Sleeping Ukrainian soldiers. Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
In a series of photographs titled Sleep, Ukrainian photographer Viacheslav Ratynskyi has captured the brief moments of rest that soldiers snatch on the front line.
Source: Principle, a human rights organisation; Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia (Life)
Details: The exhibition has been shown for the first time at Human in the Military, a conference organised by Principle.
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Ratynskyi said the idea began with a single photograph taken in the summer of last year.
Quote from Ratynskyi: “I photographed a soldier who was asleep in a huge dugout, at an artillery position deep in the forest somewhere in the north of Kharkiv Oblast in June 2024.”
It all began with this photograph.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
More details: The position was difficult to reach due to constant Russian FPV drone attacks.
Quote: “The soldiers were not firing just then, so there wasn’t much to do. Some were scrolling on their phones, some cooking lunch, but most were asleep.”
A sleeping female military medic.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
More details: The photographer has always been struck by soldiers’ ability to fall asleep anywhere, at any time. He realised that on the battlefield, this is as vital a skill as shooting.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Quote: “You don’t need to learn it – it just comes to you with the overwhelming exhaustion.”
A Ukrainian soldier sleeping in a hammock.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
More details: After that first photograph, Ratynskyi began noticing sleeping soldiers everywhere – and he tried to capture each moment.
Quote: “To civilians, these places must seem bizarre: cellars packed with jars, holes dug in the ground – dugouts and trenches – ruined houses, houses that are still intact, factory basements, or hammocks under the open sky.”
More details: Most of the photographs in Sleep were taken along almost the entire front line, including Sumy, Kharkiv and Donetsk oblasts.
A soldier sleeping in a car.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
“Nothing can stop sleep when its time comes”
A soldier sleeping in a basement.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Quote from the exhibition: “Anyone who has spent even 24 hours in a cellar, dugout, trench, house, or just outdoors near the front line knows how sweetly you sleep to the sound of outgoing fire, strikes, shouts over the radio, the hum of a generator and the flicker of a lamp. Nothing can stop sleep when its time comes.”
More details: Ratynskyi has himself often slept alongside soldiers – from well-built dugouts with bunk beds to cramped basements where he napped on the floor or in shifts.
At the end of August 2025, he slept in the basement of an unfinished building in Pokrovsk, where Ukrainian troops gave him his own bed.
Quote from Ratynskyi: “Sometimes I took the place of exhausted soldiers who also desperately wanted to sleep. Sometimes there was simply no space. The soldiers were always welcoming, offering food and giving up the best spots.”
A soldier sleeping under a tree.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
More details: Photographing sleep on the front line is far from easy, he says – soldiers hardly ever sleep and are almost always busy.
Quote: “I used to wonder how anyone could fall asleep in such places and conditions. Now I happily sleep every spare minute I get.”
Soldiers sleeping in a mobile operation room.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
More details: For Ratynskyi, sleep on the front line even has its own soundtrack – Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2.
Quote: “To fall asleep at the front, I always put Chopin on my earphones. And when I look at these peaceful faces in the photos, I hear Chopin playing.”
A sleeping Ukrainian soldier.
Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
More details: Soldiers’ most common wish is simple – to get some sleep. This new series of photographs, Ratynskyi says, is a story about dreams, longing, and the fleeting moments of peace that only sleep can offer in wartime.
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