Maksym Yevhenovych Levin
- Activity: Photojournalist
- Position: Stringer
- State honors: Order «For Merit», III class (June 5, 2015); Order «For Courage», III class (April 3, 2022, posthumously);
«Every Ukrainian photographer dreams of taking a photo that will stop the war.»
«This has long been a personal story for each of us. And yes - we have nowhere to run. This is our land.»
Biography
Maksym Levin was born on July 7, 1981, in Boyarka, Kyiv-Sviatoshyn district, Kyiv region. He was the father of four sons.
He graduated from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, majoring as a computer systems engineer.
He worked as a photojournalist for the magazine «Pensiia», the newspaper «Kyivski Vidomosti», the photo agency «Fotolenta», and UNIAN; for «Gazeta 24» (2007—2008), the website lb.ua (2010—2020); as a freelancer for the magazines «Focus», «Profil», «Ukrainian Week», the agencies «Reuters» and «Associated Press», and as a videographer and photographer at hromadske (2021—2022).
He covered Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. During the first five days of the full-scale war, Max managed to publish photo reports from at least seven hot spots in different parts of Ukraine: from Kharkiv to Vasylkiv and several settlements in the Irpin and Zhytomyr directions.
He was killed while covering the Russian invasion. Contact with Max Levin was lost on March 13, 2022, when he went to the village of Huta-Mezhyhirska in Vyshhorod district, Kyiv region, to document the consequences of Russian aggression. On April 1, after a long search, police found his body with a gunshot wound. According to the prosecutor's office, Levin was killed by «servicemen of the armed forces [of the Russian Federation]… by two shots from small arms».
His death was also investigated by representatives of the organization «Reporters Without Borders», who concluded that Levin and Chernyshov had been executed in cold blood
He was the author of the documentary project about servicemen «Afterilovaisk», as well as the project on responsible fatherhood «Dad's Club». From the beginning of the war in Donbas, Max Levin worked there as a documentary photographer. He was a participant in the events in Ilovaisk in 2014.