He grew up in Ukraine’s industrial heartland. Now it’s a war zone

A man fishes in front of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, in March 2021. A year later, the plant became the center of the city’s resistance to invading Russian forces.

A man fishes in front of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, in March 2021. A year later, the plant became the center of the city’s resistance to invading Russian forces.

Serhii Korovayny has many warm memories of the Donbas, the region in eastern Ukraine where he spent his childhood.

The photographer remembers picnics and soccer and learning how to swim in the Sea of Azov. As a teenager, he and his friends would spend their days windsurfing and end them by the fire, taking in the sweet smell of the rich grasslands around them.

But today, he says, the smell of feather grass and tarragon has been replaced by the smell of gunpowder. The peaceful air has been infested with drones, and the land has been covered in mines.

The Donbas, long known as Ukraine’s industrial heartland, is now a war zone.

For the past 12 years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been trying to take control of the Donbas by force.

It all started in 2014, when Russia began backing pro-Russian separatists in the regions, helping them seize parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, the two areas that make up the Donbas. Then came the Russian invasion in 2022.

Today, four years after the invasion began, Russia controls about nearly all of Luhansk and 70% of Donetsk, including Korovayny’s hometown of Khartsyzk.

The photographer doesn’t know if he’ll ever see his hometown again. Or his parents, who still live there with his grandmother.

“My father and my grandma are in their 80s already,” Korovayny said. “The last time I saw both of them was in the coal-mine town of Selydove near Pokrovsk in 2021. As the war wears on, I am afraid I will not see them again.