Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Ukraine's fearless protesters in Kiev - as photographed by Russian Jana Romanova

Friday 11 April 2014 21:04 BST

(Jana Romanova)

Last month, Russian Jana Romanova visited Maidan Square in Kiev to photograph its revolutionaries.

The documentary photographer asked people who were living in tents on the square to think of one word that is the same in both Ukrainian and Russian.

She then asked them to think of an object to represent this word and to pose for a portrait with the object.

The items range from an angel to a grenade – in one shot, someone’s grandmother even makes an appearance.

Romanova hopes that her images, which are displayed in the gallery below, will help to foster understanding between the two countries.

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Show all 28

1/28Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Yulia, 18

Programmer from Lvov. Аt Maidan since December 2013

Chose the word: Angel [angel]

"We have our own angel, but I don’t really know how did it get here, somebody brought it."

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Dmitry, 29

Plumber from Vinogradov. At Maidan since November 2013.

Chose the word: Grandmother [babusiya]

"This is grandmother Kristina, the hero of Maidan kitchen! Do you know how many people did she feed? Sometimes around 6 000 a day!"

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Mariana, 29

Psychologist from Kiev. At Maidan since November 2013

Chose the word: Water [voda]

"Actually, we bring water in these bottles. There is something… not like a well, but more as a delve with a pure water for drinking, the whole Maidan drinks from it, so there were no problems with water at all, from the very beginning."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Andrey, 38

Businessman from Kremenchug. At Maidan since the end of February 2014.

Chose the word: Grenade [granata]

"It does not even look like grenade, more like a firecracker, we have our own "craftsmen" for those. Let's make a photo where I look like and "angry bandera".

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Oleksandra, 25

Computer programmer from Kiev. At Maidan since beginning of November 2013.

Chose the word: Tree [derevo]

"This tree is more lucky than many of us. It survived the revolution, and we have a lesson - that we should worry not only about ourselves."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Vitaly, 37

Builder, Odessa. At Maidan since January 2014

Chose the word: euro [evro]

"Euro is a word that fits by all means. It's written the same, pronounced the same, and most importantly, this was the first idea of Maidan – 'eurointegration'."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Nelly, 28

Impresario from Romni. At Maidan sicne January 2014.

Chose the word: Victim [zhertva]

"These are the most horrible 100 metres in the whole Ukraine now, on Institutskaya street. So many people were killed here by snipers, during the attacks, you can’t just even stay here and be calm. You see, people even renamed it into "The street of the Heavenly Hundred"

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Sergey, 43

Actor from Saint-Petersburg. At Maidan since 10 of December 2013.

Chose the word: Earth or ground [zemlya]

"Earth is a good word, I like it. Earth is the one for everybody, why should we divide it? There is no sense."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Nadya, 57

Deputy head of the farm, Rovno. At Maidan since January 2014.

Chose the word: Icon [ikona]

"These icons were brought here by priests who lived at our tent in January, they prayed every day- for Maidan and all of us."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Olga, 25

Veterinary surgeon, Kiev. At Maidan since 24 December, 2013

Chose the word: iodine [yod]

"I was going to be a volunteer at Maidan – for medical people to clean the instruments – but in the end I even had to sew people a bit. We didn't really use this iodine. It's for abrasions – we had only bullet wounds [to deal with]."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Vasily, 57

Painter-illustrator from Uman. At Maidan since December 2013.

Chose the word: Helmet [kaska]

"There are a lot of painters here, now and then. People are bringing their shields and helmets to us so that we could decorate them, paint on them, sometimes what we want, sometimes what people ask about. It's very often that people ask to draw angels, and if the helmet is with this kind of averter, it protects in a battle."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Bogdan, 24

At Maidan since December 2013.

Chose the word: Lamp [lampa]

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Igor, 21

Sales assistant from Brovory. At Maidan since 16 February 2014

Chose the word: mask [maska]

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Pavel, 33

Captain of the club of traditional archers, Lutsk. At Maidan since December 2013.

Chose the word: People [narod]

"People with whom we were fighting shoulder to shoulder - they are not friends, not acquaintances, they are a real family. We used to say: "When everything will be over, come to visit me”. Not "if", but "when". And the word “people” I chose because we did this for the people, for all those people who are wondering around barricades now, taking pictures, for those who were not here at that time, and maybe even for those who will never be here."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Stepa, 17

Studied at Novoyavorivsk orphanage in the Lvov region

Chose the word: talisman [obereg]

"One of these crosses I got from my best friend right after the attack at Grushevskogo Street began. He said: 'They will attack soon' and gave it to me. The other cross was given to me by women at Institutskaya Street when snipers were shooting people – to save me. And it really did. Since that moment I wear two."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Nikolai, 28

Guard, Svalyava. At Maidan since March 2014.

