World Press Photo withdraws invitation to Russian TASS photographer for awards ceremony

The World Press Photo organization has withdrawn its invitation to the awards ceremony for Mikhail Tereshchenko, a photographer for the Russian propaganda agency TASS.

This was reported by the World Press Photo press service.

"Due to increasing tensions on the European continent, we can no longer host guests representing Russian state-controlled organizations," competition representatives say.

They added that because of this, Mikhail Tereshchenko is no longer invited to the winnersʼ program and awards ceremony in Amsterdam.

In March, Tereshchenko became one of the winners of the World Press Photo 2025 in the European region. He presented the work “Protests in Georgia”. Tereshchenko photographed the rallies in November 2024, when Georgians protested against the policies of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who put the negotiations on accession to the EU on hold.

In an interview with TASS, the Russian photographer said that he had previously submitted photos of "liberated Mariupol" to the competition, which he had taken during the "active phase of the liberation of the city of a million people".

• After the winnersʼ photos were published, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called World Press Photoʼs decision to create a "tandem" of two photos depicting a war-traumatized Ukrainian child and a wounded Russian occupier "deplorable".
• The competition jury apologized for this, but World Press Photo did not publish an apology on its official pages.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.