Twenty-eight snapshots that capture Russia’s destructive war against Ukraine
Today, March 24, 2022, marks one month since Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to undertake a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These four weeks have changed the country beyond recognition: Ukrainian cities — from Kharkiv to Volnovakha, and Mariupol to Kherson — have suffered widespread damage and destruction from bombardments; more than 3.6 million people have been forced to flee abroad as refugees. The United Nations has recorded at least 2,685 civilian casualties, including 1,035 killed and 1,650 injured. The real toll is much higher — thousands have reportedly died in besieged Mariupol alone. The actual number of military casualties, both Russian and Ukrainian, also remains unknown as yet. To bear witness to this catastrophic month, Meduza shares one photo from each day of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Warning: Some of the images below contain scenes of violence and death that readers may find disturbing.
Chris McGrath / Getty Images A rare light in the windows of apartment buildings in Kyiv. According to the UN, roughly 370,000 refugees had fled Ukraine from February 24–28.
Emilio Morenatti / AP / Scanpix / LETA Sunset in Kyiv, seen through an apartment window that had been taped to avoid shattering in case of an explosion.
Pavel Dorogoy / AP / Scanpix / LETA Bodies of victims of the shelling of Freedom Square in Kharkiv. “A missile in Kharkiv’s central square – naked, undisguised terror,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the attack.
Nikolay Doychinov / AFP / Scanpix / LETA A girl inside a bus that had crossed the checkpoint on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. The bus was carrying refugees to Chisinau.
Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / Scanpix / LETA Ukrainian rescue workers carry a wounded pregnant woman out of a maternity hospitals that came under shelling in Mariupol. The woman’s child did not survive and she died on March 14.
Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / Scanpix / LETA A woman with a child cries in the corridor of a hospital in Mariupol. Her second child died during the shelling of the city.
Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA A man wounded during a missile strike on the Yaroviv military base, 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) from the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Pavel Dorogoy Rescuers remove a body from the rubble of the Kharkiv Regional Administration building. According to Ukrainian media reports, Russian troops launched more than 50 air strikes on different Kharkiv neighborhoods on March 16.
Thomas Peter / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA A man mourns next to the body of his mother, who was killed as the result of rocket fragments hitting a residential building.
Dmytro Smolyenko / Укринформ / SIPA / Scanpix / LETA Medical staff at a children’s hospital in Zaporizhzhia treat patients seriously injured during shelling. The hospital’s windows are blocked with sandbags.
Maxar Technologies / AP / Scanpix / LETA A satellite image shows the aftermath of an airstrike on a drama theater in Mariupol, where civilians were sheltering in the basement. The word “children” is written on the ground outside of the theater in Russian script.
Felipe Dana / AP / Scanpix / LETA Firefighters try to put out the flames that engulfed Retroville mall in Kyiv’s Podilsky district. The Russian Defense Ministry acknowleged that the shopping center war struck by Russian troops.
