KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s war in Ukraine is set to reach the 500-day mark this weekend, a grim milestone for a conflict that rages with no end in sight.
While the fighting had fallen largely into a stalemate, Ukraine’s government and it’s Western supporters hope a broad counteroffensive launched last month will change the battle lines and return Russian-occupied areas to Ukrainian control.
In the meantime, the war continues to take a heavy toll on the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. And the stakes are only getting higher.
Ukrainian emergency employees and police officers evacuate injured pregnant woman Iryna Kalinina, 32, from a maternity hospital that was damaged by a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. “Kill me now!” she screamed, as they struggled to save her life at another hospital even closer to the front line. The baby was born dead and a half-hour later, Iryna died too. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A month ago, a major dam that Russia controls in southern Ukraine collapsed, flooding an entire region with a toxic torrent that left death and destruction in its wake as well as long-term environmental consequences.
Fears of a nuclear disaster have increased, particularly this week after Ukraine and Russia accused each other of planning to attack one of the world’s largest atomic power plants.
Long-range missiles fired by Russia to deplete Ukraine’s air defenses have killed dozens of civilians, including many who were killed and wounded while dining in a pizza restaurant in the east and 10 who died Thursday when their apartment building in the western city of Lviv was struck while they slept.
Volunteer military medics, code names Nikita and Polka, wearing national clothes, share a kiss during their wedding ceremony at their position on the frontline in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos)
An attempted mutiny by a Russian mercenary chief brought a taste of the war’s chaos to Moscow and exposed cracks in Russia’s military leadership, further raising the stakes.
Saturday marks 500 days since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Peace talks are a long way off as both sides look to improve their hand, with Ukraine’s forces trying to recapture as much territory as they can and Russia intent on holding illegally annexed regions.
This selection of photographs shows some of the most crucial moments of the war.
Bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/ Evgeniy Maloletka)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The body of a civilian lies on the ground during an exhumation in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Elena walks to the body of her dead husband Alexey, who died during shelling in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
The lifeless body of a man with his hands tied behind his back lies on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A woman walks amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/ Rodrigo Abd)
Local resident Tetiana holds her pets, Tsatsa and Chunya, as she stands inside her house that was flooded after the Kakhovka dam blew up overnight, in Kherson, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A dog stands next to the body of an elderly woman killed inside a house in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A Ukranian soldier eyes a soccer ball during a pick-up game in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Halyna Falko, 52, talks to reporters while looking at the destruction caused after a Russian attack inside her house near Brovary, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The body of a woman that died after a Russian attack at a residential area lies on a bed surrounded by debris in Uman, central Ukraine, Friday, April 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A family fleeing the village of Ruska Lozova arrive in their shrapnel-ridden car to a screening point in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Hospital staff take care of orphaned children at the children’s regional hospital maternity ward in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Yehor, 7, stands holding a wooden toy rifle next to destroyed Russian military vehicles near Chernihiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A sniper unit aims toward Russian positions during an operation, Kherson region, southern Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A man runs while recovering items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/ Felipe Dana)
A woman looks as Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) servicemen enter a building during an operation to arrest suspected Russian collaborators in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Young cadets sing the national anthem during a graduation ceremony in a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The bodies of 11 Russian soldiers lay in the village of Vilkhivka, recently retaken by Ukraininan forces near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Anton Gladun, 22, lies on his bed at the Third City Hospital, in Cherkasy, Ukraine, Thursday, May 5, 2022. Anton, a military medic deployed on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, lost both legs and the left arm due to a mine explosion on March 27. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Streets are flooded in Kherson, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 7, 2023 after the walls of the Kakhovka dam collapsed. (AP Photo/Libkos)
Funeral workers carry a coffin with an unidentified civilian body, who died on the territory of the Bucha community during the Russian occupation period in February-March 2022, during a funeral in Bucha, near Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Ukrainian soldiers cover their ears to protect from the Russian tank shelling in a shelter on the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Sunday, July 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos)
A Ukrainian paramedic helps an injured resident moments after a Russian strike in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
An injured Ukrainian soldier lies on a bed inside a special medical bus during an evacuation by volunteers from the Hospitallers paramedic organisation in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A cemetery is lit by the evening sunlight near Lviv, Ukraine, Sunday, July 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Residents stay in the city subway of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, May 19, 2022. Although the bombings in Kharkiv have decreased and the subway is expected to run beginning of next week, still some residents use it as a temporary bomb shelter. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Nila Zelinska holds a doll belonging to her granddaughter, she was able to find in her destroyed house in Potashnya outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. Zelinska just returned to her home town after escaping war to find out she is homeless. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Ukrainian soldiers fire an artillery at Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)
Relatives and friends attend the funeral ceremony for Liza, 4-year-old girl killed by Russian attack, in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, Sunday, July 17, 2022. Wearing a blue denim jacket with flowers, Liza was among 23 people killed, including two boys aged 7 and 8, in Thursday’s missile strike in Vinnytsia. Her mother, Iryna Dmytrieva, was among the scores injured. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Mourners gather next to the body of Vladyslav Bondarenko 26, during his funeral in Kozyntsi, near Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 6, 2023. Bondarenko, a paratrooper of airmobile brigade, died near Bakhmut on Feb 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Ukrainian military doctors treat their injured comrade who was evacuated from the battlefield at the hospital in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. The serviceman did not survive. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Smoke rises from a building in Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos)
A child looks up at a building destroyed during attacks in Irpin outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Women stand next to a car as smoke rises in the air in the background after shelling in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A young girl holds her dog while waving goodbye to her grandparents from an evacuation train departing Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, for a safer part of the country to the west. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A woman walks through anti- tank barricades placed on a street as preparation for a possible Russian offensive, in Odesa, on Thursday March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Ukrainian servicemen stand at a position close to the border with Belarus, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
A message written on a dirty and broken mirror reads “Ukraine will prevail” inside the badly damaged school No. 62, placed on the road where the first clashes between the Russian and Ukrainian forces took place a year ago, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The remains of victims and the fragments of a Russian military helicopter can be seen near Makariv, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Ukrainian serviceman walks along the road near Oskil village, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Ruslan Mishanin, 36, right, bids farewell to his nine year old daughter as the train with his family leaving for Poland, at the train station in Odesa, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A Ukrainian soldier reacts as he receives an injection during an evacuation of injured soldiers participating in the counteroffensive, in a region near the retaken village of Shchurove, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
An elderly patient boards a medical evacuation train run by MSF (Doctors Without Borders) at the train station in Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, May 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Cadets practice with gas masks during a lesson in a bomb shelter on the first day of school at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/ Efrem Lukatsky)
A car is parked under a tree in partially abandoned Chernobyl town, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A resident looks for belongings in an apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodyanka, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Lifeless bodies of men, some with their hands tied behind their backs, lie on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/ Vadim Ghirda)
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This article first appeared on APnews.com
Leave A Comment