Russia dismantled the world order with its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. After over three years, it has yet to formally declare any war with the neighbor it is trying to destroy. The first two years of coverage were harrowing, depicted by media outlets from across the globe. I had never had I seen such displacement, grief, violence, and death. It was a sorrow that felt compounded during the long weeks spent in trenches or at mass graves. The normalcy of Russian aggression in Ukraine today shed light on a different reality- what it means to live and love in the presence of war.

An estimated 15% of total infustracture has been destroyed. Almost 20% of Ukrainians are living in poverty strained by inflation. A mental health crisis exists due to PTSD and increased deployment to the trenches. The attacks have continued to intensify forcing Ukraine to adjust its practices in order to protect its civilians- and its freedom. Schools have gone remote and classrooms have been moved underground. Buildings have been converted into rehab facilities for mass amounts of injuries on the frontlines. And many families across the country, spend their nights in bunkers as explosions ring out until sunrise.

Those same children play on the playgrounds outside their apartments, those same soldiers are getting married and finding purpose with new prosthetics, and those mothers are going to work and making dinner for their families even if no sleep was had the night before. The war may have destroyed the landmarks, the cities, and the relics of history—but it cannot destroy what makes a place a home. The people. Their will to live. Their will to rebuild. They embrace the calmness that echoes the darkest days of this war. It is a persistence that Ukraine now carries in its collective push for freedom. It is a story of conflict that exists far from the frontline. The most powerful moments are woven into daily life and are rarely ever seen.

01

The empty mass graves of the “Killing Fields” in Izium, Ukraine, 2025.

02

Ira,19, supports her boyfriend, Mischa, in the hospital after he lost both his legs defending Ukraine, 2022.

03

Members of the Azov Brigade hold military training for civilians and volunteer soldiers in Odesa, 2023.

04

Multiple explosions from Irpin and surrounding regions are seen from a balcony of a residential building in Kyiv, 2022.

05

Victoria, 6, runs to her family’s bunker in Saltivka in Kharkiv, Ukraine. She spends most of her time underground to avoid intense shelling in the area in 2022.

06

An elderly woman’s body is guarded by a dog after she was killed in Bucha, Ukraine, 2022.

07

Two soldiers play chess at their base outside of Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, 2024.

08

A summer afternoon in Odesa, Ukraine, despite night attacks, 2023.

09

A young Ukrainian boy is returned to Ukraine after being kidnapped and deported to Russia, 2024.

10

Yarolsav Matyozov is reunited with his mother in Dnipro, Ukraine, after they escaped the siege of Mariupol at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 2025.