Year-Ender 2025: Ukraine's Third Year Of Living Through Conflict
From Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia to Donetsk, Sumy, Lviv, Kryvyi Rih and Kramatorsk, these photographs from Ukraine in 2025 show the human impact of ongoing conflict. Police and Red Cross workers rescue injured civilians, while soldiers train, rest or launch drones near the frontline. Residents evacuate destroyed homes, mourn children, artists and prisoners, and clear rubble after missile and air strikes. Amid grief, life continues: cadets attend school underground, students do homework in shelters, and people celebrate or reunite despite loss. The images trace Ukraine’s daily endurance, grief, and the quiet determination of those living through another year of war.
Top photos from Ukraine in 2025 show its grief and grit in another year of war
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An elderly woman leaves her damaged home after a missile attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Jan. 23, 2025. | Photo: AP/Kateryna Klochko, File
2/26
Ukrainian servicemen of the 148th artillery brigade rest in a trench after firing towards Russian positions at the frontline's Velyka Novosilka direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Jan. 26, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
3/26
Ukrainian soldiers of the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion train not far from the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Jan. 29, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
4/26
Andrii Rubliuk, a senior sergeant with a Ukrainian intelligence unit who lost both arms and a leg in combat, holds a rifle during military training near Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 14, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
5/26
Servicemen carry a portrait of volunteer soldier Volodymyr Rakov, 30, a well known dancer and choreographer, who was killed during the Russia Ukraine war, during the farewell ceremony at St.Michael Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 2, 2025. | Photo: AP/Efrem Lukatsky, File
6/26
Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, March 21, 2025. | Photo: AP/Kateryna Klochko, File
7/26
Cadets greet each other at the Lanzheron beach in Odesa, Ukraine, March 26, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
8/26
Mothers cry over the coffins of their children Danylo Nikittskyi, 15, and Alina Kutsenko, 15, killed by a Russian missile, during a funeral ceremony in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, April 7, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
9/26
A dead body lies on the ground after a Russian missile strike in Sumy, Ukraine, April 13, 2025. | Photo: AP/Volodymyr Hordiienko, File
10/26
Funeral workers carry the coffin of Olena Kohut, an orchestra musician who was killed in a deadly Palm Sunday Russian attack on Sumy on April 13, during a farewell ceremony in Sumy, Ukraine, April 15, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
11/26
Police officers calm an injured dog while a dead body lies near a multi-story building damaged by a Russian strike on a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, April 22, 2025. | Photo: AP/Kateryna Klochko, File
12/26
Police officers help an injured woman leave her house, which was damaged by a Russian airstrike in a residential neighborhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 24, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
13/26
A woman hugs a soldier who came back from Russian captivity while people show photos of missing soldiers during an exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine, May 25, 2025. | Photo: AP/Efrem Lukatsky, File
14/26
A woman cries during a funeral ceremony for Tamara Martyniuk, 8, Stanislav Martyniuk, 12, and Roman Martyniuk, 17, killed in a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, May 28, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
15/26
Residents react after a Russian missile hit an apartment building during Russia's combined missile and drone air attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 17, 2025. | Photo: AP/Efrem Lukatsky, File
16/26
Red Cross volunteers evacuate an injured person from a multi-storey residential house destroyed by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 17, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
17/26
Young women dressed in traditional Ukrainian clothing dance in circle during a traditional midsummer celebration in Pyrohiv, Ukraine, outside of Kyiv, June 21, 2025. | Photo: AP/Efrem Lukatsky, File
18/26
Mourners say their last goodbyes to 12 Ukrainian soldiers who died in Russian captivity during a funeral ceremony in central Lviv, Ukraine, July 25, 2025. | Photo: AP/Mykola Tys, File
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Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike which destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, July 31, 2025. | Photo: AP/Yevhen Titov, File
20/26
Local people react after a residential building was destroyed by a Russian air strike in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, July 31, 2025. | Photo: AP/Yevhen Titov, File
21/26
Artem aka "Lisnyk", a Ukrainian soldier of the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion who was injured during fighting with Russian forces at the front line smokes a cigarette on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Aug. 10, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
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Cadets listen to their teacher as they sit in a bomb shelter on the first day at school at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sept. 1, 2025. | Photo: AP/Efrem Lukatsky, File
23/26
Mykhailo Maistruk, 67, walks downstairs during an evacuation from Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, Sept. 2, 2025. | Photo: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka, File
24/26
A Ukrainian serviceman with the Safari Unit of the Liut Brigade launches a reconnaissance drone at the frontline in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sept. 6, 2025. | Photo: AP/Vasilisa Stepanenko, File
25/26
Sofia Sisa, 17, does homework in an underground shelter during an air raid alarm in Shostka, Ukraine, Oct. 16, 2025. | Photo: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File
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A woman in costume attends a Halloween rave in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 25, 2025. | Photo: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File