Bakhmut was not the only battle raging in Ukraine these past few months, though it may sometimes have felt that way. The images that have emerged from Bakhmut after Russia claimed victory scramble the notions of what military success should look like: The prize was a depopulated shell of what was once a thriving city of 70,000, its buildings blackened and crumbling, its ground cratered.
Now, the world’s attention is turning to the fighting elsewhere in Ukraine — and not only there. The war is now touching Russian soil, too.
In mid-May, fighting reached into the southern part of the country that launched the war. In the Belgorod region, a Ukrainian-aligned paramilitary group of Russian nationals claimed to have seized villages in the most dramatic instance to date of bringing the war home to Russia.
But it is in Ukraine where the decisive fighting is expected in coming weeks, with expectations that Kyiv, newly fortified by military aid from its Western allies, will mount a counteroffensive.
For more than a year, photographers with The New York Times and other news organizations have chronicled the war, capturing a slice of how soldiers and civilians have experienced it. Some images, our photographers say, will never leave them.
This gallery contains graphic images.
May
A devastated Bakhmut as seen May 19 from a drone while embedded with the 93rd Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army.
An honor guards carrying the coffin of Sgt. Oleksandr Shargorodskyi, a Ukrainian serviceman killed in Bakhmut, during his funeral in Trebukhiv, Ukraine, on May 21.
A Ukrainian soldier from the 79th Brigade smoking in a trench system 300 yards from a Russian position near the town of Maryinka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, on May 20.
Soup, bread, and fruit being distributed to displaced Ukrainians in Kyiv on May 24.
A disposal ground for the remnants of munitions gathered from the Russian bombardment of the northeastern city of Kharkiv on May 23.
A Ukrainian Army soldier jumping over a gap in a defensive trench outside Kostyanynivka, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, on May 24. These fortifications are part of a larger network of defenses west of Bakhmut.
Smoke rising over Kramatorsk, where an ammunition stockpile was burning in an industrial area on May 22.
The 80th Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces preparing to fire rockets in the direction of Bakhmut during a night operation on May 16.
Friends and family mourned during the funeral of Ukrainian soldier Dmytro Konobas, 43, in Synyak, Ukraine, on May 15.
A Ukrainian soldier in a bunker near the southern city of Kherson, on May 11.
Ukrainian soldiers west of Bakhmut on May 13 after rotating out following a month of fighting inside the city.
A bus stop damaged by Russian shelling in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on May 9.
A veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan saluting a memorial to an airman near the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, on Victory Day in Kyiv on May 9.
A house that was destroyed in a Russian attack overnight in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on May 15.
A trench lined with cherry trees in Kyiv on May 7.
A Ukrainian servicewoman caught a drone at the end of its flight during a session with the Boryviter Drone School, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, on May 12.
The 59th Motorized Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces firing a 152-milimeter howitzer at Russian positions in the Donetsk region on May 6.
Ukrainian soldiers on May 3 riding in a bus at the end of training exercises during which they simulated an attack on a trench outside Kyiv.
Nina Pavlovna, 87, living with her son, Gennady Ivanovich, 58, in an apartment building that was heavily damaged by Russian bombing in Siversk, Ukraine, on May 7.
Family members of a Ukrainian service member, Oleksandr Polivodskyi, who was killed in eastern Ukraine, mourned him during his funeral in Kyiv on May 1.
A morning jogger running past municipal workers cutting grass in the Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, on May 3.
A resident at his damaged home in the village of Staryi Karavan in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region on May 2.
On May 5, the ninth anniversary of the creation of the Azov Brigade, wounded members and others gathered at the finish line of a one-kilometer run in Kyiv to raise money for the brigade.
April
A policeman directing a man away from an explosion. The blast occurred seconds earlier where volunteers were distributing humanitarian supplies to residents in the frontline town of Krasnohorivka in the Donetsk region on April 27.
Ukrainian soldiers kneeling as caskets of their fallen comrades, Vladyslav Posia, 23, and Sergiy Ostapenko, 37, who were killed by shrapnel during fighting in the eastern Donetsk region, are carried during their funerals at Boryspil in the Kyiv region on April 23.
The living quarters of soldiers of Ukraine’s 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade, who operate Panzerhaubitze, or German-made self-propelled howitzers, in a village near the front line of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region on April 30.
Ukrainian soldiers gathering their weapons before practicing shooting at a training range on the outskirts of Siversk, in eastern Ukraine on, on April 21.
