The region that now encompasses the nation of Ukraine has known wars and uprisings for more than a millennium. Over the centuries, it has been variously ruled by the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires, among other powers, and it was part of the Soviet Union from 1922 until it gained independence in 1991, when the USSR fell apart.
Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin, clearly believes that it should still belong to his country, and in 2014, he forcibly annexed the portion of Ukraine called Crimea, and he backed separatist rebels of the two republics in the Donbas region. On Feb. 21, Russia recognized the two republics as independent states. (Russia is high on the list of the countries with the largest militaries.)
All that was prelude to a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, beginning on Feb. 24 of this year. Since that time, the world has read daily stories about the conflict – the first major land war in Europe since World War II.
As the war waged, we have learned that the formidable Russian army is less competent than was believed, and that the Russians, frustrated by their lack of battlefield success, have taken to attacking civilian targets in many cities. We also learned that the Ukrainian people, civilians as well as armed forces, are willing and able to fight long and hard to protect their country and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former television comedian, has evolved into a strong and determined leader.
Meanwhile, an estimated 4 million people have fled Ukraine to escape the war – the majority of them going to neighboring Poland – and another 6.5 million have left their homes within the country. (These are the countries where the most Ukrainian refugees are going.)
All of this has been well documented by photographers, Ukrainian and otherwise, working for major news organizations, photo bureaus, and nongovernmental organizations, as well as independently. 24/7 Wall St. has reviewed the latest photographs cataloged by Getty Images to assemble this group of images – some horrific, some depressing, some heartwarming – from approximately the past seven days, showing the effects of the war.
Click here to see images from the Ukraine war this week
Source: Joe Raedle / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Three soldiers mourned in Lviv
Three Ukrainian servicemen, killed in separate incidents, await burial in flag-draped coffins.
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Source: Joe Raedle / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Refugees from Central Ukraine
Families fleeing Dnipro in central Ukraine arrive at the train station in Lviv. A poster for the region’s largest strip club forms an ironic backdrop.
Source: Joe Raedle / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Fleeing Mariupol
Alena Pisarenko and her dog, Reisi, arrive in Lviv from the besieged city of Mariupol. Her mother says they are trying to get to Paris, where a relative lives.
Source: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Helmets from Great Britain
Soldiers from the Royal Anglian Regiment sort and pack surplus ballistic helmets to be shipped to soldiers and emergency workers in Ukraine.
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Source: Chris McGrath / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Houses destroyed
Residents clear debris from destroyed houses in Boromlya, a town recently recaptured from the Russians.
Source: Anastasia Vlasova / Getty Images News via Getty Images
A Czech hedgehog
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard at a checkpoint on Independence Square in Kyiv with a “Czech hedgehog,” a simple device of metal bars that stops tanks in their tracks.
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Source: Anastasia Vlasova / Getty Images News via Getty Images
A new life in Kyiv
Anna and Lhor Lull look at their infant daughter, Zoryana, just born in a maternity hospital bomb shelter near Kyiv.
Source: Chris McGrath / Getty Images News via Getty Images
City on fire
Firefighters in Kharkiv wait outside a warehouse set ablaze by Russian artillery.
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Source: Anastasia Vlasova / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Last stop
This city tram in Kyiv was destroyed by a Russian rocket strike.
Source: Zuzana Gogova / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Feeding the fleeing
Volunteers prepare meals for refugees at a train station in Uzhhorod, near Ukraine’s border with Slovakia.
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Source: Chris McGrath / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Out of commission
A Russian tank that has been destroyed by Ukrainian forces in Trostyanets, a northeastern town recently taken back from Russian troops.
Source: Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Safe in Poland
A young Ukrainian sits outside at a temporary shelter in Przemysl, Poland – a country that now shelters more than 2.3 million Ukrainian refugees.
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Source: Anastasia Vlasova / Getty Images News via Getty Images
A kindergarten destroyed
Happily, all the children were evacuated long before a Russian rocket hit this kindergarten in Byshiv.
Source: Chris McGrath / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Protected by sandbags
Volunteers heaped sandbags around this monument to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in Kharkiv to protect it from Russian bombs and rockets.
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Source: Chris McGrath / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Heil Putin!
A Russian-style cemetery portrait of Vladimir Putin, giving him a Hitler mustache and claiming 2022 as the year of his death, is propped against a tire barricade at a Ukrainian army checkpoint in Zaporizhzhia.
Source: Joe Raedle / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Love in a time of war
A Ukrainian soldier greets his girlfriend at the Lviv train station on a brief leave from fighting in the Luhansk region.
Source: Anastasia Vlasova / Getty Images News via Getty Images
Between battles
Ukrainian soldiers take a break in Stoyanka, west of Kyiv.
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Source: Andreea Campeanu / Getty Images News via Getty Images
A home in Romania
A family that fled Ukraine finds refuge at a monastery in Ruscova, Romania, a town with a large population of ethnic Ukrainians.
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