On 19 July 2024, two photographers from Kharkiv, Olga Kovalyova, who works as a project manager for the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP), and Vladyslav Krasnoshchok, came under fire from Russian artillery near the front line in the area of Toretsk in Donetsk region. According to the UAPP, the photographers were working with artillery forces of the Ukrainian army at the time of the incident. On that day, the Ukrainian military fired several shots at Russian forces, after which soldiers went to hide in a dugout where the journalists were staying.
Krasnoshchok told UAPP that while he and Kovalyova were in the dugout together with the soldiers, Russian forces started firing back at them. At first, 12 shots hit a field not far from their position, but the thirteenth one was a direct hit on the dugout. As a result, Kovalyova sustained a shrapnel wound to her armpit and to her arm, as well as a chest fracture. She was hospitalised. Krasnoschok and the soldiers suffered concussions.
“I have three shrapnel wounds. Two shrapnel fragments [doctors managed to] remove from my body. All of them were near large blood vessels. However, the medics are currently not taking the risk of removing one fragment, so as not to damage something. At the moment, my right hand does not work at all,” Kovalyova said.
According to the UAPP, the military provided first aid to the photographer and then evacuated her to a hospital. Kovalyova said that a military medical vehicle took her to the nearest field hospital, from there to a military hospital in Pokrovsk, and finally to a civilian hospital, where two of the three shrapnel fragments were removed. She was then taken to a hospital in Kharkiv in stable condition.
“All the others who were in the dugout were fortunately not harmed. I was injured because I was sitting in the corner near the pipe – an improvised ventilation hood, from which the fragments fell. I was saved by my bulletproof vest and my helmet. The shrapnel touched a place where I had no protection,” Kovalyova explained.