There had been war in Europe for 300 days.
While Russia continues to bomb, Ukraine holds the border to the east.
Here are the images that shook the world and Sweden since Putin’s invasion on February 24.
FEBRUARY 24. Teacher Olena Kurilo survived the bombs that fell on the Kharkiv region. February 24 was the first day of the war, and Olena gave the war a face.
FEBRUARY 24. Teacher Olena Kurilo survived the bombs that fell on the Kharkiv region. February 24 was the first day of the war, and Olena gave the war a face.
Demonstrators protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm
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1 of 2 Photo: PONTUS ORRE
On the same day that the war breaks out, a demonstration is organized outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm.
“Stop the war” and “Putin out of Ukraine” were chanted outside the Russian embassy. As the crowd begins to sing the Ukrainian national anthem, many break down in tears.
“They said we are siblings, but siblings don’t do this,” said ambulance driver Julia Alramla, 32, who has family in Ternopil.
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FEBRUARY 25. A man passes a bombed building in Kyiv.
1 of 2 Photo: AP
March Photo: PAVEL DOROGOY/AP
MARCH 1. Films and images are spread of the city hall in Kharkiv being bombed. Zelensky calls it a war crime.
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MARCH 2. The refugee flows grow as the war intensifies. Here, soldiers help an elderly woman get past a bridge in Kyiv that has been destroyed by shell fire.
1 of 2 Photo: AP TT NEWS AGENCY
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MARCH 5TH. The train station in Lviv is filled with people who want to leave the country.
1 of 2 Photo: KRISTER HANSON
MARCH 9. “Kill me now.” On March 14, a maternity clinic in Mariopol is bombed.
Images of a pregnant woman on a stretcher shake the world. When she realized that the child would not survive, she said she told the medical staff that she did not want to live anymore, according to the AP. Neither the woman nor her child survived the attack.
MARCH 9. Ukrainian blogger Mariana Vishegirskaya gave birth to her daughter Veronika the day after the bombings.
The Russian ambassador in London claimed the attack was “fake news”, something that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and several other world leaders fought back against.
21 MARCH. Ivan was terrified when his son left to fight on the front line. Three days into the war, the news he feared the most came: 39-year-old Yuri is being sent home to his family in a coffin. Read more about Ivan and Yuri here. Photo: NORA SAVOSNICKApril
2 APRIL. When the Ukrainians manage to retake the town of Butja outside Kyiv after a month of Russian occupation, they are met by a massacre.
Some bodies have been lying on the street for days, maybe weeks. Several have fallen from bicycles or been found dead in cars. Some still hold bags of groceries in their hands.
May
May 1. When this picture was taken, Viktor, 21, belonged to the National Guard. Valeria worked as an emergency nurse in a care department.
They are seen when they get the chance, this time on the small bridge along the square. They only have eyes for each other. May 1, 2022.
Read about their story here.
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1 of 2 Photo: Azov Special Forces Regiment via AP
12 MAY. The Battle of Mariupol takes place in the Azovstal steelworks. Around 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers remained in the tunnel system – and lived in miserable conditions.
The Azov Regiment was formed when the war in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014. Among the founders were several prominent right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis, their soldiers have been repeatedly accused of war crimes by, among others, Amnesty.
June Photo: EFREM LUKATSKY/AP
JUNE 28. When a shopping mall in Kremenchuk is bombed, rumors spread on Telegram and on Russian television that the attack was fake. Top diplomat Dmitry Polyanskiy, who is Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, described the attack as a “new Ukrainian Butja-style provocation”.
The claim was shot down by many, including the BBC fact-checking team.
July 4 JULY. A school in Kharkiv is attacked. The Ukrainian military claims that the Russians are trying to push back further into eastern Ukraine. Photo: EVGENIY MALOLETKA/AP JULY 7. 66-year-old Volodymyr sits injured on a chair in his apartment in Kramatorsk, after an attack on the building. Photo: NARIMAN EL-MOFTY/AP AugustiAUG 11 Photo: EFREM LUKATSKY/AP
AUGUST 11. “We pray for the souls of those who were unjustly murdered.”
Four months after the mass graves in Butja were discovered, eleven unidentified bodies are buried.
458 people were found dead in Butja after the Russian occupation. About 50 of them were still unidentified when the photo was taken.
September Photo: EVGENIY MALOLETKA/AP
SEPTEMBER 16. When the Ukrainians retake the area of Izium in Ukraine, a new mass grave is discovered. It was not clear at the time who were dead or how they died, but several of the bodies bore traces of torture, according to the region’s governor.
The Kremlin has hit back at the accusations, calling them lies.
October
1 of 3 Photo: AP
November
1 of 3 Photo: ANDREW KRAVCHENKO/AP
Photo: BERNAT ARMANGUE/AP
23 NOVEMBER. About two weeks after Ukrainian troops liberated Kherson, a group of children play at an abandoned checkpoint. At the same time, Russian attacks hit Ukrainian infrastructure, causing blackouts throughout Ukraine.
20TH OF NOVEMBER. Reports from the trenches in Donetsk are similar to the images we know from the First World War. Photo: AP/LIBKOS December
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DECEMBER 3. In Kharkiv, the police have collected Russian rockets that hit the city.
1 of 2 Photo: AP/LIBKOS