Nadiia Mefodivna, 70, cooking in the basement where she lives as explosions can be heard in the vicinity in Siversk, in eastern Ukraine, on April 21.
A destroyed home in the village of Peremoha, in the Kharkiv region, in northeast Ukraine, on April 22.
Mourners attending the funeral of Yegor Bartosh, a member of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment who was killed in action, in Korniivka, Ukraine, on April 25.
Villagers crossing a destroyed bridge over Pechenihy reservoir in Staryi Saltiv, a village liberated from Russian troops last September in the Kharkiv region, in northeast Ukraine, on April 23.
Discarded equipment and rifles from wounded and dead Ukrainian soldiers piled at a medical evacuation compound on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, on April 19.
Congregation members salvaged what they could from the destroyed Church of the Archangel Mykhail in the town of Komyshuvakha on April 17. The church was shelled early in the morning on Christian Orthodox Easter Sunday.
Mourners attending the funeral of Mykola Zhezherun, a Ukrainian soldier who died in the eastern Luhansk region, on April 20 in Kyiv.
People attending a mass to celebrate Orthodox Easter on April 16 in Staryi Saltiv, a small village in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine.
A resident outside his destroyed garage, which was hit by shelling that left a huge crater in the backyard of his home in Kostiantynivka, in eastern Ukraine, on April 20.
Thousands of parts of artillery shells, missile fragments and non-guided rockets that have hit buildings throughout Kharkiv since the beginning of the war, in an industrial field on April 17.
A destroyed apartment building on April 18 in Izyum, in eastern Ukraine, where 54 people died during a bombardment last year.
A view of a house in Bakhmut damaged during the fierce battle there between Ukrainian and Russian troops, on April 10.
Ukrainian soldiers watching the horizon where Russian troops are stationed at a frontline position in southern Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, on April 7.
An adult and two children climbing on a destroyed and burned out Russian tank in Mykhailivska Square, Kyiv, on April 9.
Kalyna Kryvka, 72, being helped to board a vehicle after leaving home voluntarily during an evacuation organized by the Ukrainian Red Cross in Kutkivka, a village near the front line in eastern Ukraine that was hit by shelling on April 9.
Civilians enjoying an early spring day in Mariinsky Park, in Kyiv, on April 8.
A Ukrainian soldier smoking a cigarette after returning from a frontline position in southern Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, on April 7.
Residents, most of them living in basements, lining up for water in Chasiv Yar, in eastern Ukraine, on April 12. Fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in and around neighboring Bakhmut interfered with access to running water and gas for months on end.
Ukrainian soldiers sharing a joke at their compound in the vicinity of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, on April 10.
Worshipers lighting candles at a Divine Liturgy at St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv to mark Palm Sunday, on April 9, a week before the Orthodox Easter.
Workers collecting the body of one of six victims from shelling that hit the courtyard of residential buildings in Kostyantynivka, eastern Ukraine, on April 2.
Ukrainian soldiers, on the outskirts of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on April 4, looking at a screen as they track the movements of a group of Russian soldiers in the field. Moments earlier, they had provided a mortar team with the coordinates of another Russian position.
Nadia Peskun, 61, who lives with her daughter and twin 11-year-old grandchildren, resting on April 2 as she cleaned up her apartment, which was damaged from shelling in Kostyantynivka, eastern Ukraine.
People buying fruits and vegetables in a residential neighborhood market in Dnipro, in central Ukraine, on April 5.
A house in eastern Ukraine on April 2 after it was destroyed by shelling, which hit the courtyard of residential buildings.
March
A Ukrainian soldier, heavily injured by shrapnel on the frontline near Bakhmut, is carried by medics from the 80th Air Assault Brigade on March 17.
Worshipers attending a morning service at the Pechersk Lavra complex in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on March 30.
A Ukrainian recruit emerging from an American MRAP tactical vehicle during combat training in the Kyiv region on March 27.
Standing over Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 20.
A gas station in Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine on March 29.
Men lowered the coffin of a Ukrainian soldier, Andrii Neskhodovskyi, 24, into a grave in Kyiv on March 25. His father, Oleh, 59, looked on from the front center of the group.
People lighting candles in a ceremony to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the liberation of Bucha, at Taras Shevchenko Square, Kyiv on March 31.
A train platform damaged by shelling in Druzhkivka, eastern Ukraine, on March 30.
A soldier from the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian ground forces retreated after firing a rocket-propelled grenade toward Bakhmut, on March 20.
