Chechen Conflict by Yuri Kozyrev

Chechen Conflict

General News, third prize stories

00-12-1999

A Russian soldier watches a plume of smoke rising from the town of Urus-Martan, a strategic point in the Chechen conflict. In September 1999, Russian forces began military action against Chechen rebels. Initial operations were confined to air attacks, but on 1 October Russian troops entered Chechnya. By the beginning of December the Russians had surrounded the capital Grozny, which they stormed on the 25th. The Russians held that their casualties during the conflict were minimal.

Commissioned by: The Associated Press

Photo Credit: Yuri Kozyrev

Yuri Kozyrev was born in Russia in 1963 and has worked as a photojournalist for the past 20 years, covering every major conflict in the former Soviet Union, including two Chechen wars. Immediately after 11 September 2001, he was on the scene in Afghanistan, where he documented the fall of the Taliban.

Kozyrev lived in Baghdad, Iraq, between 2003 and 2009, working as a contract photographer for Time. He has traveled all over Iraq, photographing the different sides of the conflict. Since the beginning of 2011, he has been following the Arab unrests, traveling in Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, and Yemen, covering the conflicts there for Time.

Kozyrev has received numerous honors for his photography, including several World Press Photo awards, for pictures from Chechnya, Iraq, and Beslan. He was the recipient of the Overseas Press Club Oliver Rebbot Award in 2004, for his Iraq coverage. In 2006, he was the recipient of the ICP Infinity award for photojournalism, and he won the 2008 Frontline Club Award for his extensive coverage of the Iraq war. In 2011, he won the Visa d’Or news prize for his body of work On Revolution Road, as well as both Trophee and Public Prize at the Prix Bayeux-Calvados, for Dispatch from Libya. He also won first prize and three awards of excellence in the category Impact 2011: Arab Uprisings, of the Pictures of the Year International competition, and was named the 2011 Agency/Freelance Photographer of the Year by POYi.