Saturday will mark the two-year anniversary of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Although the Russian military initially made broad advances into the country beginning on February 24, 2022, Ukrainian forces, backed by Western support, resisted fiercely, forcing Russia to pull back into eastern and southern Ukraine. Soon, front lines hundreds of miles long were established, and the war evolved into a long and punishing battle of artillery, drones, and close combat across trenches, shattered forests, and ruined villages. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed or injured in the conflict. As Russia continues to launch missiles into all parts of Ukraine and presses forward with ground attacks across the front line, Ukrainian forces face intensifying shortages of manpower and ammunition. Gathered below are images from recent months, showing a region reshaped by two years of war.
Two Years of War in Ukraine
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![A soldier stands in a trench in a forest, firing a rocket-propelled grenade at night.]()
Read moreA Ukrainian infantryman fires an RPG, seen in the direction of Kreminna, in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on February 15, 2024. #
Diego Herrera Carcedo / Anadolu / Getty -
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![A person walks past a very badly damaged residential building.]()
Read moreA view of a building destroyed by a Russian rocket strike in Donetsk Oblast, seen on January 26, 2024 #
Ignacio Marin / Anadolu / Getty -
![Several soldiers stand together at a funeral; one holds a photograph of another soldier.]()
Read moreA Ukrainian serviceman carries a portrait of Diana Savita Wagner, a German combat medic who joined Ukrainian Armed Forces as a volunteer and was killed by Russian troops in the country's East, during her funeral ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 14, 2024. #
Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters -
![An overview of a system of trenches seen at night, in a snowy field]()
Read moreA view of a newly dug trench for Ukrainian soldiers, near the border with Belarus, in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine, on December 14, 2023 #
Gleb Garanich / Reuters -
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![A firefighter works at the scene of a fire in a warehouse.]()
Read moreThe State Emergency Service of Ukraine works to extinguish a fire at a warehouse after rocket attacks struck the center of the capital of Ukraine on December 29, 2023, in Kyiv. During the attack, Russia struck targets in several major Ukrainian cities, damaging or destroying a maternity hospital, schools, a shopping center, high-rise apartment buildings, and private houses, leaving at least 12 dead and 75 wounded. #
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty -
![An elevated view of a road bridge that has been destroyed and collapsed]()
Read moreA view of a bridge, destroyed earlier in the war, in Bohorodychne, Donetsk Oblast, on January 27, 2024 #
Ignacio Marin / Anadolu / Getty -
![A soldier holds a dog close to her face.]()
Read moreAlina Panina, a 27-year-old Ukrainian border-guard member and a former prisoner of war, embraces her service dog, Roksi, in the town of Novovolynsk, Volyn region, Ukraine, on January 23, 2024. #
Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters -
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![A person works to repair a military tank, using a tool that throws off sparks.]()
Read moreSoldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine repair armored vehicles and tanks near the front line in the Donetsk region on January 2, 2024. #
Pierre Crom / Getty -
![An aerial view of a residential neighborhood with many war-damaged residential buildings]()
Read moreA bird's-eye view of the embattled city of Avdiivka, seen on December 7, 2023. At the time, both Ukraine and Russia were claiming gains in the city, which later fell to Russian forces in February 2024. #
Kostya Liberov / Libkos / Getty -
![A soldier walks through a farm field, carrying a drone over their shoulder.]()
Read moreA Ukrainian serviceman carries a reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle after it flew above a front-line area in the Zaporizhzhia region on February 15, 2024. #
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![Sparks fly as a piece of artillery is fired at night.]()
Read moreUkrainian soldiers fire artillery in the direction of Bakhmut, in Donetsk Oblast, on November 3, 2023. #
Diego Herrera Carcedo / Anadolu / Getty -
![A side-view portrait of a soldier looking out from a trench.]()
Read moreA Ukrainian infantryman keeps watch in the trenches on the front line, near Bakhmut, on January 19, 2024. #
Ignacio Marin / Anadolu / Getty -
![An aerial view of a trench in a battlefield; several dead soldiers are visible]()
Read moreBodies of Russian soldiers lie among debris in a trench, seen on December 23, 2023, in Avdiivka, Ukraine. #
Kostya Liberov / Libkos / Getty -
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![Part of a human skull rests at the bottom of a trench, surrounded by debris.]()
Read moreThe skull of a Russian soldier lies inside a trench at a former Russian position outside the village of Robotyne, in the Zaporizhzhia region, seen on November 4, 2023. #
