Ukraine: Life goes on in wartime

Olha had one last chance to hug her 6-year-old granddaughter, Arina, tightly before saying goodbye. The little girl had to be evacuated from the eastern city of Bakhmut as Russian troops drew close in January 2023. Her hometown is right on the front line of the conflict. Arina is one of around 11 million people, according to UN estimates, who have been displaced since February 2022.

On this gloomy day in January 2023, these three children played by the side of the road in Bakhmut, laughing as they attempted to skateboard. Soon after, the city would be the scene of months of fierce fighting, with heavy losses on both sides. Once home to around 75,000 people, in March the Ukrainian government estimated that only around 4,000 remained.

As the sun rose over the city of Pokrovsk in August, this resident tried to catch a few more minutes of sleep. His window, which has no glass, overlooks a scene of devastation in the eastern Donetsk region. Several houses here were destroyed in a Russian missile strike in August.

Donetsk resident Marina Sandei, 58 surveys the wreckage of her ceiling, after her house was badly damaged by Russian shelling in April. Economists from the Kyiv School of Economics have estimated that the cost of reconstruction in Ukraine will eventually be around €140 billion ($151 billion). Most of this would go toward rebuilding private homes and apartments.

In some areas authorities have had to resort to mass graves, such as here in the settlement of Staryi Krym outside Mariupol in February. The exact number of deaths since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022 varies greatly depending on the source. On each side alone, the number of soldiers killed is in the tens of thousands.

Two children, Sofia and Kyrylo, were reported killed in a Russian missile attack in Uman, in the central Cherkasy region, in April. The United Nations has registered at least 10,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, more than 560 of them children. The true figure may be much higher.

In the middle of Kyiv, people have been forced to seek shelter in subway stations as air raid sirens wail outside. Subway stations and shelters have served as refuges from Russian missile attacks since the invasion began, especially at the beginning of the war, when people spent weeks hiding out in subway tunnels.

The Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River was destroyed in June, resulting in heavy flooding of many communities below the dam. Hundreds of houses were inundated, and a state of emergency was declared in the city of Nova Kakhovka.

In March 2023, 71-year-old Lyubov Vasilivna was still living with her animals in the house where she was born in Semenivka. She insisted that she didn't want to be evacuated from her hometown in the eastern Donetsk region, near the front-line city of Avdiivka.

Facing trench warfare, drone attacks and never-ending battles, Ukrainian soldiers are exhausted. Many have been wounded, like this man, who is being attended by two army medics.

In February, old friends Galina and Valentina, who are both in their 80s, walked hand-in-hand through the snow in Siversk in the eastern region of Donetsk. Many analysts believe the war in Ukraine could last years