Photoreports

Before you can train to become one of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, you have to survive “Selection.” It’s not a course. It’s not preparation. It’s a brutal test of endurance, resolve, and mental toughness—designed to break most and reveal the few who can operate where others can’t.

Help doesn’t always begin with a slogan. Sometimes, it starts with a quiet question: “How are you today?” At Gen.Camp, a therapeutic retreat for Ukrainian children affected by Russia’s war, the response is often silence—shoulders hunched, eyes lowered. From that silence, the healing begins.

Strapped in tight and flying low, Ukraine’s army aviators cut through smoke and rotor wash to deliver the full force of their firepower during their daring combat missions. These rare photos take you inside their world—on the ground and in the sky—and reveal why they keep doing their job.

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.

As dawn broke over Kyiv on June 17, the city awoke to the aftermath of Russia’s grueling overnight missile and drone strike that killed at least 15 people and injured over 100. This is what the city lived through, told in photos from the ground.

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.