RFE/RL Ukrainian Service photojournalist Andriy Dubchak has been awarded the gold medal in the LifePressPhoto international photo competition in the category of breaking news/single photo for his photo of a disabled Ukrainian war veteran.
Dubchak remarked on the timing of the award, which was announced on May 9, saying, "On the Day of Victory over Nazism, I learned that I received an award in the international photo contest LifePressPhoto for my front-line shot of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.” The award-winning shot was titled Veterans of the Anti-Terrorist Operation during the march "No Surrender" on the Intercession and the Day of Defender of Ukraine. “About 12,000 people took part in the march, which occurred in Kyiv, October 14, 2019," Dubchak said.
Andriy Dubchak is a veteran photographer with the Ukrainian Service, known locally as Radio Svoboda, having joined it in February 2003. He has won numerous photo competitions, and exhibitions of his works are held in Ukraine and abroad. In 2014, he won a prestigious international Lovie Award for a video he shot from the "Christmas tree" above Kyiv’s Maidan Square on December 8 amid massive public demonstrations against the government of President Viktor Yanukovich.
This year’s LifePressPhoto competition accepted submissions dating from January 1, 2018. The competition is open to all photographers-reporters in the world.