Demna, a member of the Georgian Legion, sticks a freshly picked rose next to his handgun. “With over a thousand fighters, the Georgian legion is the largest foreign battalion present in Ukraine,” says the photographer Daphne Wesdorp. “About 70 percent of the battalion fighters are from Georgia. The Georgians have been fighting the Russian state for centuries. Most of them believe Ukraine and Georgia share the same struggle for independence. As Demna said to [me], ‘We won’t stop until the Russian state, in its current form, stops existing’.”
Daphne Wesdorp is a Dutch photographer, videographer and writer focused on global crises and underreported conflict. She has been working all over Ukraine since the very beginning of the war, mainly documenting the civilian impact, broader Ukrainian resistance, and the variety of military units fighting against Russia. She spends most of her days in the East, working in Kharkiv and the Donbas.
Before working in Ukraine, Wesdorp was reporting from Iraq, Kurdistan, Greece, Palestine, and Kosovo. Her main fascination lies in global grassroots resistance and popular mobilisation.
Before pursuing her career in journalism, she briefly studied Fine Arts at Minerva Academy in Groningen. After this, she finished her bachelor of Cultural Anthropology in Utrecht. During her study, she specialised in Middle Eastern Studies and Conflict Studies.