment Center, known as Tetseka has become a familiar term. Officers stop men in public, check their documents, and often send those deemed fit for duty into training within days. People have devised covert ways to alert each other: on Waze, drivers flag Tetseka checkpoints using the icon normally reserved for bad weather.

This work seeks to provide a human-scale account of masculinity pressurised by wartime, created from within the country and deeply embedded in friendships.

The series will take the form of a book titled Men Ukraine, published by Art Paper Editions and designed by Jurgen Maelfeyt.