Medical workers tended to a woman wounded by a cluster bomb in a residential neighborhood of Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on March 18. At least one person was killed and three injured in the attack, which damaged houses and vehicles across the neighborhood.
A priest leading a ceremony in Kyiv on March 14 to honor Ukrainian volunteers killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and Russian-backed separatists started an insurgency in the eastern Donbas region.
A resident gave a wide berth to municipal workers as they repaired fallen power lines at the site of a Russian strike in Kostiantynivka on March 18.
Two people sat at a memorial wall in Kyiv on March 14 to remember those who have lost their lives fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014.
A scene of destruction in Siversk, a city north of Bakhmut in the Donetsk province of eastern Ukraine, on March 16. As the battle for Bakhmut intensified, Siversk was partially surrounded by Russian forces and was the target of numerous bombings.
A Ukrainian soldier was treated on March 19 after being wounded on the front lines in the Bakhmut area.
A medical worker from the 80th Air Assault Brigade helping Vasil Nikitin Oleksandrovitch, a Ukrainian soldier with the 5th Separate Assault Brigade, who was injured by shrapnel in the Bakhmut area on March 17.
A civilian in Siversk took refuge from bombing in a basement on March 16.
Ukrainian soldiers on March 11 in a trench outside Toretsk, in Donetsk Province, where Russian forces regularly attacked with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery fire.
Ukrainian soldiers carried the coffin of Dmytro (da Vinci) Kotsiubailo on their shoulders into Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square in Kyiv on March 10.
Oleksandr, 37, saying goodbye to his wife, Yana, 31, and daughter Ivanna, 5, on March 10. They came to visit him for 10 days in Kramatorsk, a strategic hub that lies directly west of Bakhmut.
Vehicles destroyed by falling missile parts in the Sviatoshynskyi District of Kyiv on March 9.
Servicemen from the Third Brigade mortar unit firing a mortar at a Russian position on March 7 near Bakhmut.
Soldiers from the Adam Battalion Tank Unit heading toward the front lines near Bakhmut on March 7..
A crowd at a memorial ceremony on March 10 in Kyiv.
A resident walking along the road as smoke rose from the site of a Russian rocket strike on March 10 in an industrial complex in the city of Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine.
A soldier from Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade at the front line outside Toretsk, Ukraine, ran past the body of a separatist fighter on March 7.
Ukrainian servicemen fired rockets on March 9 from an armored, self-propelled, multiple- launch rocket System, M270 MLRS, in eastern Ukraine. The high-precision weapon, developed by the United States, was acquired by the British military and sent to Ukrainian forces last year.
A Ukrainian soldier from the 79th Air Assault Brigadein a trench in the contested area of Marinka in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 26. This position was not far from Russian forces.
A Ukrainian helicopter deploying countermeasure flares after firing rockets during a combat mission in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 25.
Ukrainian soldiers from the self-propelled artillery division of the 17th Tank Brigade firing toward a Russian infantry position near Bakhmut on March 3.
Children from a family evacuated from Kramatorsk, Ukraine, eating a meal provided by a nongovernmental organization, Save Ukraine, at a processing center on March 1 in the city of Pokrovsk before they were relocated to the capital, Kyiv.
Residents removing rubble from inside a school that was bombed by Russian forces overnight in Kramatorsk on March 6.
A Ukrainian soldier from the 79th Air Assault Brigade taking cover from incoming bombing on the front lines in the contested area of Marinka in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 26.
Viktor, 73, and Lyudmila, 67, giving their information at a processing center in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, after volunteers evacuated them from Chasiv Yar on March 1.
Ukrainian troops in a trench in eastern Ukraine less than a quarter-mile from Russian fighters on Feb. 26.
Ukrainian soldiers on top of a tank heading toward the front line near Bakhmut on March 5.
Family members on Feb. 25 at a cemetery in Bucha, Ukraine, for the funeral of a 24-year-old Ukrainian soldier, Ihor Dyukarev, who was killed in fighting in the Luhansk region.
Members of the ground crew from the 18th Sikorsky Army Aviation Brigade resupplying a combat helicopter with rockets before a mission in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 25.
Volunteers on March 1 helping residents of the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, near the city of Bakhmut, where Russia and Ukraine had fought since August.
An apartment building destroyed by an artillery strike in Chasiv Yar on March 5.
Members of the crew from the 18th Sikorsky Army Aviation Brigade preparing a combat helicopter before a mission in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 25.
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