A deadly piece of plastic

David Graham and Allan Mestel stopped for a break on the side of the road near Donetsk, Ukraine, last summer when Graham pointed out a faded green piece of plastic – remnants of an exploded land mine.

“It looks like a toy,” Graham told Mestel, his colleague in the journalistic endeavor Portrait Ukraine 2023, which can be seen on the Spotlight Ukraine website.

“It looks like a toy; I was like 'Allan that’s one, right here,’” Graham recalled. “It was safe, it had already exploded, but just this little piece of green plastic would take your foot off.”

Graham, 56, and Mestel, 61, both photographers from Sarasota, Florida, were in the midst of a three-week journey through Ukraine as freelance journalists and documenting the war's impact.

They knew the risk of their work: At least 17 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Despite the danger, both photographers have taken the risk to visit and photograph the war more than once. Here is their harrowing account of their journey of 2,287 miles from Warsaw through Ukraine.