Walsall photographer showcases pre-war life in Ukraine

Peter Ford captured a little girl in national costume being picked up by a soldier during a May Day parade

A photographer from the West Midlands is compiling a book of photos taken three decades ago that document daily life in 1990s Ukraine.

Former Foreign Office diplomat Peter Ford is self-financing the book, with proceeds from sales going to charity.

The 300-picture collection, due for release in several weeks, will be called "Kyiv - Moments in Time".

"These people I worked with are suffering [in war today]. I just thought 'what can I do'?" Mr Ford said.

On summer evenings, elderly couples would dance to violin and accordion music in Independence Square

The photos span a period of three years between 1996 and 1999, when Mr Ford, from Walsall, was based in Ukraine's capital.

He was working for the Foreign Office while also freelancing as a photographer for news agency Associated Press (AP).

The introduction to his book, written by former AP colleague Efrem Lukatsky, described the "huge in stature" photographer as a "conspicuous" and memorable figure on the city's streets.

At weekends "you could not move for chess being played", said Mr Ford

"Little has been preserved in photographs of that period of Ukrainian life, and Peter's works are an invaluable contribution to the history of Ukraine," Mr Lukatsky wrote.

The pictures were still discussed in photography circles in Kyiv, he added.

A priest blesses the waters of the Dnipro River on Orthodox New Year as onlookers prepare to take a plunge

Mr Ford was a regular at Kyiv's Opera Theatre, and remains friends with dancer Olena Gorbach, pictured

Mr Ford said the photos "document a period of life" when people played chess in bathing costumes in the open air, and music conservatoire students performed in the metro.

Ukrainian army veterans toast one another on Independence Day in Kyiv

"No-one's on the street, there's no celebrations or going out - there'll be no one out on the streets playing chess," he said of Ukraine today.

"The juxtaposition between their friendliness and warmth and the friendship I got from them and what's happening to them is just too much for me to contemplate."

Locomotive parts were repurposed into outdoor gyms on the banks of the river

Mr Ford has since retired from the Foreign Office but still works as a photographer, and has covered events and sporting fixtures worldwide.

Mr Ford hunted through old boxes of negatives to choose the images for the book

Mr Ford remembers meeting Wladimir (pictured) and Vitali Klitschko when they came to the Embassy for visas

He is still in touch with friends in Ukraine and hopes a copy of the book will be delivered to Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko, whose boxer brother Wladimir appears in the pictures.

Profits will go to Rotary Club of Walsall to help deliver medicine to Ukraine.