A German photographer turned to be a NYT “reporter” who lives in Russia, the homeland of her mother, had already been in a controversy earlier this year. In April the International Jury & World Press Photo had apologised for combining two works into one visual pair: Underground Field Hospital by Nanna Heitmann and Beyond the Trenches by Florian Bachmeier. German photographer Florian Bachmeier captured 6 y.o. Anhelina from Kharkiv Oblast, who suffered from panic attacks after surviving a Russian bombardment. In contrast, German photographer Nanna Heitmann - aka now “a reporter” for NYT escorted by “Akhmat” in Kursk oblast - presented a photograph titled Underground Field Hospital, which depicted a wounded militant from the so called "Donetsk People's Republic" terror organisation set up by Moscow and fought alongside Russian forces.
Aficionada of Russian landscapes and people “shaped by their environment” Ms Heitmann is the author of the series Hiding from Baba Yaga, a project inspired by the witch of Slavic folklore and following the Yenisei river from the Republic of Tuva northward through Siberia.

Once interviewed she confessed, “… sometimes I'm motivated by something other than raising awareness or creating a historical document. Sometimes I just want to take the viewer into another world.”

Perhaps it’s better to stay “historical” rather than to take viewers into manipulated “Russian war-lds”.
https://x.com/SergiyKyslytsya/status/1944466307480424831