AP PHOTOS: 1,000 days of war in Ukraine captured in images
AP PHOTOS: 1,000 days of war in Ukraine captured in images
Natali Sevriukova reacts next to her destroyed apartment building following a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Ukrainian elderly woman eats a slice of bread inside a crowded Lviv railway station, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in Lviv, west Ukraine. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee by crossing the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Ukrainians escaping from the besieged city of Mariupol along with other passengers from Zaporizhzhia arrive at Lviv, western Ukraine, on Sunday, March 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Refugees fleeing war in neighboring Ukraine queue at the Medyka border crossing, Poland, Thursday, March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
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. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Dead bodies are put into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022 as people cannot bury their dead because of the heavy shelling by Russian forces. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian emergency employees 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. The baby was born dead and a half-hour later, Iryna died too. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Serhii Nuzhnenko)
A dog stands next to the body of an elderly woman killed inside a home in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Stanislav, 40, says goodbye to his son David, 2, and his wife Anna, 35, on a train to Lviv at the Kyiv station, Ukraine, Thursday, March 3. 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
People take shelter underground following explosions in Lviv, western Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. On the 7th floor of the building two elderly women Lydya and Nataliya were stuck in their apartment because they couldn’t come down to the shelter. They were killed by this explosion. Two heavily burned bodies were buried by neighbors in front of the building. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
A man runs while recovering items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Relatives and friends pay their last respects to Liza, a 4-year-old girl killed by a Russian attack, during a mourning ceremony in an Orthodox church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Elderly people are evacuated from a hospice in Chasiv Yar city, Donetsk district, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Yana Stepanenko, 11, is carried by a doctor at a public hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, Friday, May 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Elena Holovko sits among debris while being helped outside her house that was damaged after a missile strike in Druzhkivka, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, June 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Anastasia Ohrimenko, 26, is comforted by relatives as she cries next to her husband’s coffin during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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 Sept. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Catherine, 70, looks out the window while holding a candle for light inside her house during a power outage, in Borodyanka, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Ukrainian military doctors treat their injured comrade who was evacuated from the battlefield at the hospital in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Valentyna Samoilenko reacts next to the body of her son Dmytro, 34, during his funeral in Irpin, near Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Ukrainian MSLR BM-21 “Grad” rocket launcher of the 95 Air Assault brigade fires towards Russian positions at the frontline near Kreminna, Ukraine, Thursday, March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Firefighters extinguish a fire after a Russian attack on a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)
Stanislav, an injured Russian prisoner of war, lies in bed at the detention center in Ukraine’s Lviv region, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People help Liudmila, 85, to sit into a bus after their evacuation from Vovchansk, Ukraine, Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian servicemen of the Azov brigade light flares during the funeral ceremony of fallen comrade Ihor Kusochek, in Travkine, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Friday Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Oleksandra Paskal, an 8-year-old girl with a prosthetic leg, practices rhythmic gymnastics with other girls in Chornomorsk, Odesa region, Ukraine, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukrainian soldiers of the 3rd assault brigade fly an FPV exploding drone over Russian positions in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Snowflakes cover the photograph of a fallen Ukrainian serviceman in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A man falls down to death from a burning apartment window after Russia’s guided air bomb strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Young cadets get ready for a ceremony in a cadet lyceum on the first day at school in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Ukrainian serviceman in protective suit demonstrates grenade launcher to women during a training course for national resistance for local population in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Sept.13, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
A shell-shocked Ukrainian soldier of the Azov brigade sits at the stabilization point after arriving from the front line, near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Natali Sevriukova reacts next to her destroyed apartment building following a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Ukrainian elderly woman eats a slice of bread inside a crowded Lviv railway station, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in Lviv, west Ukraine. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee by crossing the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Ukrainians escaping from the besieged city of Mariupol along with other passengers from Zaporizhzhia arrive at Lviv, western Ukraine, on Sunday, March 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Refugees fleeing war in neighboring Ukraine queue at the Medyka border crossing, Poland, Thursday, March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
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. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
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. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Dead bodies are put into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022 as people cannot bury their dead because of the heavy shelling by Russian forces. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian emergency employees 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. The baby was born dead and a half-hour later, Iryna died too. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian emergency employees 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. The baby was born dead and a half-hour later, Iryna died too. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Serhii Nuzhnenko)
