#Donetsk

“Not a single person who crossed your path remained indifferent to your elegance.” Friends and colleagues grieve the death of French photojournalist Antoni Lallican.

Serhii was just 17 when he convinced his parents to let him gather some of his belongings and flee occupied Donetsk. His family, however, remained. Born and raised in the eastern Ukrainian city, he was only a child when the Russians occupied his hometown. As he got older, questions arose: “I started asking myself: why was it so good then, and not now?”

Having secretly enrolled in a Ukrainian online school and waiting for her 18th birthday, Marta was finally able to leave Russian-occupied Donetsk in spring 2025. Without saying a word to her parents, she packed her belongings and headed to Kyiv. Marta told her story to UNITED24 Media.