A new photographic work titled 'Le soleil de l'Ukraine se lève dans le Donbass' (The Sun of Ukraine Rises in the Donbas) has been released to honor the memory and professional legacy of French photojournalist Antoni Lallican. Lallican, who spent three years documenting the human experience during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was killed on October 3, 2025, by a Russian drone while reporting in the vicinity of Kramatorsk.
The self-published book, released in November 2026, contains 78 photographs that capture the daily lives of anonymous soldiers and civilians in the Donbas region. The collection serves as a visual record of moments captured before various towns and villages were either destroyed or occupied by the Russian army. The publication features texts contributed by Aïda Belloulid, George Ivanchenko, and Andreï Kourkov.
Lallican's work in the Donbas began following an initial period spent in the capital, Kyiv, after the full-scale invasion started in February 2022. His imagery focuses on the resilience and vulnerability of the Ukrainian people, including scenes of residents gathering vegetables from abandoned gardens in Soledar—a city largely emptied by the summer of 2022—and children distributing drawings to soldiers along the road between Sloviansk and Soledar in January 2023.
Beyond his documentation of the conflict in Ukraine, Lallican was a seasoned conflict photographer with a global portfolio. His previous assignments included covering the Israeli offensive in Lebanon in 2024, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in 2025, and civil unrest in Haiti. The posthumous collection emphasizes his ability to capture intimate 'moments of life' amidst the destruction of war, ranging from wounded patients in hospitals to soldiers seeking shelter behind ruined buildings.
- Categories:
- Culture
- Entities:
