A Ukrainian police officer sits on a merry-go-round where civilian dead bodies lie on the ground outside the cafe, which was struck by a ballistic missile hours earlier in the village of Hroza on October 5, 2023, Kharkiv region, Ukraine. A Russian Iskander ballistic missile attack killed 59 people in Hroza, a town near the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, which was under Russian occupation and liberated by Ukrainian forces in September 2022. The gathering was attended only by civilians, who were there for the reburial wake of soldier Andriy Kozyr. He was fatally wounded in Popasna and was buried in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, but his son Denys brought his father to his home village. There were no survivors in Kozyr's family due to the attack, including his widow, daughter, son, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, other relatives and friends. Even after 20 months of full-scale war, Ukraine was horrified by the tragedy that occurred in this rural community. Kyiv declared the strike on the village was one of the worst mass killings of civilians since the start of the full-scale war.

Tetiana Shvets, 62, is hugged dearly by Svitlana, a friend and neighbour, as she is being evacuated by the Ukrainian military Chaplain Oleg Tkachenko from Vuhledar, on October 19, 2023, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Tetiana decided to evacuate after twenty months of living in a basement; on one of the visits to her apartment during a lull in the shelling, she looked outside the window and saw the destruction of her hometown. Tetiana and Svitlana became close friends as they shared the difficulties of living in their apartment building's basement as artillery strikes were pummeling their city. Vuhledar was built for the nearby coal mine and had many high-rise buildings, now reduced to blackened skeletons. Russian forces tried an unsuccessful frontal assault on the city in the first months of 2023, and they were positioned a kilometre away from the town for over a year. After almost three years of fighting, Vuhledar was captured by Russian forces in September 2024.

Vulhedar residents carry water and food after a food distribution during a lull in the shelling in Vulhedar on October 19, 2023, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Two hundred civilians remained in the town, living in basements of bombed-out high-rise buildings, without basic amenities and relying on the help of volunteer organisations to bring them water, food and petrol for generators. Russian troops occupied Vuhledar in September 2024.

Ukrainian firefighters responded to an artillery strike on a residential building on November 10, 2024, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine. In one of his nightly addresses, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the area around Pokrovsk was "the most challenging right now" and added that "the military command and brigade command is working on strengthening positions." Around 10,000 civilians remain in Pokrovsk, surviving without basic amenities under the constant threat of artillery, aerial bombs and attack drones. Non-governmental organisations do what they can to provide generators, petrol, food, and water and evacuate the people ready to leave the area. Pokrovsk is an important hub in the southern Donetsk region. If Russian forces capture the city, they will split the region into two parts, making the effort for the defence of the south part very challenging for the Ukrainians, and it could open the road to a future offensive in the Dnipro region or threaten the south flank of Kostiantynivka.

Tamara Lysytsya, 67, stands inside her damaged house on the outskirts of Chernihiv, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, on April 24, 2022. Tamara sheltered in the basement below her home with five family members for twenty-one days during the siege of Chernihiv. Chernihiv had a pre-war population of 280,000 people; it is to the northeast of Kyiv, about 70km from the Russian border, and even closer to Belarus. Russian forces reached the city and encircled it soon after the invasion began on February 24, until Moscow decided to withdraw the troops on April 4, 2022. Alongside Sumy and Kharkiv, Chernihiv was a city that the Kremlin aimed to conquer for a greater success of their northern war campaign. Entire towns were destroyed, often with people living in or hiding in basements. According to Chernihiv's Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko, approximately 700 civilians died as a result of the war.

Members of the Ukrainian humanitarian organisation, Platsdarm, recorded the personal effects of a dead Russian soldier on October 4, 2023, in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Volunteers found a drawing of a woman's body and a love letter alongside the Russian passport in the military fatigues of the deceased 22-year-old Russian soldier as they went through the process of identification of six bodies after their recovery from the battlefield in Klishchiivka, where intense hostilities took place. The dehumanisation of the counterpart has always played a big role in conflicts around the world, the psychological process of demonising the enemy, making them seem less than human and, hence, not worthy of humane treatment.

