Image of Blood-Covered Ukrainian Among World Press Photo Winners

The image, which is among seven winners in the Europe category, was taken by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Evgeniy Maloletka, a Ukrainian war photographer, journalist and filmmaker. Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied The image was captured in April 2025 after deadly Russian strikes on Kyiv. Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google A photo taken by a Ukrainian photojournalist showing a woman wounded in a Russian missile strike is among the winners of the 2026 World Press Photo contest. The photo, titled “Russian Attack on Kyiv”, shows 65-year-old Valeria Syniuk sitting covered in blood near her badly damaged home following strikes on the Ukrainian capital on April 24 last year.  Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . According to the photograph description on the World Press Photo website, Syniuk had been asleep when a  Russian missile  destroyed the building opposite hers in what was one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  The image, which is among seven winners in the Europe category, was taken by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Evgeniy Maloletka, a Ukrainian war photographer, journalist and filmmaker.  Maloletka has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014 – years before Russia’s full-scale invasion, at a time when the conflict was confined mostly to Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and was fought between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists. Maloletka has been covering the conflict in Ukraine since 2014. Photo: Global Images Ukraine/Contributor via Getty Images Other Topics of Interest Russian Preschoolers to Study Occupied Ukrainian Territories Russian State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveyev proposed restoring the Soviet-era names “Octobrists,” “Pioneers,” and “Komsomol” as authorities push “patriotic education” during the war against Ukraine. Maloletka has received numerous awards from countries around the world throughout his career, including several for his work on the 2022 siege of the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine.  The Ukrainian journalist co-created the Academy Award-winning documentary  20 Days in Mariupol , which covered the  Russian military’s brutal siege  of the city.  Maloletka also won the 2023 iteration of the World Press Photo of the Year with another image depicting the toll on civilians of the war in Ukraine.  That image, taken less than two weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion, showed wounded 32-year-old Iryna Kalinina being carried from a maternity hospital that was damaged during Russian attacks on Mariupol.  Both Kalinina and her unborn child died from their wounds shortly after the photo was taken.  Another of the seven winners in this year’s Europe category also depicted the war in Ukraine, with US photographer David Guttenfelder’s “Drone Wars” showing a Ukrainian soldier preparing FPV drones for use in attack missions on Russian troop positions.  Maloletka won the 2023 World Press Photo of the Year for his photograph “Mariupol Maternity Hospital Airstrike”. Photo: SOPA Images/Contributor via Getty Images World Press Photo, a non-profit organization, was founded in the Netherlands in 1955 and says it “champions the power of  photojournalism and documentary photography  to deepen understanding of the world’s complexities, promote dialogue, and inspire action.”  The 42 winning photos of its 2026 contest were chosen from a pool of almost 60,000 submissions from more than 3,700 photographers by an independent jury “based on visual excellence, storytelling approach, and commitment to diversity,” according to World Press Photo.  The overall winner of the coveted Photo of the Year award is set to be announced by the organization on April 23.