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Photos: The year in Ukraine, month by month

A resident wounded after a Russian attack lies inside an ambulance
A local resident wounded after a Russian attack lies inside an ambulance, waiting to be taken to a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine on November 24 [Bernat Armangue/AP Photo]
Published On 26 Dec 2022

Russia’s pre-dawn attack on February 24 shocked the world and confounded the near-universal expectation that Russian forces would quickly prevail.

Ukraine put up fierce resistance, and Russian troops were bogged down on the journey to the capital. Russia pulled back from the area around Kyiv in April, leaving blasted buildings, traumatised people and hundreds of corpses that Ukraine and its allies allege are evidence of war crimes.

Fighting also raged in Ukraine’s south and east, where Russia pushed outward from territory held by pro-Moscow forces since 2014. The port of Mariupol fell after a brutal three-month siege that reduced the city to ruins.

The war revived Cold War-era enmity between Russia and the West, pushing Sweden and Finland to seek NATO membership and prompting NATO nations to flood troops and weapons into eastern Europe.

As winter approached Ukraine’s military – bolstered by weapons, ammunition and training from the US and other allies – pushed Russian forces out of the southern city of Kherson, a morale-boosting victory amid a grinding war that has shown no signs of ending.

The war also sent global energy prices soaring as Moscow squeezed supplies to the West in retaliation for sanctions on Russia and support for Ukraine. Italy, Germany and other countries that relied on Russian oil and natural gas scrambled for alternative energy supplies. With millions of people suddenly struggling to pay their energy bills, governments came under intense pressure to step in with help.

Ukraine and Russia are key global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and – in Russia’s case – fertiliser, and the war also drove up food prices and raised fears of global shortages. A UN-brokered deal to allow grain ships to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports was struck in July.

In recent months, Russia has been targeting energy infrastructure, aiming to cut electricity and heating to Ukrainians, as the freezing winter advances. And although the Ukrainian government is trying to move as fast as it can, it has been practically impossible to restore power for every single person in the country, including the more than three million residents of the capital.

“We … are preparing for the worst winter of our lives,” Kyiv resident Anastasia Pyrozhenko said on November 20.

As winter approached, Russia launched missile attacks aimed at Ukraine’s infrastructure, temporarily cutting power to swaths of the country and leaving millions facing a freezing, dark winter.

A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea
January 18: A convoy of Russian armoured vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea. Tens of thousands of Russian troops were positioned near Ukraine as the Kremlin kept the US and its allies guessing about its next moves in the early weeks of the year. [File: AP Photo]
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Ukrainian reservists attend a military exercise
Ukrainian reservists attend a military exercise at a training ground near Kyiv on January 29. Increasing tensions with Russia and increased internal tensions in the east of the country pushed many Ukrainians to sign up with territorial defence units. [File: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE]
A damaged Ukrainian military facility in the aftermath of Russian shelling outside Mariupol
A damaged Ukrainian military facility smoulders in the aftermath of Russian shelling outside Mariupol on February 24, after Russia launched a barrage of air and missile strikes throughout Ukraine. [File: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
A soldier's lifeless body lies next to a burnt Russian APC
A soldier's lifeless body lies next to a burned Russian APC on February 25, after the Ukrainian army had attacked it the previous day near the city of Kharkiv. The Russian assault began to stall as Ukrainian defenders targeted supply vehicles with Javelin missiles. [File: Sergey Kozlov/EPA-EFE]
People fleeing Russia's military operation
People fleeing Russia's invasion walk towards the Shehyni border crossing into Poland on February 27, past cars waiting in line to cross the border. By early March, the number of refugees would surpass two million, a number that would rapidly continue to grow. [File: Thomas Peter/Reuters]
View of the site of a bombing at a shopping center
The site of a bombing at a Kyiv shopping centre is pictured on March 21 as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Over the month of March, Russia made advances into the southern region of Kherson while a massive, Russian armoured column moved in on Kyiv's northwestern outskirts. [File: Marko Djurica/Reuters]
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Soldiers walk past a destroyed Russian tank
Ukrainian soldiers walk past a destroyed Russian tank and armoured vehicles on April 2, as Ukrainian forces take back cities, such as Bucha, in the Kyiv region. [File: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]
Service members of Ukrainian forces who have surrendered
Ukrainian forces who surrendered after weeks of being holed up at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol are seen inside a bus, which arrived under the escort of pro-Russian forces at a detention facility in the Donetsk region on May 17. [File: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters]
Ukrainian service members install a national flag on Snake (Zmiinyi) Island
Ukrainian service members are seen raising a national flag on Snake [Zmiinyi] Island, as Ukrainian forces regained control of more than 1,000 villages by late June. [Handout/Press Service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces via Reuters]
A Russian soldier stands guard atop a military truck as foreign journalists observe farmers at the Voznesenka-Agro farm harvesting grain in a field near Melitopol in southern Ukraine on July 14, a week prior to Ukraine and Russia signing a UN-brokered grain export deal, allowing the harvest to be transported via the Black Sea. [File: AP Photo]
Ukrainian servicemen fire to Russian positions
Ukrainian servicemen are shown firing into Russian positions from an anti-aircraft gun in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on August 24, as part of a larger counter-offensive that saw large Ukrainian gains throughout the region. [Andrii Marienko/AP Photo]
Ukrainian servicemen drive atop a tank in Izyum
Ukrainian servicemen drive atop a tank on September 14 in the recently retaken area of Izyum, Ukraine, which had recently been an important logistics hub for Russian military operations. [File: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
A firefighter looks at a part of a wall falling
A firefighter looks at part of a wall falling from a residential building that was heavily damaged after a Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia on October 9. [File Leo Correa/AP Photo[
Elderly women, one wearing a red headscarf and using a walking stick while holding bag, being helped to come off ferry
Civilians evacuated from the Russian-controlled city of Kherson walk from a ferry to board a bus heading to Crimea on October 23, in the town of Oleshky. As Russian losses mounted, and Ukrainian forces regained more territory, Russian forces prepared to abandon the city of Kherson. [File: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters]
A view shows the city centre without electricity.
A view shows the city centre without electricity on November 15 after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks in Lviv. More and more civilian infrastructure has been targeted as the war moves into winter. [File: Vladyslav Musiienko/Reuters]
Residents gathering at an aid distribution poin
Supplies are delivered in downtown Kherson, southern Ukraine, on November 18, after Ukrainian forces retook the city and Russian forces retreated into a defensive posture. [File: Bernat Armangue/AP Photo]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky poses for photo with soldiers
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for photos with soldiers at the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian invaders in Bakhmut, Ukraine, in late December. [Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP]
A woman crosses the street during snowfall
A woman crosses the street during a December 16 snowfall, as power outages continue in Kyiv. Authorities reported explosions in at least three cities, saying Russia had launched a major missile attack on energy facilities and infrastructure as the cold winter was setting in. [Felipe Dana/AP Photo]