Daniel Vergara is director of photography for VICE. He spent two weeks in Ukraine with a VICE News Tonight crew documenting the battle for the south of Ukraine.
“In a war, life goes on,” Vergara said over email after returning from Ukraine. “There are many stories and many people who continue to live. I try to document real life as much as possible.”
The extraordinary image at the top of this article was taken in Mykolaiv, which pre-war was home to around 500,000 people. “We were in this maternity hospital trying to show the difficulty of giving birth in a country at war. Imagine giving birth to the sound of bombs falling,” Vergara said.
Asked what responsibility he felt as a photographer capturing such intimate moments in unimaginably traumatic and tragic times, he said: “It is very difficult to show the suffering of others without them feeling invaded. I always try to first smile, shake hands, and hug people before I start to shoot. I wait until people feel comfortable with my presence.”
He added: “The Ukrainians are very welcoming. What I witnessed in Ukraine was a people with a lot of strength and determination.”
A woman learns how to assemble and disassemble an assault rifle in Odesa.
A soldier near a checkpoint in Odesa region.
Civilian volunteers working to defend the city.
Civilians set up barricades.
An elderly man who suffered severe burns in an explosion.
The mother of a Ukrainian soldier at his funeral.
A bomb disposal team retrieve an unexploded cluster munition.
A bombed neighbourhood in Mykolaiv.
A dog stands in the foreground of a burning field after a strike.
A family is evacuated from Mykolaiv.
Women wait to give birth at the hospital in Mykolaiv.
Soldiers look on at a bombed military building where many of their comrades were killed.
Ukrainian troops in the trenches.
A soldier prepares to fight on the front lines.
A destroyed Russian combat vehicle.
A Ukrainian soldier poses for a portrait photo in the trenches.
A Ukrainian soldier at his combat post.
A Ukrainian soldier makes tea.
The outskirts of Mykolaiv, seen through the remains of a destroyed truck.
Isobel Yeung, reporting for VICE News Tonight, interviews a woman in front of a crater left by a Russian strike.
A man showing us around what was left of his house. He jokingly asked us not to forget to close the front door.