Jakub Laichter is a Czech freelance photojournalist focusing on Eastern Europe who is currently covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As invading Russian forces approached in February 2022, Oleksiy Savkevych and his family fled eastern Ukraine. But after sending his wife and children to Germany, Savkevych returned to his embattled hometown to work as a volunteer. "I needed to be in Avdiyivka, I couldn't be anywhere else," he said.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the population of the small eastern Donbas city of Avdiyivka dropped from 30,000 to roughly 1,600 residents. Many of those who chose to stay behind are elderly residents who refuse to evacuate.
Locals in Avdiyivka explain why they are choosing to remain even as the eastern Ukrainian city risks being wiped out by fighting, and recount the unimaginable hardships of frontline life amid the Russian invasion.
