Natali Sevriukova is overcome with emotion as she stands outside her destroyed apartment building following a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022. One year after it started, the images from the conflict are just as poignant. Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press
War can be a tough thing to understand. It can be even harder to look at. For photojournalists, it is important to not only bring the stories of war to faraway readers, but to also humanize them.
Images of war can sometimes be impersonal, from a faceless artillery barrage to a cold, hard tank rumbling through the streets. Those don’t always capture the emotional impact on the people trying to get by in these war zones, suffering through harsh living conditions brought on by brutal conflict.
The stories photojournalists want to tell are often those of the voiceless. In the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s the Ukrainian faces that tell the whole story. Faces of families that had to escape to neighboring countries, or relatives grieving over a family member who fought for their country.
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Here is a look back over the last 12 months of war and the stirring images captured by international photojournalists of the horrors of war and its toll on the Ukrainian people.
A woman and child peer out of the window of a bus as they leave Sievierodonetsk, the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. | Vadim Ghirda, Associated Press
Ukrainian refugees walk along vehicles lining up to cross the border from Ukraine into Moldova, at Mayaky-Udobne crossing border point near Mayaky-Udobne, Ukraine, on Feb. 26, 2022. | Sergei Grits, Associated Press
A woman reacts as paramedics perform CPR on a girl who was injured during shelling, at city hospital of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 27, 2022. The girl did not survive. | Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press
A woman bids a man goodbye after boarding a Lviv-bound train, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 3, 2022. | Vadim Ghirda, Associated Press
People cross an improvised path under a destroyed bridge while fleeing the town of Irpin close to Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 7, 2022. | Efrem Lukatsky, Associated Press
Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a blaze at a warehouse after a bombing in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 17, 2022. Russian forces destroyed a theater in Mariupol where hundreds of people were sheltering Wednesday and rained fire on other cities, Ukrainian authorities said, even as the two sides projected optimism over efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting. | Vadim Ghirda, Associated Press
People examine the damage after the shelling of a shopping center, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 21, 2022. At least eight people were killed in the attack. | Efrem Lukatsky, Associated Press
Internally displaced people from Mariupol and nearby towns arrive in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on April 1, 2022. | Felipe Dana, Associated Press
Ukrainian soldiers play with a ball in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 2, 2022. | Rodrigo Abd, Associated Press
Liudmila Sumanchuk, center in black coat, the grandmother of Veronika Kuts cries during her funeral ceremony in L’giv village, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, on April 8, 2022. Veronika Kuts, who was 12 years old, was killed during a Russian bombardment. | Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press
Motria Oleksiienko, 99 years old, traumatized by the Russian occupation, is comforted by daughter-in-law Tetiana Oleksiienko in a room without heating in the village of Andriivka, Ukraine, heavily affected by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces on April 6, 2022. | Vadim Ghirda, Associated Press
Danyk Rak, 12, holds a cat standing on the debris of his house destroyed by Russian forces’ shelling in the outskirts of Chernihiv, Ukraine, on April 13, 2022. After the shelling, Danyk’s mother Liudmila Koval had to have her leg amputated and was injured in her abdominal cavity. She is still waiting for proper medical treatment. | Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) servicemen enter a building during an operation to arrest suspected Russian collaborators in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 14, 2022. | Felipe Dana, Associated Press
Emergency workers help injured civilians during a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 17, 2022. | Felipe Dana, Associated Press
Valentyna Nechyporenko, 77, mourns at the grave of her 47-year-old son Ruslan, during his funeral at the cemetery in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 18, 2022. Ruslan was killed by the Russian army on March 17 while delivering humanitarian aid to his neighbors in the streets of Bucha. | Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press
Soldiers hold flares as they attend the funeral of activist and soldier Roman Ratushnyi in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 18, 2022. Ratushnyi died in a battle near Izyum, where Russian and Ukrainian troops are fighting for control of the area. | Natacha Pisarenko, Associated Press
A local resident places a vase with flowers on a broken window in his house damaged by the Russian shelling in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on June 26, 2022. | Efrem Lukatsky, Associated Press
Maksym and Andrii, 11-year-old-boys, salute to Ukrainian soldiers holding plastic guns as they play at the self-made checkpoint on the highway in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on July 20, 2022. | Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press
Russian rockets launched against Ukraine from Russia’s Belgorod region are pictured at dawn in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 15, 2022. | Vadim Belikov, Associated Press
A man cleans an apartment destroyed after Russian shelling in Nikopol, Ukraine, on Aug. 15, 2022. | Kostiantyn Liberov, Associated Press
Anastasia Ohrimenko, 26, is comforted by relatives as she cries next to the coffin of her husband, Yury Styglyuk, a Ukrainian serviceman who died in combat on Aug. 24 in Maryinka, Donetsk, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, on Aug. 31, 2022. | Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press
A Ukrainian soldier reacts as he receives an injection during an evacuation of injured soldiers participating in the counteroffensive, in a region near the retaken village of Shchurove, Ukraine, on Sept. 25, 2022. | Leo Correa, Associated Press
A Ukrainian serviceman walks along the road near Oskil village, Ukraine, on Oct. 6, 2022. | Francisco Seco, Associated Press
Flame and smoke rise from Crimean Bridge connecting the Russian mainland and Crimean peninsula over the Kerch Strait, in Kerch, Crimea, on Oct. 8, 2022. | Associated Press
The Ukrainian military’s Grad multiple rocket launcher fires rockets at Russian positions in the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Nov. 24, 2022. | Libkos, Associated Press
Police officers look at collected fragments of the Russian rockets that hit Kharkiv, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 3, 2022. | Libkos, Associated Press
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, left, welcome Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington on Dec. 21, 2022. | Andrew Harnik, Associated Press
A Ukrainian serviceman smokes a cigarette at his position at the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Jan. 11, 2023. | Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press
A destroyed Russian tank covered by snow stands in a forest in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Jan. 14, 2023. | Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press
A Ukrainian State Emergency Service firefighter carries a wounded woman out of the rubble from a building one day after a Russian rocket attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Jan. 15, 2023. | Pavel Petrov, State Emergency Service via Associated Press
Svitlana kneels next to the coffin of her husband Serhii, 48, during his funeral in Tarasivka village, near Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 15, 2023. Serhii Havryliuk, an officer of the Azov Assault Brigade, died while defending the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on April 12, 2022, against the Russians. Serhii has finally been buried after DNA tests confirmed his identity. | Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press
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