Life in Ukraine

A group of men draped in blue and yellow flags steps off the bus into a crowd. “Welcome back! Thank you, guys!” echoes from all sides. Moments later, a woman runs in to embrace one of them. This is one of the places Ukraine’s former prisoners of war are brought after exchanges, with more defenders returning from Russian captivity on June 19.

The Vernadsky Research Base is Ukraine’s polar research station in Antarctica. But when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, even this icy frontier wasn’t untouched. Thirty-one polar scientists joined Ukraine’s Armed Forces. They’re now known, unofficially but proudly, as the Military Penguins. This is their story.

When a Russian drone hit Eddy Scott’s truck in a strike on a humanitarian mission near Pokrovsk, the volunteer lost his limbs. But instead of going home, the British sailor-turned-medic stayed in Ukraine, advocating for the war’s wounded and proving that its reintegration model doesn’t just rival the West, but can teach it.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian port workers have operated under constant threat. Every departing vessel carries the risk of being struck, and every container and grain truck moves under the wail of air raid sirens. And yet, grain continues to leave the ports of Odesa.

For many, it’s hard to imagine what life is like in a city under rocket fire. But for millions in Kyiv, it’s getting harder to imagine what life in a peaceful city used to feel like. Through the adaptation Russia’s war has forced on Kyiv, people have learned not just to endure but, at times, to live and even thrive under the hardest of circumstances.

When Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka Dam on June 6, 2022, thousands of people and dozens of towns were affected. The vast reservoir that once stretched across southern Ukraine turned into a graveyard—fish rotting in the sun, the air thick with decay. Two years later, a sprawling willow forest now rises where water once shimmered.