Kharkiv residents shelter in the Saltivka metro station tunnel as the suburb continued to be the target of Russian artillery in Kharkiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on April 30, 2022. From the end of February 2022, over 600 people sheltered in the Saltvika metro tunnel; two months after the Russian invasion, 270 people were still there. The conditions were precarious, with no fresh air or sunlight and a few toilets without showers. Most people were on the catwalk and the stairs; others were inside a wagon on the platform. Many showed post-traumatic stress disorder as they roamed through the humid tunnels. In late May 2022, Russian forces were pushed further back in the Kharkiv region, allowing people to return to their houses and start rebuild. Kharkiv today is under constant threat of Russian aerial bombs.

Artur, callsign Dzygit (low-right), 32, member of the Ukrainian 53rd Brigade, flies a commercial drone modified to drop grenades on enemy trenches and fighting vehicles a few hundred meters away from Russian positions along the frontline in Pervomaiske, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 8, 2023. Artur, a former police officer, joined the fight as soon as the full-scale invasion began. His wife and young daughter were stuck under Russian occupation, 30km away from Kyiv, for two months. Artur has been fighting for almost three years on different fronts in the Donetsk region, dropping grenades on enemy trenches and fighting vehicles, flying drones, and providing critical information to the infantry. Russian forces captured Pervomaiske after the fall of Avdiviika in April 2024.

Nadiia (right), a former resident of Vuhledar, collects money after selling food to locals who, despite the ongoing intense hostilities, decided to stay in the town and live there in Vulhedar, on October 19, 2023, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Ukrainian military Chaplain Oleg Tkachenko and Nadiia went to Vuhledar at least once a week to bring and sell food, water, petrol, and evacuate people ready to leave the area. Only treacherous field roads could take people into the town, with Ukrainian military positions along the way. No electricity, no water or other essential services were possible. It's believed among Ukrainian soldiers that most of the people who remained there were waiting for Russian forces to conquer Vuhledar so they could live under Russian occupation.

A 200-year-old Orthodox Holy Trinity Church that was occupied by the Russian army and used as a field hospital near the town of Izium, Mala Komyshuvakha, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on December 15, 2022. Russian troops converted the church into a field hospital after capturing the village in March 2022, stealing equipment from a local medical centre and setting up a latrine. The town was liberated by Ukrainian troops during the counter-offensive in September 2022. Volunteers have since cleaned the church, but no services are held there.

Chaplain Colonel Mykola Korsun (right) with the Armed Forces of Ukraine blesses Combat Medic Oleksandr, 30, before their Brigade engages in clashes with Russian forces north of Bakhmut, at the barrack of an army base, in Nykyforivka village, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 2, 2023. Members of the 30th Brigade participate in a mass conducted by chaplain Colonel Mykola Korsun at an army barrack fifteen kilometres from Bakhmut's frontline. Physician Andrey Berbets (left) explained that Colonel Korsun's speech was about how to deal with the war and what comes from it on a psychological level.

Wooden crosses in a mass burial site where people were interred during the Russian occupation of Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, December 15, 2022. On September 15, 2022, a mass burial site containing at least 440 bodies was found in a section of the Izium's cemetery. 274, 351, 342—only numbers engraved on the wooden markers for those without names. That's how Russian forces identified most of the Ukrainians who died during their six months of occupation of the eastern Ukrainian town. It was not the first mass grave found in recently liberated areas after the retreat of Russian forces.

Tank driver Vladislav Rusyn, 19 years old, walks out of the basement where he was sheltering in Chernihiv as he guarded the tank before being towed away, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, on April 25, 2022. Rusyn was driving the tank along Shevchenka Street when they came under Russian artillery fire and one of its continuous tracks was damaged, sending the tank out of service. Their battalion assigned him and another serviceman to guard the tank until it was towed away. They were sheltering in a bombed entertainment house with no food or water; they were surviving with the help of the residents.

