TIME World Ukraine

‘We Will Defend Ourselves.’ Photographs of Ukraine Under Attack

A woman stands in a street as black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev on Feb. 24.
Aris Messinis—AFP/Getty Images A woman stands in a street as black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuhuiv on Feb. 24.

After months of escalating tensions, Russia launched a broad military attack on neighboring Ukraine in the early hours of Feb. 24. In a televised speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had ordered a “special military operation” to defend ethnic Russians in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The areas in eastern Ukraine are controlled by Moscow-backed separatists and were recognized Feb. 21 by Moscow as independent republics, a move which the EU denounced as a violation of international law. Ukrainian leadership has said at least 40 people have already been killed in what it called a “full-scale invasion” by Russian forces.

While Putin said the aim of the assault was to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine and to demilitarize (rather than occupy) Ukraine, the U.S. says Russia’s moves are intended to create a pretext for a wider invasion. Russian troops had been amassing at the Ukrainian borders for months.

Read More: Putin Wants Revenge Not Just on Ukraine But on the U.S. and Its Allies

Large explosions were reportedly heard Feb. 24 in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the northeastern city of Kharkiv, and other areas. Regional authorities in Odessa, a southern port city and key Ukrainian navy base, said that 18 people were killed in a missile attack.

“The people of Ukraine and the government of Ukraine want peace,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, in Russian, in a direct appeal to Russia’s citizens. “But if we come under attack, if we face an attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives and the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs.”

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Zelensky declared martial law early Feb. 24 and urged Ukrainians to stay at home and to remain calm. The Ukrainian leader said that he had asked for a call with Putin late Wednesday before the invasion, but that the Kremlin did not respond. Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have attempted to flee major cities, including Kyiv, while others have taken shelter in subway stations or makeshift bunkers.

Read More: Here’s What We Know So Far About Russia’s Assault on Ukraine

World leaders quickly condemned Moscow’s actions, which U.S. President Joe Biden called “unprovoked and unjustified.” Following the invasion, the E.U. announced a raft of sanctions against Russia “designed to take a heavy toll on the Kremlin’s interests and their ability to finance war.”

Although Ukraine has existed for over three decades as an independent nation-state, in Putin’s eyes the former Soviet state is an integral part of Russia’s “own history, culture, spiritual space.” In an attempt to rewrite history, the Russian leader said Feb. 21 that Ukraine never had “real statehood.” Ukraine had expressed a desire to join the military alliance NATO, a suggestion which Moscow condemned.

Here’s a roundup of the most powerful images which tell the story of the first days of Russia’s invasion.

March 9

Dead bodies are put into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol on March 9 as people cannot bury their dead because of the heavy shelling by Russian forces. As Ukrainians Flee West, Many Soldiers Head East To The Frontline A monument of the city founder Duke de Richelieu is seen covered with sand bags for protection, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in central Odessa on March 9. Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from a damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 9. A Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces member hugs a resident who leaves his home town following Russian artillery shelling in Irpin on March 9. Ukrainian soldiers and emergency employees work at the site of the damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 9. A Russian attack severely damaged the maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol.

March 8

A member of the Honour Guard holds a portrait of the member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valerii, who was killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, during a funeral ceremony in Kyiv on March 8. Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at a storage area holding chemicals which was shelled, on the outskirts of Brovary on March 8. Funeral For Ukrainian Soldiers Killed In War An elderly woman is coated in snow as she sits in a wheelchair after being evacuated from Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv on March 8. UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT

March 7

The body of a civilian, whose cause of death was not confirmed, is seen on a destroyed bridge used to evacuate residents from Irpin after Russian forces entered the city on March 7. Four civilians were killed on March 6 by mortar fire along the road leading from Irpin to Kyiv, which has been a key evacuation route for people fleeing Russian forces advancing from the north. Women and children, many of them from the besieged city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, shelter in a waiting hall at the train station in Lviv on March 7. Ukrainian soldiers and militiamen carry a woman in a wheelchair as the artillery echoes nearby, while people flee Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv on March 7. Civilian Evacuations Continue In Irpin The Day After Deadly Shelling

March 6

Mourners attend the funeral for Senior Sgt. Yevhen Verveyko of the Ukrainian National Army, who was killed while fighting Russian forces, in Yavoriv on March 6. A factory and a store burning after being bombarded in Irpin, in the outskirts of Kyiv, on March 6. Civilians get their documents checked by soldiers as they evacuate Irpin on March 6. The bodies of people killed by Russian shelling lay covered in the street in the town of Irpin on March 6.

