Police found photographer and documentalist Maks Levin dead near the village of Huta Mezhyhirska in northern Kyiv Region on 1 April after a long search.
Together with Oleksiy Chernyshov, a serviceman and a former photographer, they went to Huta Mezhyhirska on 13 March to film the aftermath of russian aggression. They left the car and went in the direction of the village of Moshchun. Connection with both men was lost at the time.
Later, it became known that intense combat action started in the area where Maks was going to work.
The whereabouts and fate of Oleksiy Chernyshov are currently unknown.
Maks Levin was born in Kyiv Region on 7 July 1981. Since the age of 15, he dreamt of becoming a photographer. As a youngster, Maks was a member of a photo club, shooting with a reflex camera Kyiv-98. After school, he graduated as PC engineer from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. He then worked as a photojournalist, documentalist and cameraman for many Ukrainian and international media.
For more than 10 years, Maks had worked for LB.ua and partnered with Reuters, the BBC, TRT World, Associated Press, Hromadske. His photos were published in The Wall Street Journal, TIME, Breaking news Poland, EU AGENDA, Worlds News, The Moscow Time, Korespondent.net, ELLE, TV 24, Radio Bulgaria, Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Vatican News, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The majority of his documental projects focused on the war in Ukraine. "Every Ukrainian photographer dreams to take a photo which will stop the war," the journalist explained.
In 2014, together with his colleague Markiyan Lyseyko, Levin founded a project AFTER ILOVAISK afterilovaisk.com, a tributed to servicemen, to preserve and rethink the events of 2014 for the military, their families, and citizens of Ukraine in general. Maks was one of those who managed to get out alive from the Ilovaisk bloodshed.
Aside from his journalistic work, he created dozens of photo and video projects for humanitarian organizations, like the World Health Organization, UN, UNICEF, OSCE, UN Women.
Chernyshov and Levin had worked together for many years. In 2014, in the middle of the Revolution of Dignity, they were wounded during the picketing of the Kyiv Svyatoshyn court on 10 January.
Levin has left behind four underage sons, a civil partner and elderly parents.
To help the family with the funeral and other costs, please donate:
Monobank: 4441114420335646 Zoriana Stelmakh
PrivatBank: 5168757403122528 Inna Varenytsia
The family will announce the date and place of Max Levin's wake shortly.