Alexandra (left) stands in her apartment while her mother, Ludmilla Klochko, looks at an old photograph, in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 3, 2023. Alexandra starts humming when she hears artillery intensively working in and out while she sustained brain injuries in her childhood and hasn't recovered. Ludmilla Klochko and her daughter Alexandra lived all their lives in the town. They were afraid to live in their apartment since the battle for Bakhmut had intensified; they slept at a friend's house. Ludmilla cares for her daughter; she can't see them going anywhere else. She would wait until the last minute to be evacuated. The battle for Chasiv Yar is currently fought street by street and the destiny of Alexandra and Ludmilla is unknown.

Olena Alechencko, 48, emerges from the basement of her bombed-out apartment building where she has been surviving with sixteen other residents in Siversk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 7, 2023. Residents sheltered in the basement of this bombed-out building for almost three years and have been living without basic amenities like electricity, running water, or heating. Siversk is situated north of Bakhmut and only six kilometres away from Russian positions. Despite the danger of artillery fire, some residents refuse to leave their basements and evacuate to a safer location.

Doctors and medics of the 66th Brigade with the Armed Forces of Ukraine stabilise a serviceman who arrived from the Bakhmut frontline with several shrapnel wounds at a stabilisation point in the liberated town of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine, December 1, 2022. The head of the stabilisation point, Doctor Roman Anadoli, said they received between ten and fifteen wounded soldiers every hour during the Russian's attempt while taking the city of Bakhmut.

A drone image shows the scars of war on the Ukrainian territory in the village of Kamianka on February 27, 2024, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. In the photo, trenches, craters, and destroyed houses can be observed. The area was occupied by Russian forces at the beginning of the war and it was liberated during the Ukrainian counter-offensive in September 2022.

The bodies of three Russian soldiers killed during the Ukrainian counter-offensive in September 2022 lie in a field along the E40 highway connecting the cities of Slovyansk and Izium in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, December 6, 2022. The Ukrainian humanitarian organisation Black Tulip team discovered the bodies as they worked towards locating and collecting the remains of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers killed in action under the constant threat of shelling and land mines to reunite them with their families.

Ukrainian veterans prepare for a swimming therapeutic session at the Tytanovi rehabilitation centre on November 19, 2024, in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Tytanovi Centre offers a second opportunity to the most challenging cases of young Ukrainian men and women injured on the battlefield. They raise funding for permanent solutions to the loss of limbs that many injured soldiers experience through osteointegration surgeries and advanced prosthetic systems and offer them a place to live and conduct rehabilitation as well as provide real-life experience outside the centre.

Russian prisoners of war cover their faces to conceal their identity during a visit to one of the prisons in the Sumy region where the captured soldiers are held on November 20, 2024, in Sumy, Ukraine. In the aftermath of Ukraine's recent offensive in Russia's Kursk region, over 300 Russian soldiers were taken captive by Ukrainian soldiers and processed at the prison. By November 20, only 25 remained, confined to two cramped, sweltering underground cells in a Ukrainian detention facility. The men passed the time—sitting on wooden benches and playing a game reminiscent of "shut the box," while others sat on old bunk beds. While most of the prisoners had been held for two months, a few were recent arrivals, including a Chechen fighter. For many of these soldiers, it was likely to be their first battle, their capture came after the most significant breach of Russian borders since World War II.

Ukrainian volunteer medics from the Hospitallers organisation take a moment during a medical evacuation conducted by a support medical bus on November 12, 2024, in Pavlohrad, Ukraine. The Hospitallers group has hundreds of volunteers who work in multi-week shifts as emergency responders, providing first-aid and evacuations of wounded Ukrainian soldiers. The organisation relies on domestic and foreign donations to fund its often dangerous operations, such as purchasing medical supplies and supporting the logistical needs of staff operating in the war-torn Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

An injured Ukrainian soldier helps his wounded comrade climb a series of steps at the entrance of a hospital after being evacuated from the Donetsk region by volunteer medics from the Hospitallers organisation, on November 12, 2024, in Dnipro, Ukraine.