A dog stands next to the body of an elderly woman killed inside a home in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Stanislav, 40, says goodbye to his son David, 2, and his wife Anna, 35, on a train to Lviv at the Kyiv station, Ukraine, Thursday, March 3. 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
People take shelter underground following explosions in Lviv, western Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. On the 7th floor of the building two elderly women Lydya and Nataliya were stuck in their apartment because they couldn’t come down to the shelter. They were killed by this explosion. Two heavily burned bodies were buried by neighbors in front of the building. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. On the 7th floor of the building two elderly women Lydya and Nataliya were stuck in their apartment because they couldn’t come down to the shelter. They were killed by this explosion. Two heavily burned bodies were buried by neighbors in front of the building. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
A man runs while recovering items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Relatives and friends pay their last respects to Liza, a 4-year-old girl killed by a Russian attack, during a mourning ceremony in an Orthodox church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Relatives and friends pay their last respects to Liza, a 4-year-old girl killed by a Russian attack, during a mourning ceremony in an Orthodox church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Elderly people are evacuated from a hospice in Chasiv Yar city, Donetsk district, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Yana Stepanenko, 11, is carried by a doctor at a public hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, Friday, May 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Elena Holovko sits among debris while being helped outside her house that was damaged after a missile strike in Druzhkivka, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, June 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Anastasia Ohrimenko, 26, is comforted by relatives as she cries next to her husband’s coffin during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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 Sept. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Catherine, 70, looks out the window while holding a candle for light inside her house during a power outage, in Borodyanka, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Ukrainian military doctors treat their injured comrade who was evacuated from the battlefield at the hospital in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Valentyna Samoilenko reacts next to the body of her son Dmytro, 34, during his funeral in Irpin, near Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Ukrainian MSLR BM-21 “Grad” rocket launcher of the 95 Air Assault brigade fires towards Russian positions at the frontline near Kreminna, Ukraine, Thursday, March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Firefighters extinguish a fire after a Russian attack on a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)
Stanislav, an injured Russian prisoner of war, lies in bed at the detention center in Ukraine’s Lviv region, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People help Liudmila, 85, to sit into a bus after their evacuation from Vovchansk, Ukraine, Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian servicemen of the Azov brigade light flares during the funeral ceremony of fallen comrade Ihor Kusochek, in Travkine, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Friday Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Oleksandra Paskal, an 8-year-old girl with a prosthetic leg, practices rhythmic gymnastics with other girls in Chornomorsk, Odesa region, Ukraine, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukrainian soldiers of the 3rd assault brigade fly an FPV exploding drone over Russian positions in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Snowflakes cover the photograph of a fallen Ukrainian serviceman in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A man falls down to death from a burning apartment window after Russia’s guided air bomb strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Young cadets get ready for a ceremony in a cadet lyceum on the first day at school in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Ukrainian serviceman in protective suit demonstrates grenade launcher to women during a training course for national resistance for local population in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Sept.13, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
A Ukrainian serviceman in protective suit demonstrates grenade launcher to women during a training course for national resistance for local population in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Sept.13, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
A shell-shocked Ukrainian soldier of the Azov brigade sits at the stabilization point after arriving from the front line, near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A shell-shocked Ukrainian soldier of the Azov brigade sits at the stabilization point after arriving from the front line, near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A thousand days of war in Ukraine have been captured in stunning images, many of them horrifying, some of them poignant, others uplifting.
Since Russia’s all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour on Feb. 24, 2022, Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the fighting. Others have lost their family, their homes and their livelihoods.
The Russian military has repeatedly used missiles, drones and artillery to blast civilian targets across Ukraine with devastating consequences. The loss of homes and possessions, snatched away in the blink of an eye, is traumatic.
Across Ukrainian towns and cities, communities are suddenly and bewilderingly pitched into unfamiliar circumstances.
The Russian destruction of Ukraine’s public infrastructure, including the national power grid, adds to the feeling of vulnerability. At night, candles may provide the only light.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have evacuated and migrated abroad.
Those who stayed often had to improvise. That sometimes meant digging mass graves, such as in the besieged port city of Mariupol in 2022 where heavy Russian shelling prevented proper burials and brought despair.
The dreadful toll of war is illustrated in funerals held for soldiers and for civilians, including children, and the grief of those attending them.
For almost three years, Associated Press photographers have been on the ground documenting the war.
The AP photograph of a wounded pregnant woman being carried on a gurney through devastated Mariupol, only for her and her baby to die shortly afterward, is one of the war’s most distressing and heartrending images.
In 2023, the AP won two Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of the war in Ukraine, earning recognition for its breaking news photography as well as the prestigious public service award for its exclusive dispatches from Mariupol.
Earlier this year, AP video journalist Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” a harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia’s invasion, won the best documentary Oscar.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine