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Kherson boy

On 11 November 2022, Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson from Russian occupation, which was a huge success, since Kherson was the only provincial capital that the Russians had been able to occupy since the beginning of the war. The press were first allowed to the liberated city on 14 November, where President Zelensky made an unexpected appearance and addressed a population still in shock. “This is the beginning of the end of the war,” he said. “Step by step we are coming to all the temporarily occupied territories.” The crowd that had gathered was quiet; there was no sign of any self-indulgent celebration. Nine months of repression and continuous shelling by the retreating Russian army had left its mark on the celebration. Gleb (13) listened to Zelensky’s speech in the first row, it was the first time his parents had let him out of the house since 24 February. The boy's old-for-his-years appearance and angry look quickly became the face of the Ukrainian struggle for freedom in the days following the recapture of Kherson.
author

András Hajdú

professional photographer, Freelancer / NRK Nyheter
András D. Hajdú was born in Budapest in 1981, he now lives with his wife and two daughters in a village close to Budapest. He obtained a degree in English literature and wrote his thesis on American war photography. He works as a freelance photographer at present, he is an external lecturer in the photo reporting department of Budapest Metropolitan University, and Nikon’s ambassador to Hungary. He has won 35 awards with his work so far in the Hungarian Press Photo Competition, of which three were grand prizes. In 2015 and 2019 he won the first and second prize in the prestigious Pictures of the Year International (POYi). He has been awarded the Pécsi József Grant on three occasions, the Robert Bosch Foundation grant in 2012, as well as the Hégető Honorka multimedia grand prix twice. In 2013 he was the first to win the Hemző Károly prize. In 2018 he was presented the For Quality Journalism prize for a complex series of multimedia articles. He has worked in many parts of the world over the last 20 years, from the Beijing Olympics via New York jazz clubs to the rainforests of the Congo. Besides the domestic press, he has also photographed for clients such as National Geographic, The Telegraph, Politico, Forbes, Bloomberg, NRK Nyheter, the UN and Tages Anzeiger.