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![An aerial image of a village, its houses and buildings almost completely destroyed]()
Read moreAn aerial photograph shows destroyed houses in the village of Bohorodychne, Donetsk region, on January 27, 2024. Bohorodychne is a village in the Donetsk region that came under heavy attack by Russian forces in June 2022 and was captured on August 17, 2022. The Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on September 12, 2022, that they had taken back control of the village. #
Roman Pilipey / AFP / Getty -
![A portrait of a soldier who sits in a military tank with their head poking out of a hole]()
Read moreA Ukrainian soldier, photographed in a tank moments before heading to the front line in the direction of Bakhmut, on January 23, 2024. #
Ignacio Marin / Anadolu / Getty -
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![Firefighters stand in a basket at the end of a long lift, spraying water onto a tall residential building that is on fire.]()
Read moreRescuers extinguish a fire in a residential building following a missile attack in Kyiv on February 7, 2024. #
Sergei Supinsky / AFP / Getty -
![A green light dangles from a wire beneath a damaged traffic light, which stands beside a heavily damaged building, following a missile strike.]()
Read moreSmoke rises from a building that was heavily damaged after Russian strike hit the city center of Dnipro, Ukraine, on December 29, 2023. #
Arsen Dzodzaiev / Anadolu / Getty -
![Two soldiers sit side by side in a small concrete room; one looks at a tablet device, and the other wears goggles and uses a remote control.]()
Read moreUkrainian servicemen of the Rarog UAV squadron of the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade operate a drone at a position near the town of Horlivka on January 17, 2024. #
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![An aerial view of several destroyed military tanks, each of their turrets blown off and lying on the ground]()
Read moreDestroyed Russian tanks are seen near the village of Bohorodychne on February 13, 2024. #
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![A soldier in a forest fires a grenade launcher.]()
Read moreA Ukrainian infantryman fires a grenade launcher toward Russian positions from a trench near Kreminna, Donetsk Oblast, on February 15, 2024. #
Diego Herrera Carcedo / Anadolu / Getty -
![Army medics work on a wounded soldier who lies on a table.]()
Read moreUkrainian army medics treat a wounded soldier at a stabilization point in the direction of Bakhmut-Siversk on November 9, 2023. #
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![A woman leans through a doorway, looking up at the smashed ceiling of a house damaged by the fighting.]()
Read moreLocal resident Elena Rodik reacts while showing her damaged apartment inside a house hit by recent shelling in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on December 12, 2023. #
Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters -
![Several civilians practice handling weapons, using wooden replicas at a training session.]()
Read moreParticipants learn how to handle weapons at a civilian training center on November 11, 2023, in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, many Ukrainians attend courses where civilians can learn skills they need in times of war. #
Oleksandr Lapshyn / Global Images Ukraine / Getty -
![A soldier and his girlfriend say goodbye at a train station.]()
Read moreA Ukrainian soldier and his girlfriend say goodbye at a train station in Kramatorsk on December 10, 2023. #
Marek M. Berezowski / Anadolu / Getty -
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![A fireball streaks through the sky above the buildings of a city during a missile and drone strike.]()
Read moreAn exploding missile is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian missile and drone strike in Kyiv on December 29, 2023. #
Gleb Garanich / Reuters -
![The interior of a building that has been bombed and burned]()
Read moreAn interior view of a destroyed building, located near a front-line position, after Russian shelling in Donetsk Oblast on February 16, 2024. #
Jose Colon / Anadolu / Getty -
![A soldier kneels and holds a dog outside the entrance to a bunker in a forest.]()
Read moreA Ukrainian soldier plays with a dog in his fighting position in the direction of Bakhmut on February 20, 2024. #
Diego Herrera Carcedo / Anadolu / Getty -
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![A soldier kneels in a trench, covering their ears as a mortar fires behind them.]()
Read moreA Ukrainian soldier covers his ears as a 120-mm mortar blasts from its tube, as soldiers of the 1st Presidential Brigade of the Ukraine National Guard fire from the Kreminna Forest at Russian positions on February 17, 2024. #
Scott Peterson / Getty -
![A single soldier walks down a muddy road in a war-damaged forest.]()
Read moreA soldier from the 67th Motorized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces walks through a burned forest, following Russian shelling, on a section of the front line along the Donetsk River on December 21, 2023. #
Marek M. Berezowski / Anadolu / Getty
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