The Second Year of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine in Photos

Russian forces are on the move again, attacking trenches and ruined towns under the hail of artillery shells, a full year after they swept across Ukraine’s borders en masse.

Many Russian troops were drafted only months ago and now fight alongside private military contractors and former convicts. They have bolstered an invasion that has left tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers dead even as Ukrainian forces have stymied it again and again through the first year of fighting.

After a scramble to defend itself last spring, Ukraine drove Russia from the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv. The summer brought vicious artillery fighting in the east, with Russia gaining ground only at a grievous toll. Then, in the fall, Ukraine struck back in two regions at once, clawing back land in its south and sweeping across thousands of miles in its northeast.

Now, after a winter of lengthy battles in the east, Ukraine is looking to counterattack with new weapons from international supporters.

For a year, photographers with The New York Times and other news organizations have chronicled the war, capturing a slice of how soldiers and civilians have experienced it. Our photographers say some images will never leave them.

This gallery contains graphic images.

A Ukrainian helicopter deploying countermeasure flares, after firing rockets during a combat mission in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers from the self-propelled artillery division of the 17th Tank Brigade firing toward a Russian infantry position near Bakhmut, on March 3, 2023.

Children from a family evacuated from Kramatorsk, Ukraine, eating a meal provided by an NGO, Save Ukraine, at a processing center in the city of Pokrovsk, before being relocated to the capital, Kyiv, on March 1, 2023.

Residents removing rubble from inside a school that was bombed by Russian forces overnight in Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, on March 6, 2023.

A Ukrainian soldier from the 79th Air Assault Brigade taking cover from incoming bombing in the contested area of Marinka in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 26, 2023. This position is less than less a quarter mile from Russians.

Viktor, 73, and Lyudmila, 67, giving their information at a processing center in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, after volunteers evacuated them from Chasiv Yar on March 1, 2023.

Ukrainian troops in a trench in eastern Ukraine, less than a quarter-mile from Russian fighters on Feb. 26, 2023.

Ukrainian soldiers on top of a tank heading toward the front line near Bakhmut on March 5, 2023.

Family members at the funeral of a Ukrainian soldier, Ihor Dyukarev, 24, who was killed in fighting in the Luhansk region, at the cemetery in Bucha, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2023.

Members of the ground crew from the 18th Sikorsky Army Aviation Brigade resupplying a combat helicopter with rockets before a mission in eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2023.

Volunteers helping residents of the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, near the city of Bakhmut, where Russia and Ukraine have fought since August, on March 1, 2023.

An apartment building destroyed by an artillery strike in Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, on March 5, 2023.

Members of the crew from the 18th Sikorsky Army Aviation Brigade preparing a combat helicopter before a combat mission in eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2023.