Folklore and snipers don’t normally go hand in hand. But in Horenka, a small village in the Bucha district infamous for the massacre of civilians and mass graves dug into the land when Russians invaded in the winter of 2022, they do.

It is here, some three years after the world learnt the brutal tactics Vladimir Putin’s army used to ravage a once-peaceful 
community, that the Horenski Mavkas spend their days weaving camouflage kikimora suits (also known as ghillie suits) 
to clothe the Ukrainian warriors on the front line of the war.

In Ukrainian folklore, mavka is a mythical, ethereal, female creature who moves between the worlds of living and dead, casting her spell. In recent times, the mavka has become the embodiment of strength and self-sacrifice, and today takes the form of a group of Ukrainian women – from grandmothers to young women – who use textiles as a way of fighting for their country.

The Mavkas volunteers are certain that the camouflage products they weave with love provide a special protective power to their soldiers. Now, photographer Alena Grom, a Donetsk native who, with her family, was forced to flee her hometown during Russia’s 2014 invasion in the east of Ukraine, has submitted her portraits of 15 women who do this work for this year’s Sony World Photography Awards and exhibition at London’s Somerset House.