A Ukrainian serviceman, seen through a camouflage mesh, stands at a frontline position in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A Ukrainian serviceman walks in a trench at a frontline position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 31, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A Ukrainian serviceman speaks, backdropped by a bullet riddled effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a media interview at a frontline position in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Ukrainian serviceman Ivan Skuratovskyi patrols the ruins of an industrial area, now a frontline position outside Avdiivka, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A young woman handles a weapon during a basic combat training for civilians, organized by the Special Forces Unit Azov, of Ukraine’s National Guard, in Mariupol, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A Ukrainian serviceman walks by a building which was hit by a large caliber mortar shell in the frontline village of Krymske, Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A woman and child peer out of the window of a bus as they leave Sievierodonetsk, the Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
The body of a serviceman is coated in snow next to a destroyed Russian military multiple rocket launcher vehicle on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A man carries a baby as people struggle on stairways after a last minute change of the departure platform for a Lviv bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A woman cries in the small basement of a house crowded with people seeking shelter from Russian airstrikes and shelling in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A woman bid a man good bye after boarding a Lviv bound train, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 3, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
An elderly lady gets assisted while crossing the Irpin river, under a bridge that was destroyed, as civilians flee the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
An elderly lady sits in a wheelchair after being evacuated from Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 8, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Antonina, 84, sits in a wheelchair after being evacuated along with her twelve dogs from Irpin, at a triage point in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Firefighters climb a ladder while working to extinguish a blaze in a destroyed apartment building after a bombing in a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Firefighters carry the dead body of an elderly woman after a bombing in a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Bogdana, 17, rubs noses with her boyfriend Ivan, 19, in Brovary, Ukraine, Sunday, March 20, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
The statue of Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri is almost covered with sandbags to protect it from potential damage from shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine,Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A man carries shopping bags as heavy smoke from a warehouse destroyed by Russian bombardment casts shadows on the road outside Kyiv, Ukraine,Thursday, March 24, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
An injured woman evacuated from Irpin lies on a stretcher in an ambulance on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A Ukrainian serviceman stands in a heavily damaged building in Stoyanka, Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A Ukrainian serviceman tries to avoid being bitten by an ostrich at a heavily damaged private zoo as soldiers and volunteers attempted to evacuate the surviving animals to safety in the village of Yasnohorodka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 30, 2022. The evacuation was halted before completion as shelling resumed between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the area.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A Ukrainian serviceman takes a selfie standing on a destroyed Russian tank after Ukrainian forces overran a Russian position outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 31, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Flowers are placed on a Ukrainian military armored fighting vehicle destroyed during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 1, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Civilians cheer along with a Ukrainian serviceman as a convoy of military and aid vehicles arrives in the formerly Russian-occupied Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A man and child ride on a bicycle as bodies of civilians lie in the street in the formerly Russian-occupied Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A Ukrainian serviceman walks by the Antonov An-225 Mriya aircraft destroyed during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces on the Antonov airport in Hostomel, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A dead body of a man with his hands tied behind his back lies on the pavement in Bucha, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
The bodies of village mayor Olga Sukhenko, her husband and son and that of a man believed to be a Ukrainian serviceman, who was not yet identified, lie in pit in the village of Motyzhyn, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A resident looks for belongings in an apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodyanka, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Motria Oleksiienko, 99, traumatized by the Russian occupation, is comforted by Tetiana Oleksiienko in a room without heating in the village of Andriivka, Ukraine, heavily affected by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. Several buildings in the village were reduced to mounds of bricks and corrugated metal and residents struggle without heat, electricity or cooking gas.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A dead body lies by the swimming pool of a home for the elderly in Bucha, Ukraine, Thursday, April 7, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An elderly woman draped in snow. A child peering out a train window into the unknown. A pair of hands bound. From Jan. 25 to April 8, AP photographer Vadim Ghirda took some of the most recognizable images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ghirda spent his earliest days in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as tensions rose over warnings that Russia planned to invade Ukraine. Russia at the time strenuously denied such plans, and then did invade on Feb. 24.
The first days of the invasion found Ghirda in bombarded Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, crouching in the snow next to a dead soldier and a destroyed Russian rocket launcher.
Then he was on to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to document the frantic crush of people trying to leave the country while they still could. His camera captured a serene-looking baby in the middle of the anxious crowd. Ghirda was there again as the flight from the capital region later became more dangerous, photographing an elderly woman clutching her head after crossing the Irpin River under a bridge that had been destroyed.
He also documented some of the horrors found in the northern Ukrainian town of Bucha, where Ukrainian officials say Russian soldiers committed war crimes before withdrawing.
Amid the destruction of war, Ghirda found gentle moments. A woman with a dozen dogs at a sunny triage point after leaving Irpin. A teenager rubbing noses with her soldier boyfriend, a suitcase nearby. A soldier trying to avoid being bitten by an ostrich in one of the more unusual evacuation attempts of the war, at a zoo on the outskirts of Kyiv.
He also found flowers placed on a charred Ukrainian military vehicle on April 1, a sign of mourning but also, perhaps, one of spring as well.
“What I remember is being in awe at how people cope with this and try to not leave a soul behind, be it hamster, cat or huge dog. And, leaving on a crowded train home with super heavy suitcases, I thought how would I feel if a photographer would now stare at me through his lens as I struggle,” Ghirda says. “And again I was in awe at the kindness and generosity of all those people who offered me the honor to share with the world their personal tragedy.”
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Follow all AP stories on Russia’s war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
