[5][8] He escaped alive, and was honoured in 2015 by President Petro Poroshenko with the Order "For Merits" of the III degree.

[5] During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Levin was quoted saying: "Every Ukrainian photographer dreams of taking a photo that will stop the war.

"[3] One of his photographs, showing destroyed buildings in Kyiv, graced the cover of a March 2022 edition of the German magazine Der Spiegel.

[12] Levin went missing on 13 March 2022, when he left, together with Oleksiy Chernyshov, to photograph consequences of Russian aggression near Huta-Mezhyhirska in the Kyiv Oblast.

According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, he was fatally shot twice by Russian servicemen while unarmed and wearing a press jacket.

[21] The killing of Maksim Levin[22] was condemned by the Director-General of the UNESCO Audrey Azoulay in a press-release published on the 3rd of April.