Photoreports

Kharkiv, a city where almost every aspect of ordinary life has had to adapt to war, has not forgotten that it is, first and foremost, a cultural hub. Have you ever raved alongside soldiers between rotations? In Kharkiv, you can.

For over 20 years, Oleksii Yukov went where few others would, searching battlefields for the missing and bringing the fallen back to their families. Today, Ukraine gathered in Kyiv to say goodbye.

More than a thousand people gathered in Kyiv’s Ivan Franko Square on July 16 to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine’s Defense Minister.

“What’s the name of those creatures in Harry Potter that Luna Lovegood says only appear to you after you’ve seen death? Well, whatever they are, we’re all gonna be seeing them now forever.”

“Through our work, we want every single living member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to know firstly, no matter who you are or how you were killed, we will get you home. And secondly, we want every enemy soldier to know: we will find you, and we will make you pay for every single body you see here strewn across the ground. There is no escape, and there will be no mercy.”

To become a Special Forces Operator in Ukraine, you first have to survive selection: six days and six nights of crawling, marching, exhaustion, and pain. I joined the process—twice—to look behind the curtain of one of the country's most secretive military units. I didn't pass (big surprise), but I came away with a deeper understanding of the people fighting in Russia's war against Ukraine.

The first thing that stood out in Druzhkivka—a frontline city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region—was not the destruction. It was the people. Despite near-daily Russian drone attacks, FAB bomb strikes, and artillery fire, thousands of civilians still remain in this frontline city, trying to survive another day under constant threat.

In Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, civilians live beneath constant Russian drone attacks while trying to maintain ordinary life—whether it is going to the store or tending to their flowers.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, women in Ukraine have continued to give birth, raise children, and find beauty in the midst of war. We spoke to five of them, here are their stories:

Forty years after the explosion at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the zone is defined by the silence that remains after. Streets disappear into the forest, homes crumble into dust, and nature quietly takes back what was left behind. This is Chornobyl today.

A photoreport featuring five Russian POWs captured near Kupiansk shows how their condition and testimony reflect the system sustaining Russia’s war.

Long strips of white netting now cover nearly every road leading into Izium in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Thrown up in anticipation rather than as a reaction, Ukraine is preparing for Russia’s FPV drones, which are reaching deeper into territory once considered relatively safe behind the front.

Elite Ukrainian Special Operations soldiers gather in secret ceremonies during wartime to strengthen unity among troops fighting near and behind Russian lines.