As Europe’s largest and deadliest war since the end of World War II enters its third year, the scale of the damage wrought by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to grow.
The front line is a site of appalling violence where hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured, according to conservative Western estimates. The list of Ukrainian towns and villages largely razed by Russian bombs and artillery grows longer with each passing month.
Russian forces advanced in small steps, suffering impressive numbers of casualties to take towns like Avdiivka, captured by Moscow in February.
Far from the front, millions of Ukrainians have spent hours in air raid shelters as Russia continues to rain missiles and drones on military units and civilians across the country. Ukraine’s energy grid is badly damaged – it works but sporadically. Thousands of schools, hospitals and cultural institutions have been damaged or destroyed. Millions of people have lost their homes.
All the while, photographers for the New York Times and other news outlets have chronicled the war, capturing a glimpse of how soldiers and civilians experienced it. Some images, say our photographers, I will never leave them.
