Over 100 photojournalists, artists, media professionals, activists, members of the international community, representatives of the Albanian government, and members of the Ukrainian community gathered in Tirana to highlight the ongoing war crisis in Ukraine. 

On Thursday, March 21, with the support of Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans (OSF-WB) and the FotoEvidence Association the documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” winner of the “Best Documentary” award at the Oscars, was shown  at the Center for Openness and Dialogue (COD) in Tirana.  Ukrainian journalist and photographer  and H.E. Mr. Shkurov Volodymyr, Ambassador of Ukraine in Albania in attendance. Maloletka and H.E. Mr. Shkurov Volodymyr, Ambassador of Ukraine in Albania were both in attendance for the premiere.  

The AP video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko arrived an hour before Russia began bombing the port city of Mariupol. Two weeks later, they were the last journalists working for an international outlet in the city, sending crucial dispatches to the outside world showing civilian casualties of all ages, the digging of mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital and the sheer extent of the devastation. A joint production of The Associated Press and PBS’ “Frontline,” the Oscar was a first for both Chernov, an AP video journalist, and the 178-year-old news organization.  

“This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I’m honoured,” an emotional Maloletka said. “I wish I’d never contributed to the making of this documentary if I could trade this award to ensure that Russia never attacked Ukraine.” While reporting on the invasion, Maloletka encountered quite a few different reactions to the team’s presence on the ground. Some thanked the journalists for doing their jobs. Some called them prostitutes. Some doctors urged them to film graphic scenes of injured and dead children to show the world what had been done. 

Only about 40 minutes of footage made it out to the world in real time because of poor connections, but when Chernov and his colleagues were finally able to leave, he decided he needed to do something with the 30-some hours they had on tape.  

The work of Chernov, Maloletka, Stepanenko and Lori Hinnant won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for public service and featured prominently that same year in a Pulitzer for breaking news photography. 

Maloletka has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014. He has also covered the Euromaidan Revolution, the protests in Belarus, the Nagorno-Karabakh war and the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine. His work during the siege of Mariupol in 2022 has been recognized with the Knight International Journalism Award, the Visa d’or News Award and the Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie.  

This event is part of the month-long “Ukraine: A War Crime” exhibition, held from February 23 to March 23, 2024, in Tirana. The exhibition is based on the book “Ukraine: A War Crime,” a collaboration between FotoEvidence and 93 photojournalists with the support of OSF-WB. It contains over 350 photographs and 38 personal accounts from photographers about what they witnessed.