After the greatest fighting to break out on European soil since World War II a year ago, an estimated 6,900 people have died and another 18,000 have been injured.
Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed as Russian tanks invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and a startling 5.9 million people were forced to flee their homes due to shelling.
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More than 18 million Ukrainians now require humanitarian aid, and there are no signs that the violence will abate.
Up to 50% of the country’s power has been affected, and vast swathes of the population have been left with limited heating or running water.
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The International Rescue Committee has been working in Ukraine for the past year, distributing essential items, medical services, cash and legal support to those in need.
‘Our field teams are reminded each day of the strength and resilience of Ukrainian people, both inside the country and those who have been forced to cross borders in search of safety,’ Marysia Zapasnik, Ukraine Country Director of the IRC tells Metro.co.uk.
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Despite their families and lives being torn apart, for many Ukrainians there is no other option than to try and carry on as best they can, as they learn to balance the brutality of conflict with every day life.
Lyuba and her dog, Lucky, in Kherson. The city continues to be shelled. Russian forces recently targeted a hospital, school, bus station, post office, bank and residential buildings, according to the Kherson regional military administration (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Yulia with her kids Anastasiia and Kyrylo have received winter kits from the IRC containing blankets and sleeping bags. The charity has equipped 500 homes with fuel stoves, provided materials for almost 4,500 homes requiring emergency repairs and supplied 1,400 individuals with warm clothes (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Svietlana holds her cat in her home, which was heavily damaged in the missile attack in September. She and her husband, Sergii, were both injured that night, but they survived, and have since been slowly rebuilding their house. Their neighbours – two children, their mother and their grandmother – were killed in the attack (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Annika is originally from a village in Donetsk, which she left in April due to the conflict. She and her 77-year-old mother, Anna, now share a small studio apartment in Dnipro (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Kherson citizen Nikolay shows the broken window in his kitchen. His apartment was heavily damaged by explosions in January and he’s waiting to install boards in place of glass (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Sergiy Fyodorovych, 64, shows a picture of his cat on his phone. ‘My wife went abroad with our son. And I have a cat, Michelle; she’s so beautiful! It’s my only happiness. I lay down next to the cat and shestarts meowing. I hear explosions in the background, but I don’t care. I’m used to it.’ (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)The power, electricity, heating and water outages caused by ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure are continuing to impact millions of people across Ukraine and severely impede humanitarian activities on the ground (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Maryna, Serhii and their son stand in front of their home that was destroyed in a missile strike in Dnipro. They have since been rebuilding it with limited access to supplies and power (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)A woman and child walk through a residential building complex that was heavily damaged during a missile attack in Mykolaiv in October. Ukrainians have had to show real strength and resilience as they struggle daily to access food, water and power (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)57-year-old Olga is battling cancer while volunteering by cooking and distributing bread to people in need. Olga has spent IRC financial support on much needed medication, and continues to help her community even as the war takes its toll on her physical and mental health (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Olga takes out jars of pickled vegetables from her cellar. When the Russians occupied her neighbourhood, she and her neighbours spent entire days and nights in the small space, using it as a bomb shelter and surviving from her supplies of vegetables (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Denys, from Malynivka, has been given a winter kit and his family have registered for financial aid. More than 25% of internally displaced people lack access to sufficient heating and more than 60% of houses have been damaged, IRC analysis shows (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)When the invasion began on February 24th, missiles flew over Nataliya’s home in Kramatorsk. She left with her two children, aged 3 and 11, and took refuge in Dnipro, further away from the border with Russia. Her husband stayed behind (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)This theatre used to entertain locals in Dnipro. Now it is used for legal advice as the IRC provides free consultations to residents. Many lost vital documents when their homes were damaged or destroyed by the war (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Residential buildings in Mykolaiv were heavily damaged during a missile attack on 1 October last year. Repeated waves of shelling have severely impacted energy infrastructure and knocked out power in major cities across Ukraine, plunging vast parts of the country into darkness (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)A child’s shoe rests in the rubble of the Saltivka residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The UN is investigating claims that children are being sent from Ukraine and forcibly deported to Russia where they are offered up for adoption (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)A damaged car lies unused outside flats with boarded-up windows in Mykolaiv. Such scenes of destruction are common across Ukraine, where blackouts and dwindling resources leave local people vulnerable. Marysia Zapasnik, IRC Country Director, says: ‘Over 18 million people in Ukraine are in need of humanitarian assistance, and millions of lives are facing ever-increasing risk.’ (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)A crater from a missile impact that obliterated a house in Karolino-Buhaz in Odesa Oblast, Ukraine. Here, Russian missiles landed on local homes, killing civilians and hurting local tourism, the seaside community’s main source of income (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Milana, 10, Natasha, 10 and Danil, 13, take refuge in an IRC Safe Healing Learning Space. During conflict, children are exposed to multiple and severe adversities, such as violence, abuse and displacement. Spaces like this provide social and emotional learning, as well as traditional academic lessons (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)An abandoned toy sits in the rubble at the Saltivka residential area in Kharkiv. Houses were severely damaged in shelling and the local school was bombed (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Svitlana fetches drinkable water from a tap in her Mykolaiv neighborhood and carries it back to her home. The city has been without drinking water for months (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)The Saltivka residential area lies in ruins. This neighbourhood, once home to around 300,000, was Kharkiv’s largest residential area prior to the invasion. Russian artillery, mortars and rockets have left many high-rises dangerous, and they are now being dismantled by local rescue workers (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)
