Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago brought death, destruction and hardship to the country, and awakened fears of a new Cold War.
The February 24 attack resulted in more than 8 million Ukrainians fleeing their country in what was the greatest exodus of refugees Europe has witnessed since World War II. Moscow’s war machine has bombarded civilian infrastructure. Missiles, rockets and artillery shells have indiscriminately hit homes, hospitals and other public buildings, killing and wounding thousands. In some areas, the ruins of apartment buildings and crumbled bridges are now the prominent features of Ukraine’s new war-ravaged landscape. Bodies lie in the streets, in gardens, in houses. Fire-gutted cars and armored vehicles dot the roads.
Destroyed Russian tanks sit on a main road after battles near Brovary, north of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana
EDITOR’s NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The bodies of men, some with their hands tied behind their backs, lie on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. 📸 Vadim Ghirda
A man and child ride a bicycle as bodies of civilians lie in the street in the formerly Russian-occupied Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Ukraine, April 2, 2022. 📸 Vadim Ghirda
The body of a man with his hands tied behind his back lies on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. 📸 Vadim Ghirda
In Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, where hundreds of civilians were found dead after a Russian withdrawal from the city last March, Ukrainian officials allege atrocities. Some corpses had their hands tied. Mass graves have been found. In Mariupol, attacks on hospitals, schools, residential areas and other civilian structures and sites protected under international humanitarian law became the norm. Ukrainians are often confined for hours in makeshift bomb shelters. Many have been in dire need of food and other aid. Russian attacks on the power supply during winter left many without heat and running water. At funerals for soldiers, civilians and children, Ukraine’s yellow-and-blue flag is a familiar sight. Associated Press photographers were there. This is a selection of their work.
Ukrainian soldiers carry the coffin of Volodymyr Losev, 38, during his funeral in Zorya Truda in the Odesa region of Ukraine, May 16, 2022. The 38-year-old Ukrainian volunteer soldier was killed on May 7 when the military vehicle he was driving ran over a mine in eastern Ukraine. 📸 Francisco Seco
Residents prepare tea in a basement being used as a bomb shelter in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 13, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana
A woman takes shelter in a basement with no electricity in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 13, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana
A woman walks with a flashlight during a power outage in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 14, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana
An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 11, 2022. On the seventh floor of the building, two elderly women Lydya and Nataliya were stuck in their apartment because they couldn’t make it down to the shelter, and were killed in the explosion. The two heavily burned bodies were buried by neighbors in front of the building. 📸 Evgeniy Maloletka
Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery towards Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, November 20, 2022. 📸 Libkos
Emergency workers clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistory building leaving many people under debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, January 14, 2023. 📸 Evgeniy Maloletka
Natali Sevriukova is overcome with emotion as she stands outside her destroyed apartment building following a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 25, 2022. 📸 Emilio Morenatti
Ludmila, left, says goodbye to her granddaughter, Kristina, who, with her son, Yaric, departs by train from Odesa, southern Ukraine, on March 22, 2022. 📸 Petros Giannakouris
Children look out of the window of an unheated Lviv-bound train, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 3, 2022. 📸 Vadim Ghirda
A woman warms her dog in her coat in Kivsharivka, Ukraine, October 16, 2022. Residents in Kivsharivka have been living without gas, electricity or running water for around three weeks. 📸 Francisco Seco
Stanislav says goodbye to his 2-year-old son, David, and wife, Anna, after they boarded a train that will take them to Lviv, from the station in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 3. 2022. Stanislav stayed to fight as his family sought refuge in a neighboring country. 📸 Emilio Morenatti
Relatives mourn over the body of Oleksiy Zavadskyi, a Ukrainian serviceman who died in combat on Jan. 15 in Bakhmut, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, on January 19, 2023. 📸 Daniel Cole
Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee by crossing the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 5, 2022. 📸 Emilio Morenatti
An elderly woman is assisted while crossing the Irpin River on an improvised path under a bridge that was destroyed by Ukrainian troops designed to slow any Russian military advance, while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine, March 5, 2022. 📸 Vadim Ghirda
EDITOR’s NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The body of an unidentified man lies on a road barrier near a village recently retaken by Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 30, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana
EDITOR’s NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Elena walks to the body of her dead husband, Alexey, who died during shelling in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, May 26, 2022. 📸 Bernat Armangue
Volodymyr, 66, injured from a strike, sits on a chair in his damaged apartment in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, July 7, 2022. 📸 Nariman El-Mofty
Ukrainian military doctors treat an injured comrade who was evacuated from the battlefield at the hospital in Donetsk region, Ukraine, January 9, 2023. The serviceman did not survive. 📸 Evgeniy Maloletka
A woman reacts as she waits for a train trying to leave Kyiv, Ukraine, February 24, 2022. 📸 Emilio Morenatti
Ukrainian emergency personnel and police officers evacuate injured pregnant woman Iryna Kalinina, 32, from a maternity hospital that was damaged by a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. “Kill me now!” she screamed, as they struggled to save her life at another hospital even closer to the frontline. The baby was born dead, and a half-hour later, Iryna died too. 📸 Evgeniy Maloletka
Ambulance paramedic Oleksandr Konovalov performs CPR on a girl injured by shelling in a residential area, next to her father, left, after arriving at the city hospital in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, February 27, 2022. The girl did not survive. 📸 Evgeniy Maloletka
The body of a woman lies under rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistory building leaving many people under debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, January 14, 2023. 📸 Evgeniy Maloletka
Nina Shevchenko mourns over the body of her 15-year-old son, Artem Shevchenko, who was killed in a Russian attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine, April 15, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana
Anastasia Ohrimenko, 26, is comforted by relatives as she cries next to the coffin of her husband, Yury Styglyuk, a Ukrainian serviceman who died in combat on August 24, in Maryinka, Donetsk, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, August 31, 2022. 📸 Emilio Morenatti
A resident wounded after a Russian attack lies inside an ambulance before being taken to a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine, November 24, 2022. 📸 Bernat Armangue
Ukrainian family members reunite for the first time since Russian troops withdrew from the Kherson region in the village of Tsentralne, southern Ukraine, on November 13, 2022. 📸 Bernat Armangue
Nila Zelinska holds her granddaughter’s doll found in her destroyed house in Potashnya on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, May 31, 2022. Zelinska had just returned to her hometown after escaping war to find out she is homeless. 📸 Natacha Pisarenko
A child in a stroller is lifted across an improvised path as people flee Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana
Bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. 📸 Evgeniy Maloletka
Relatives and friends pay their last respects to Liza, a 4-year-old girl killed in a Russian attack, during a mourning ceremony in an Orthodox church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, July 17, 2022. 📸 Efrem Lukatsky
A civilian wears a Vladimir Putin mask as a spoof, while a Ukrainian soldier stands atop a destroyed Russian tank in Bucha, Ukraine, outside of Kyiv, on April 7, 2022. 📸 Rodrigo Abd
Cadets practice with gas masks during a lesson in a bomb shelter on the first day of school at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 1, 2022. 📸 Efrem Lukatsky
Ira Gavriluk holds her cat as she stands near the bodies of her husband and brother who were killed in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 4, 2022. 📸 Rodrigo Abd
The body of an elderly woman lies inside a house in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 5, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana
Elderly men lie in beds at a hospice in Chasiv Yar city, Donetsk district, Ukraine, April 18, 2022. 📸 Petros Giannakouris
Armored vehicles destroyed during the fighting between Ukrainian and Russian armed forces lie on a bank of the frozen Siverskiy Donets River in the recently-liberated village of Bogorodychne, Ukraine, January 13, 2023. 📸 Evgeniy Maloletka
A woman transporting the coffin holding the body of her son, a soldier who was killed in fighting with Russians, sits in a boat crossing the Siverskyi Donets River near Staryi Saltiv, Kharkiv region on January 4, 2023. 📸 Erik Marmor
AP Staff
Associated Press
Kyiv, Ukraine
Felipe Dana (AP), Vadim Ghirda (AP), Francisco Seco (AP), Evgeniy Maloletka (AP), Libkos (AP), Emilio Morenatti (AP), Petros Giannakouris (AP), Francisco Seco (AP), Daniel Cole (AP), Bernat Armangue (AP), Nariman El-Mofty (AP), Natacha Pisarenko (AP), Efrem Lukatsky (AP), Rodrigo Abd (AP), Efrem Lukatsky (AP), and Erik Marmor (AP)
