The second year of Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s full scale invasion brought no respite for Ukrainian soldiers or civilians.
Associated Press photographers documented the past 12 months of death and destruction, agony and grief— as well as the glimpses of joy — that are staples of life during war.
The countryside in eastern areas of Ukraine — an industrial region bordering Russia where some of the most intense fighting has unfolded since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022 — is now punctuated with splintered and smashed trees reminiscent of a World War I battlefield.
Along the front line, soldiers battled from trenches and relied heavily on artillery, in another echo of the 1914-18 conflict.
Away from it, bodies littered ruined buildings, forests and roadsides during the war’s second year. Russian barrages repeatedly blasted civilian targets, frequently reducing apartment buildings to rubble, flames and smoke.
Communities disappeared, replaced by grim desolation. Relatives wept over the open coffins of their loved ones. The young and old, and their pets, lost their homes or fled them.
Source (AP)
