Constant bombardment and frontline fighting continues, at the cost of many thousands of lives.

A soldier in dress uniform stands guard in front decorated military gravestones and a light display.

Yuriy Dyachyshyn / AFP / GettyA Ukrainian honor guard stands while a symbolic illumination entitled “Rays of Memory” is projected over the graves of Ukrainian soldiers who died in the war with Russia, at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, on February 23, 2026.

A drone hits an apartment building, sending up a ball of flames and smoke.

Gleb Garanich / ReutersA drone hits an apartment building during a Russian missile and drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 27, 2025.

A woman sits on a log in a snowy forest, posing with a sniper rifle across her lap, and a photograph of herself as a dance teacher at her feet.

Sergei Grits / APTetiana Khimion 47, now a sniper in the Ukrainian army, poses with a photograph of herself as a dance teacher taken before Russia’s full-scale invasion, in a park in Kyiv on February 22, 2026.

A line of fixed-wing drone aircraft sits on a runway.

Evgeniy Maloletka / APLong-range AN-196 Liutyi drones of the Ukrainian 14th Separate Unmanned Aerial Systems Regiment stand in line before takeoff in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on October 14, 2025.

Two Ukrainian servicemen walk along a road covered with anti-drone netting.

Anatolii Stepanov / ReutersUkrainian servicemen walk along a road covered with anti-drone netting in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on November 3, 2025.

A soldier in a wooded area looks toward the sky.

Marharyta Fal / Frontliner / Getty“Kostyl,” a gun commander of the 152nd Separate Ranger Brigade, prepares to shoot down a drone as artillery units of Ukraine’s 152nd Separate Jaeger Brigade fire toward Russian positions on January 1, 2026, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.

Several soldiers stand and crouch beside a truck, firing an anti-aircraft weapon.

Evgeniy Maloletka / APUkrainian soldiers from the air-defense unit of the 59th Brigade fire at Russian strike drones in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on August 10, 2025.

A mother cries at the flag-draped coffin of her son, a Ukrainian serviceman who was killed in fighting with Russian forces.

Evgeniy Maloletka / APA mother cries at the coffin of her son Oleh Borovyk, a Ukrainian serviceman who was killed in fighting with Russian forces near Pokrovsk, during his funeral ceremony in Boyarka, Ukraine, on December 3, 2025.

Workers with welding gear work on damaged equipment in a yard littered with debris from a missile attack.

Roman Pilipey / AFP / GettyEmployees repair sections of the Darnytska combined heat and power plant damaged by Russian air strikes in Kyiv, on February 4, 2026.

A body, covered with a tarp, lies on the ground outside a bomb-damaged apartment building.

Evgeniy Maloletka / APThe body of a paramedic lies on the ground in front of a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv, on January 9, 2026.

An injured woman looks out of her broken window after an apartment building was hit by a Russian drone.

Efrem Lukatsky / APAn injured woman looks out of her broken window after an apartment building was hit by a Russian drone in Kyiv on December 23, 2025.

The ruins of tall residential buildings, destroyed in war.

Alexander Ermochenko / ReutersThe ruins of residential buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka, which was destroyed in the course of Russia’s invasion, in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, on February 18, 2026.

An army veteran sits on a bench at a metro station.

Serhii Okunev / AFP / GettyA Ukrainian army veteran sits on a bench at a metro station in front of empty metro carriages during mass power outages in Kyiv on January 31, 2026.

An aerial view of graves of thousands of fallen Ukrainian military personnel.

Chris McGrath / GettyAn aerial view of graves of thousands of fallen Ukrainian military personnel at 18 Cemetery on February 24, 2026, in Kharkiv, Ukraine

A woman, snow on her hat and hood, holds photos of her missing relatives.

Sergei Grits / APA woman holds photos of her missing relatives as Ukrainian soldiers return from captivity during a POW exchange between Russia and Ukraine in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, on February 5, 2026.

A person holds flowers, standing before a makeshift memorial for Ukrainian and foreign soldiers.

Henry Nicholls / AFP / GettyA local resident visits a makeshift memorial for Ukrainian and foreign soldiers in Independence Square in Kyiv on February 24, 2026.

Three tents, glowing with red light, stand beneath tall residential buildings.