Chose the word: Tomato [pomidor]

"Here we have home tomatoes and cucumbers, all of these people send to help us, those, I think, from Lvov, but actually they are coming from different places, everybody send something they can."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Yuri, 26

Football player from Khmelnik. At Maidan since March 2014

Chose the word: Rotation [rotatsiya]

"I came here not so long time ago, right after the February events. I would say that the whole Maidan is happening under the word "rotation". Some people come, others leave, not everybody can spend months here, some have children, some a job to do. I have a child and he was in the hospital with heart disease, I could not come earlier."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Vasily, 49

Builder from Rovno. At Maidan since November 2013.

Chose the word: Freedom [svoboda]

"For me freedom is when nobody is telling you what to do. Freedom is wide opened space, like when you look at our Dnepr. And you want me to be photographed in the wood to write that wild "bandera people".

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Snezhana, 19

Waitress from Priluki. At Maidan since November 2013.

Chose the word: Phone

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Yuri, 58

Businessman, Zaporozhie. At Maidan since November 2013

Chose the word: Ukraine [Ukraina]

"You have to include 'Ukraine' for sure. How is it possible without it? You know what? Ukraine is right here, all these tents, the square, everything together is Ukraine."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Ivan, 48

Engineer-electrician, Lvov-Kiev-Moscow. At Maidan since 2 December, 2013

Chose the word: fascism [fashizm]

"During the attack at Mariinsky I was lying, beaten, 50 metres in front of Berkut [special police], and two women were screaming over me: 'Don't kill him, fascists!'. I remembered this moment very good, that they were not afraid and protected me."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Vitaly, 22

Fitness coach, Kiev. At Maidan since December 2013

Chose the word: bread [khlib]

Vitaly: "Bread is the same word both in Russian and Ukrainian!"

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Maria, 28

Blacksmith and welder, Kiev. At Maidan since December 2013

Chose the word: centre [tsentr]

"Ten is the centre [of the target]. I started learning to shoot right after everything that happened in December to February. I think that personal weapons are the implementation of one of the basic rights of men – the right to protect ourselves from dictatorship."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Vova, 35

Serviceman, Odessa region. At Maidan since March 2014.

Chose the word: Chiupakabra [chiupakabra]

"Chiupakabra is an animal that everybody heard about, but nobody ever seen. Like Chiupa. Before we came here, we took part at Odessa's Maidan. Chiupa bit everybody there, so she is the real veteran of Maidan."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Andrey, 22

Manager from Rovno. At Maidan since January 2014

Chose the word: Tyre [shina]

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Kostya, 21

Biker, Zdolbunov. At Maidan since 21 January, 2014

Chose the word: shield [schit]

"These shields we took from Berkut. Well, some of them we took, and some they just dropped. But Berkut's shield is not beautiful, that's why I brought mine to the painters so that they could decorate it."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Iliya, 28

Programmer from Kiev. At Maidan since November 2013 to the end of February 2014.

Chose the word: Yushka [yushka]

"Most of the Kiev people were doing everything they could, it is all you can even think about - from guarding the barricades and bringing food to chopping the wood for the fire. I did the same. When I was not patroling, I was helping to cook, not far away from here we had one of the main kitchens of Maidan, big tanks, we cooked tea, porridges, soups. Also we made yushka (a type of soup) quite often, and always gave it to people in plastic cups."

Jana Romanova

Jana Romanova's portraits of Ukraine's fearless protesters

Oksana, 19

Student, Ivanovo-Frankovsk. At Maidan since February 2014

Chose the word: tongue [yazyk]

"I speak Russian quite well, I think I will become a teacher of Russian language one day, why not? And in Russian and Ukrainian 'yazyk' is similar. I mean, in Russian 'yazyk' is both language and tongue, while in Ukrainian 'language' is 'mova' when 'yazyk' is 'tongue' in the mouth – it is absolutely the same."

Jana Romanova

The ambitious project comes as European Union and US officials accuse Vladimir Putin of using Russia's energy supplies as a political tool to put pressure on Ukraine.

EU foreign ministers meeting next week to discuss the crisis are expected to stop short of approving any new sanctions against Russia.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies