Ukrainian photojournalist Evgeniy Maloletka has won the European category of the World Press Photo 2026 contest, UNITED24 Media reports.

The award confirms Maloletka's standing as one of the most closely watched conflict photographers working today. A Ukrainian native, he has spent years documenting the war in his own country, and his images have become some of the defining photographs of the conflict — work that has previously earned him international recognition, including earlier World Press Photo honours.

World Press Photo, the Amsterdam-based foundation that runs the contest annually, organises its competition into regional categories spanning the globe. The European award places Maloletka's reporting alongside the year's most significant photojournalism from the continent, selected by juries of industry professionals who review tens of thousands of entries each year.

For Ukrainian photographers, the recognition carries weight beyond individual achievement. Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, photojournalists from Ukraine have shaped how the world sees the war, often working at extraordinary personal risk to file images from front-line cities and besieged communities. Maloletka's photographs — many made in the earliest and most violent phases of the invasion — have appeared across major international outlets and have been central to that visual record.

UNITED24 Media, which reported the result, did not specify in its headline announcement which image or series took the European prize. Full details of the winning works across all categories are typically unveiled by the foundation in the run-up to its annual awards programme, which culminates in a travelling exhibition shown in venues worldwide.

The World Press Photo 2026 winners will now move through the foundation's customary cycle: exhibitions, publications and public programming that bring the awarded photographs to audiences far beyond the press rooms where they first appeared.