Verlag Kettler : Byron Smith : Testament ’22

A couple spends the afternoon alone on the Desna River. Chernihiv, Ukraine. July, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

After coming home from summer camp, A Ukrainian tween spend the afternoon in an abandoned building hit by a Russian airstrike in the center of Chernihiv on July, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

A group of Ukrainian IDPs who fled Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv that has seen heaving fighting and shelling, arrive at an area before the destroyed bridge into the city during in the third week of the Russian invasion. March, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Outside of Kupiansk, which was liberated from Russian occupation by Ukrainian forces two months ago on November, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

A gravedigger in Bucha preemptively digs for new arrivals. April, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

The cemetery in Chernihiv was once situated on the frontline where heavy fighting took place as Ukrainian forces pushed the Russian Army back to the Belarusian border in the spring. June, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Ivan stands in a bedroom of his Andriivka summer house, invaded and ransacked by Russian troops during their four-week village occupation. He shows a picture prominently featuring his face sliced by the soldiers, made ten years ago in Kyiv during a Ukrainian protest against the Russian language law. Living in Kyiv, he thought about escaping to this house for safety during the start of the invasion. April, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Local teens play on a destroyed Russian tank that has been placed in a junkyard which over that past few weeks has become a “tank graveyard” in Bucha weeks after Russian forces were pushed out of the area on April, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Yuri, 59, said he used to go to church and pray that all people live in peace. But recently, since the war, he “also started praying for Putin’s death.” He currently lives behind the building in his garage with his wife, Svetlana, who was recovering from wounds after being hit with shrapnel in her leg in another attack in the same village. June, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Five kilometers from the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Kharkiv region, a Ukrainian special forces soldier with the 130 Battalion out of Kyiv sleeps in amid artillery and heavy weapons fire with his squad at a safe house. The previous day he and his team provided “security” to enable a mining squad to carry out their mission between the Ukrainian and Russian frontlines. November, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Special Forces members of the 130 battalion spend time together making dinner after returning to their base for the night during service on a frontline position in an area in the Kharkiv Oblast region on November, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

© Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Ukrainian troops arrive from the front to treat a wounded soldier injured from an artillery attack in Bakhmut at a frontline clinic located outside of the city on December 29, 2022 in Bakhmut, Ukraine. A large swath of Donetsk region has been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. Russia has tried to expand its control here since the February 24 invasion. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

On a boardwalk in Odesa. August 8, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Civilians pad a monument dedicated to soldiers lost since the war began in 2014 in Mykolaiv in as the Armed Forces of Ukraine push deeper into Russian occupied Kherson oblast on November, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Downtown Odesa on August 5, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Serhiy 56, spends the afternoon helping his elderly neighbors recover buried tools in the rubble of their home to rebuild their house in Chernihiv on April 28, 2022. The city, with a population of 285,000, had been under siege for 39 days and killed 700 people, according to the city’s mayor. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

A crow flies over Irpin Cemetery. May, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

The facade of a residential building hit by a Russian airstrike. Chernihiv, July, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Tetyana, an 81-year-old blind woman sits outside of her home which had just liberated from Russian occupation. Andriivka, May, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

The result of shelling at a school in Chernihiv. July, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Children play in a clubhouse made from abanonded Russian ammunition crates. Chernihiv, June 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Testament ’22: A Year of War in Ukraine, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

The remnants of Polovtsian stone women statues destroyed by Russian troops. It is said these statues date from the ninth-thirteenth centuries. Izium, September, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Amid the sounds of air-raid sirens boys fish on the Desna river, kilometers away from any nearby shelter. Chernihiv, July, 2022. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

© Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler

Beer cans showing the Mona Lisa holding a Javelin in a restaurant. The javelin has been an indispensable weapon for Ukraine in taking out Russian tanks. © Byron Smith - From the book Testament ’22 - Courtesy Verlag Kettler