March 5

Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee, crossing the Irpin river in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine A sick woman in a semi-conscious state is carried by Ukrainian soldiers as they cross the Irpin river while fleeing the city in the outskirts of Kyiv on March 5. Ukraine

March 4

People remove personal belongings from a burning house after being shelled in the city of Irpin on March 4. A man stands in front of a residential building damaged in a shelling in the city of Chernihiv on March 4. Marina Yatsko and her boyfriend Fedor comfort each other after her 18-month-old son was killed at a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine on March 4 A machine-gunned bus is photographed after an ambush in the city of Kyiv on March 4. Civilians, mostly women and children rush to board any train car that still has any room on it, as the sounds of battle gunfire and bombing fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces draw closer to the city of Irpin on March 4.

March 3

Ukrainians preparing to spend the night in an improvised refugee shelter outside the city of Przemysl, Poland, on March 3. A Ukrainian military member walks to collect water and other goods from an abandoned supermarket to distribute to local residents, in Irpin city, Kyiv on March 3.

March 2

Russia Ukraine War Day In Photos

March 1

A damaged administrative building in the aftermath of a Russian shelling in downtown Kharkiv on March 1. APTOPIX Russia Ukraine War Aftermath of shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine - 01 Mar 2022 Soldiers help a couple and their infant child cross a broken bridge over the Irpin river that was destroyed to stop the advancing of Russian tanks as they flee their city of Irpin, on March 1. Medical workers show a newborn baby to a woman who gave birth in a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward in Mariupol on March 1.

Feb. 28

Feb. 27

Feb. 26

A view of a high-rise apartment block which was hit by recent shelling in Kyiv on Feb. 26. People wait for a train to Poland at the railway station of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Feb. 26. Ukrainian servicemen walk by a damaged vehicle, at the site of a fight with Russian troops, in Kyiv on Feb. 26, 2022. UKRAINE RUSSIA CRISIS

Feb. 25

Servicemen of the Ukrainian National Guard take positions in central Kyiv Russia Starts Large-Scale Attack On Ukraine The body of a Russian soldier lies near destroyed Russian vehicles the day after fighting with Ukrainian soldiers on a highway outside Kharkiv, on Feb. 25. Rescuers walk towards a rocket case stuck on the driveway following recent shelling in Kharkiv APTOPIX Ukraine Invasion Ukrainian military volunteers receive weapons at a weapons storage facility in Fastiv, on Feb. 25. APTOPIX Ukraine Invasion

Feb. 24

The body of a rocket stuck in the ceiling of a flat after a Russian air strike on the northern outskirts of Kharkiv on Feb. 24, 2022. Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on Feb. 24, 2022. Airstrikes hit Chuhuiv, Ukraine A man uses a carpet to cover a body on the ground after bombings on the eastern Ukraine town of Chuguiv on Feb. 24. Russia's ground forces today crossed into Ukraine from several directions, Ukraine's border guard service said, hours after President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a major offensive. Inhabitants of Kyiv leave the city following pre-offensive missile strikes of the Russian armed forces and Belarus in Kyiv on Feb. 24. Hundreds of people seek shelter underground inside the dark train cars of a metro station in Kharkiv, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues on Feb. 24 Ukrainian firefighters arrive to rescue civilians after an airstrike hit an apartment complex in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv Oblast on Feb. 24. APTOPIX Ukraine Tensions Ukrainian servicemen get ready to repel an attack in Ukraine's Lugansk region on Feb. 24. A wounded woman stands outside a hospital after a bombing in Chuguiv in eastern Ukraine, by Russian forces, on Feb. 24. Smoke rises from an air defense base in the aftermath of a Russian strike in Mariupol, Ukraine on Feb. 24. Ukraine Tensions Photo Gallery A person puts gasoline into their vehicle in Kramatorsk, located in Donetsk oblast, Donbass region, on Feb. 24. The Ukrainian population is moving to safer places after several explosions in different cities. A woman and child look out of the window of a bus as they leave Sievierodonetsk, the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 24.
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