War in Ukraine, one year later: the six striking photos of the conflict

His face alone bears witness to the violence of the Russian army, which is about to overwhelm his country. Olena Kourilo, 52, already has marked features, traces of blood near her long blond hair and two white bandages across her right cheek. This Thursday, February 24, she is one of the first victims of the Russian army, which bombs the suburbs of kyiv where she resides, but also the whole of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin launched his murderous offensive in the early morning and Europe is waking up in blood, with the face of Olena Kourilo as a symbol of the massacre to come.

Prior to the start of this invasion, Moscow had been massing tens of thousands of troops along its border with Ukraine for months. Russia hopes to take kyiv in three days and overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian capital will hold, but Russian missiles kill thousands of civilians. They are millions to take the road of exile, towards very close Europe. Only men between the ages of 18 and 65 are prohibited from leaving Ukraine and must fight against the invader. Europe opens its arms and organizes the reception of women and children. They are four million, even today, to benefit from the mechanism of temporary protection.

After the debacle of the first days of war, the Ukrainian army resists, and ends up repelling the Russian troops by several tens of kilometers. In the liberated zones, we discover life under Russian occupation, symbolized by a martyr village, one among many others: Boutcha. In the streets of this small town, dozens of corpses of civilians lie on the ground. Some have their hands tied behind their backs, others are on the ground in the saddle of their bikes. The survivors bear witness to the rapes and arbitrary executions committed by the Russians. The world discovers the extent of the war crimes of Putin’s army.

After liberating the North in the spring, the Ukrainian army led decisive advances in the rest of the country at the end of the summer, aided by massive deliveries of Western weapons. The Russians leave Kherson, the big city of the South, in November, after eight months of occupation. Three weeks earlier, Vladimir Putin had nevertheless celebrated the annexation of this oblast by Russia, at the same time as those of Zaporijia, Lugansk and Donetsk. For the Kremlin, the humiliation is immense; for kyiv, the major victory.

Winter sees the Ukrainian front freeze: advances are made village by village in the Donbass, then meter by meter. Paralyzed in trench fighting, the Russian army bombs civilian installations to make life impossible for the Ukrainians, to undermine their morale. In addition to Iranian suicide drones, the Russians are also hitting homes with their missile strikes. In Dnipro, in the East, on January 14, one of them destroyed a building and mowed down more than 45 civilians. Russia imposes its terror on a daily basis.

After months of relative balance on the front, Ukraine fears a new major Russian offensive as the first anniversary of the invasion approaches. If the West agreed, at the beginning of the year, to deliver heavy tanks to kyiv, they will not be operational for several months. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense estimates that more than 300,000 Russian soldiers are massed on the eastern front, where the Kremlin hopes to fulfill its minimum war objective: to control all of Donbass. A new page of the war risks turning. Undoubtedly far from being the last.

Analyzes, decryptions and interviews… Since the start of the conflict, L’Express has devoted more than 1,500 articles to the war in Ukraine, including a special issue, “We, the Ukrainians” released on August 24, with the first interview exclusive in a French media of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In its issue “Ukraine must win” published on February 16, L’Express also tells you, through exceptional testimonies, of a year of war and a shock for Ukraine, for Europe and for our democracies.