Vladyslav Musiienko / APEmergency tents are set up in a residential neighborhood where people can warm up following Russia’s regular air attacks against the country’s energy facilities that leave residents without power, water a,nd heating in the dead of winter, in Kyiv, on January 15, 2026.

A close view of the face of a crying woman.

Yehor Kryvoruchko / Kordon.Media / Global Images Ukraine / GettyAn evacuated resident of the village of Riasne, Krasnopillia community, cries while telling her story to journalists in a temporary shelter on December 22, 2025, in Sumy, Ukraine. Residents of the border region have decided to leave their homes because of the ongoing hostilities. Dmytro Lykhovii, an officer of the main directorate of communications of the armed forces of Ukraine, confirmed information about the deportation of more than 50 civilians to the Russian Federation from the village of Hrabovske.

Several people maneuver through an obstacle course during military training.

Serhii Masin / Anadolu / GettyStudents at the Kharkiv Regional Center for Training the Population for National Resistance undergo tactical training in field conditions in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on November 15, 2025. During these classes, students work in small groups to develop practical skills in tactical and firearms training, mine safety, military topography, and other subjects.

Several soldiers with red headlamps stand near a large hovering drone at night.

Oxana Chorna / Global Images Ukraine / GettyUkrainian military operators prepare a heavy hexacopter drone, “Vampire,” carrying a TM-64 mine for takeoff in rainy conditions on November 10, 2025, in Pokrovske, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. These large Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles are primarily used at night for mine deployment, heavy-munitions drops, and transportation of ammunition, supplies, power sources, and medical equipment to frontline positions.

A vehicle travels at night along road section that has been covered with anti-drone netting.

Andriy Dubchak / Frontliner / GettyA vehicle travels at night along a road that has been covered with a net to protect against Russian drone attacks, on January 3, 2026, in the Donetsk region.

A delivery driver stands beside a motorcycle, with only its headlight lighting up the area, during a blackout.

Sergei Supinsky / AFP / GettyA delivery rider on a bike checks his way using his phone in front of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv during blackout hours on February 7, 2026.

The heavily-damaged interior of a church

Oleg Petrasiuk / Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade / APIn this photo taken on October 13, 2025, and provided by Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, a Ukrainian soldier looks at ruins from inside the damaged church in Kostiantynivka, a frontline town where some 5,000 people still stay with no water, electricity, or gas supply, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

A volunteer spends time with more than a dozen cats in a pet shelter.

Oleksii Filippov / AFP / GettyVolunteer Kateryna Rymaruk cares for cats, most of them evacuated from combat zones, at the Hatul Madan animal shelter, which has been experiencing low temperatures inside its premises because of regular power cuts in Kyiv, on January 21, 2026.

A woman holds her young daughter, wrapped in a towel.

Alina Smutko / ReutersYuliia Davydenko holds her daughter Stephanie, wrapped in a towel after showering at a public bathhouse, as their apartment has no heating or hot water and faces frequent power outages amid Russia’s ongoing invasion, in Kyiv, on February 3, 2026. Waves of Russian attacks in recent months have left hundreds of thousands without electricity and water, making this the most devastating winter since the war started, so the Davydenko family made the choice to stay at the family-owned Piggy Cafe Kyiv, with heating and power supplied by a generator. “The point when we decide to leave Kyiv again would be when Russian troops are 10 to 12 kilometers from the city. That’s it,” Yuliia said.

A man walks through the doorway of a heavily-damaged house, standing beside huge piles of debris.

Diego Herrera Carcedo / Anadolu / GettyMikola, a grandfather of one of the victims, walks among the rubble of damaged buildings following a Russian aerial attack in Krasnotorka, Donetsk Oblast, on January 5, 2026.

A drone flies over a field littered with fiber-optic drone cables.

Francisco Richart Barbeira / NurPhoto / GettyA Ukrainian reconnaissance drone flies over a field littered with fiberoptic drone cables in Sumy on January 28, 2026.

Several soldiers in training walk through a sunflower field.

Andriy Andriyenko / Ukraine’s 65th Mechanized Brigade / APRecruits practice military skills on a training ground in a sunflower field in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on August 11, 2025.

From The Atlantic via this RSS feed