In Photos: 4 Years In, Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Drags On
Four years ago today, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, upending the post-World War II security order in Europe and plunging Ukraine into what many in the country describe as a fight for its survival as an independent state.
In the years since, scenes of mourning, destroyed buildings, explosions, power outages, makeshift memorials and Ukrainian cities reduced to rubble have all become commonplace.
Meanwhile, peace negotiations have yielded scant progress, with delegations once again failing to reach an agreement at last week's talks in Geneva.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said afterward that a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin could be the most effective way to resolve the issue of occupied territory. Yet the Kremlin has shown little interest in pursuing this possibility.
These photos show scenes from the full-scale war as it moves into its fifth year:
In the years since, scenes of mourning, destroyed buildings, explosions, power outages, makeshift memorials and Ukrainian cities reduced to rubble have all become commonplace.
Meanwhile, peace negotiations have yielded scant progress, with delegations once again failing to reach an agreement at last week's talks in Geneva.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said afterward that a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin could be the most effective way to resolve the issue of occupied territory. Yet the Kremlin has shown little interest in pursuing this possibility.
These photos show scenes from the full-scale war as it moves into its fifth year:
Ukrainian soldiers fire a MRLS BM-21 Grad toward Russian positions at an undisclosed location near Druzhkivka, Donetsk region.
Iryna Rybakova / The 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade
A heating tent in Kyiv.
Russian attacks have left Ukraine’s energy grid teetering on the brink of collapse and have disrupted power and water supplies to millions over recent weeks.
Russian attacks have left Ukraine’s energy grid teetering on the brink of collapse and have disrupted power and water supplies to millions over recent weeks.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service
Residents using flashlights walk past heating tents set up in the courtyard of a residential building in Kyiv on Jan. 19.
Sergei Gapon / AFP
A girl colors in a heating tent in Kyiv.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service
Houses destroyed by Russian shelling in the town of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region.
The 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade / Facebook
A woman walks down a street covered by anti-drone netting in the town of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region.
24th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces / Facebook
A man with a bicycle in the town of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region.
The 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade / Facebook
A Ukrainian soldier inspects the fresh destruction of civilian homes in a frontline village in the Donetsk region.
The 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade / Facebook
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a home following a Russian drone attack in Novhorod-Sivers’kyi, Chernihiv region.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service
Ukrainian sappers destroy the warhead of a Russian X-101 missile in a field in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service
Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a fire after a Russian drone strike in Odesa.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service
Local residents inspect damaged cars at the site of a Russian attack in Odesa.
Oleksandr Gimanov / AFP
A woman walks past a poster promoting contract army service in western Moscow.
Alexander Nemenov / AFP
A Russian serviceman in the Kherson region of Ukraine.
Alexei Konovalov / TASS
Relatives, friends and other attendees mourn over the coffins during the funeral ceremony for Grigory Shikula, 34, his two sons Ivan and Vladislav, and his daughter Myroslava, who were killed by a Russian drone strike, at a cemetery in the village of Skovorodynivka in the Kharkiv region on Feb. 13.
Ivan Samoilov / AFP
A couple and a boy on a bicycle walk in the open-air exhibition of destroyed Russian military equipment in Kyiv.
Sergei Supinsky / AFP
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte with Volodymyr Zelensky at a makeshift memorial to fallen Ukrainian and foreign soldiers on Independence Square in central Kyiv.
NATO / flickr
A woman looks at her phone as she takes shelter at a metro station during an air raid alert in Kyiv.
Serhii Okunev / AFP
A pedestrian walks past a Ukrainian Army recruiting billboard in the center of Kyiv.
Sergei Supinsky / AFP
