Enduring Mayhem: Images From Year 3 of the War in Ukraine

A photographic chronicle of the third year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Helping a resident hit by shrapnel in Shebekino, western Russia, on May 19. Nanna Heitmann photo

With the largest and deadliest war in Europe since the end of World War II now in its third year, the scale of the devastation wrought by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to mount.

The front line is a place of ghastly violence where hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded, according to conservative Western estimates. The list of Ukrainian cities and towns largely razed to the ground by Russian bombs and artillery grows with each passing month.

Russian forces have moved forward in small increments, suffering a staggering number of casualties to take cities like Avdiivka, which Moscow captured in February. In early May, Russian forces began a new offensive in Ukraine’s northeast, seizing a number of settlements in a push near the city of Kharkiv.

Away from the front, millions of Ukrainians have spent hours in bomb shelters as Russia continues to rain down missiles and drones on military units and civilians across the nation. Ukraine’s energy grid is severely damaged — working but sporadic. Thousands of schools, hospitals and cultural institutions have been damaged or destroyed. Millions have lost their homes.

For all that time, photographers with The New York Times and other news organizations have chronicled the war, capturing a slice of how soldiers and civilians have experienced it.

Some images, our photographers say, will never leave them.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/world/europe/images-ukraine-war-third-year.html