Members of the Ukrainian J-9 Unit work on the extraction of three dead Russian soldiers from a shallow grave located near a factory which Russian forces used as a command centre during the occupation, on December 17, 2022, in Balaklya, Kharkiv region, Ukraine. The Ukrainian military's J-9 unit — named for the rule under the Geneva Conventions that address the retrieval of casualties — is generally the first to collect the dead, mainly Russian soldiers but also Ukrainians. The procedure involves delicate handling of the bodies, driven by the need to maintain respect for the deceased and mitigate potential hazards such as mines or concealed booby traps. While a demining team is tasked with establishing a secure path from the grave site to the road, J-9 members exercise caution by employing an extended metal pole to inspect the immediate vicinity of the bodies before engaging in any handling or close approach as a preventive measure. The retrieval process is identical for Ukrainian and Russian bodies. Ukrainian bodies are returned as quickly as possible to their grieving families. Russian bodies are transferred to Ukrainian government hands so that they can be exchanged for Ukrainians held by the Russian forces.

Katerina Yuschenko, 72, lies on a bed in the 2nd Municipal Hospital of Chernihiv as her daughter Olena looks after her on April 25, 2022, in Chernihiv, Ukraine. A Russian bombardment wounded Katerina as she was queuing to buy some bread. Katerina lost her left leg and two fingers of her left hand, but surgeons saved her right leg. Yuschenko was among dead people when her daughter Olena found her. "I could not believe my mother was still alive," Olena said.

A switcher locomotive passes on the only intact track through the rubbles of a bridge that Russian aviation destroyed with guided aerial gliding bombs in August 2024, on November, 14, 2024, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Workers helped move coal wagons at the Pischane coal plant as Ukraine braces for the Russian offensive. On December 14, Metinvest announced the closure of the coal plant. Pischane is the largest coking coal producer in Ukraine and one of the largest in Eastern Europe. The site provided half of Metinvest's coal volume, which is used to produce steel at the company's plants. The loss of the mine would be a significant blow to Ukraine's steel production industry.

Ludmylla, 52, poses for a photograph inside her house, Yahidne, Chernihiv region, March 4, 2024. Ludmylla was held in captivity with 368 other Yahidne residents for 28 days. Ludmylla, alongside her husband and fellow Yahidne residents, including children, was held captive by soldiers from Eastern Russia in makeshift detention within the basement of the local school for nearly a month, from March 3 to the 30th. They were kept as human shields against the Geneva Convention, as Russian troops crowded the school above, making it their command post. She recalled the lack of oxygen and food, the indignity of relieving themselves before others, and the dreadful task of handling the deceased. Ten people died in the school basement, their bodies kept in a boiler room, their burials delayed by the threat of Russian mortar fire. War crimes investigations are ongoing.

A fallen infantryman of the Ukrainian Army is placed in a body bag after being fatally wounded in the battle for Toretsk, the members of his unit brought him to a casualties collection point on November 11, 2024, in Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine. The defence of the Donetsk region is becoming increasingly challenging for Ukrainian soldiers since Russian forces readapted old stocks of aerial gliding bombs with advanced GPS kits, giving the bombs pin-point accuracy, and destroying Ukrainian logistics routes and centres. Moreover, the increased use of kamikaze drones, radio and fibre optic guided, makes every movement on the ground more difficult. Both sides have been treating the military casualty numbers as classified information; the figures are likely to be significantly higher.

Ukrainian infantryman "Oregon" of the 3rd Assault Brigade says goodbye to his girlfriend Anna at Kramatorsk Train Station on February 22, 2024, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine. The train station has become a place of reunion and separation, as Kramatorsk is one of the main cities where soldiers live during a few-day rotation from the Eastern frontline. The intercity train that runs from Kramatorsk to Kyiv in five hours plays a vital role in connecting families and young couples.