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7 months ago
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On Feb. 24, 2022, people across Ukraine awoke to the sound of Russian missiles as President Vladimir Putin declared what he called a "special military operation."
Two years later, millions of Ukrainians have been displaced, tens of thousands of civilians and combatants have been killed and a number of cities and towns have been destroyed by Russia's offensive — with no end in sight.
To mark its second anniversary, The Moscow Times has collected photos from throughout the war:
A woman reacts as she stands in front of a house burning after being shelled in the city of Irpin, outside Kyiv.
Aris Messinis / AFP
A local resident walks past a crater and a damaged residential building following a recent aerial bombardment in Kupiansk, Kharkiv region.
Sergei Bobok / AFP
The bodies of executed civilians line Yablunska Street in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, following the withdrawal of Russian troops on April 2, 2022.
The body in the foreground has been identified as Mykhailo Kovalenko, whose relatives later said had been shot dead by Russian soldiers.
Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP
Bombed-out residential buildings in the Kyiv region town of Borodianka.
Oleksandr Ratushniak / UNDP Ukraine
A woman cries over the bodies of the victims of a missile strike in the town of Panteleimonovka in a Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region.
AFP
The bodies of the dead are placed in a makeshift morgue following a Russian missile attack on a busy railway station in the Donbas region city of Kramatorsk that left 57 people dead.
Hervé Bar / AFP
A man with a child's scooter walks past an apartment building destroyed by a Russian missile attack in the town of Selydove, Donetsk region.
Anatoly Stepanov / AFP
A family seeks shelter in one of Kyiv's underground metro stations, many of which were designed to be used as bomb shelters.
Oleksandr Ratushniak / UNDP Ukraine
A view of the ruins of the Donetsk Airport and Avdiivka as seen from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
Dmitry Yagodkin / TASS
Ukrainian servicemen walk on the road toward their base near the frontline in the Donetsk region.
Ysauyoshi Chiba / AFP
A view of the captured port city of Mariupol.
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
Black smoke billows from the Crimean Bridge after a truck explodes, killing three people. Moscow blamed Kyiv for what it called an act of "terrorism."
AFP
Russian prisoners of war queue for lunch at a POW camp in western Ukraine.
Roman Pilipey / AFP
A direct strike by a Russian missile on a residential building in the city of Dnipro left 40 people dead, including three children.
State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Cemetery workers place crosses at the graves of a family of five people, including three children, who perished in a fire in their house following a drone attack on a petrol station in Kharkiv on Feb. 12, 2024.
Sergei Bobok / AFP
A destroyed residential building in the town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv.
Nicolas Garcia / AFP
Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners of the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade Kholodny Yar monitor the sky from their positions in the direction of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.
Anatoly Stepanov / AFP
A woman sits in a minivan with a Ukrainian child after crossing the border from Belarus to Ukraine, in the Volyn region, on Feb. 20, 2024.
Eleven Ukrainian children crossed the border from Belarus to Ukraine Tuesday evening, in the latest return of children taken to Russia and occupied territories during the two-year Ukraine war.
Roman Pilipey / AFP
