ANTON SHTUKA

A man rides on a bike in front of the mail office which was destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Kurakhove, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
As Russian forces close in on Kurakhove, hundreds of residents remain in the front-line city
On Ukraine’s eastern front, Kurakhove is surrounded on three sides, with Russian forces just under 2 miles from the devastated city center.
 
Tetiana Nosova, who goes by the clown name of Zhuzha, a volunteer from the "Bureau of Smiles and Support" plays a ukulele as she stands with Michael Bilyk, who is held by his mother Antonina Malyshko, and Kira Vertetska, 8, at Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Hospital clowns bring joy to young Ukrainian cancer patients who survived Russian missile attack
Two months after Russia bombed Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital, some of the young cancer patients who survived the strike are having their spirits bolstered by hospital clowns.
 
Relatives and Ukraine's chief rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman mourn at the coffin of his adopted son Matityahu (Anton) Samborsky, who was killed in war with Russia, during mourning service in the city central synagogue in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukraine’s chief rabbi mourns his adopted son who was killed in battle
Servicemen, veterans and others have gathered in Kyiv to remember the adopted son of Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Azman, who was killed in battle.
 
Andrii Denysenko, CEO of design and production bureau "UkrPrototyp", stands by Odyssey, an 800-kilogram (1,750-pound) ground drone prototype, at a corn field in northern Ukraine, Friday, June 28, 2024. Facing manpower shortages and uneven international assistance, Ukraine is struggling to halt Russia’s incremental but pounding advance in the east and is counting heavily on innovation at home. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
From basement to battlefield: Ukrainian startups create low-cost robots to fight Russia
Ukraine hopes to find a strategic edge against Russia in drones built in abandoned warehouses or factory basements. An ecosystem of versatile laboratories hidden in hundreds of secret workshops is leveraging technological innovation.
 
Various flowers are seen in front of a field of flags in memory of fallen fighters, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Despite hardships brought by war, flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities
Flowers have always been linked with Ukraine’s culture but since Russia’s 2022 invasion, their significance has only grown. Blooms and specifically sunflowers have become a symbol of both resistance and hope for the war-torn country.
 
Mikhail, 5 holds a scarf with the inscription "Ukraine" during a public screening of the Euro 2024 match between Ukraine and Belgium in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
In a Kyiv market, Ukrainians take heart from team’s inspiring play at Euro 2024
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has paid tribute to his country’s soccer team as they ended their European Championship run with a 0-0 draw against Belgium.
 
A firefighter gestures as he prepares to enter a building at the site after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Around 30 cruise and ballistic missiles were shot down over Kyiv on Thursday morning, said Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv City Administration. The missiles were entering Kyiv simultaneously from various directions in a first missile attack on the capital in 44 days. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Russia fires 31 missiles at Kyiv in the first attack in weeks as people scramble for cover in subway
Russia has fired more than two dozen missiles at Kyiv, attacking the Ukrainian capital for the first time in six weeks and sending panicked residents flooding into the relative safety of the subway system in a scene reminiscent of the first weeks of the war.