Last winter saw the fall of Avdiivka when, after several months of brutal fighting, the Russian army captured the city leveled to the ground.
Ukraine struggled to hold the front line with limited resources as political infighting in the U.S. Congress had delayed the passing of a crucial aid bill for months.
In spring, Russia renewed intense attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, damaging or destroying at least half of the country's energy capacities within months. It plunged most of the country into hours-long rolling blackouts for most of the summer.
Russia made Iranian-supplied Shakhed drones and domestically manufactured UAVs the main strike force of its large-scale air attacks on Ukraine, which continued until the end of the year, despite the long-awaited F-16 fighter jets beginning to arrive in Ukraine in July.
Russia indiscriminately attacked civilian infrastructure, among them the country's main children's hospital, Okhmatdyt in Kyiv, galvanizing the country into helping to clean up and rebuild it.
On the front line, the residents of northern parts of Kharkiv Oblast, liberated in 2022, had their lives upended once again with Russia's new push towards the town of Vovchansk in May. As the fighting in the area continued for the rest of the year, 80% of buildings in Vovchansk were destroyed, displacing nearly 22.000 civilians from the area.
Russia began to systematically kill Ukrainian POWs, with 109 confirmed killings this year.
Several months later, however, Ukraine lost at least 40% of the territories it had taken. Kyiv continues to hold the remaining territory, now fighting against North Korean troops in the area, in an attempt to straighten its hand if peace talks with Russia begin in 2025.
The neverending war turned military funerals into a daily routine, with Ukrainians mourning the loss of prominent figures like poet Maksym Kryvtsov, activist Pavlo Petrychenko, combat medic Iryna Tsybukh, and thousands more.
Ukrainian people rejoiced at ten prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia over the year that brought home 1,159 people. However, peaceful rallies in the cities continued to remind us that Russia still holds around 8.000 military and roughly 28.000 civilians detained in brutal conditions.
A rare glimpse of joy was the medals that athletes brought from the Paris Olympics 2024, where record-holder high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh won gold in August.
In the fall, the country saw the biggest wartime government reshuffle and braced for what Donald Trump's win in the U.S. presidential elections could bring to Ukrainians in 2025.
A Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier rides in an MTLB to positions near Bakhmut, Ukraine, in February 2024. (Karina Piliuhina)A girl swings near the burning building. She lives nearby and came to see the destruction after a huge explosion blasted in the neighborhood. A residential building in Kyiv caught fire after the Russian forces attacked Ukraine with missiles and drones on Feb. 7, 2024. At least four civilians were killed, and more than 40 were wounded in Kyiv as a result of the attack. (Serhii Korovayny/The Kyiv Independent)Local residents attend a memorial ceremony under a destroyed bridge in Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2024, on the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images)A mobile air defense group during drills on detecting and destroying enemy missiles and drones in Kyiv Oblast on March 2, 2024. (Oleh Pereverzev)Fourth grade students in the shelter of a school in Kremenchuk during an air raid alert in Kremenchuk, Ukraine on March 18, 2024. (Andriy Dubchak)A Ukrainian infantry soldier of the 23rd Mechanized Brigade waits to head toward the front line in the Avdiivka direction, in the Donetsk Oblast, on April 3, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images)Soldiers provide first aid to a rescuer injured in a double tap drone strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in April 2024. The Russians first targeted the city's civilian infrastructure, and after rescuers arrived, struck again. As a result, three rescuers were killed, and several others were wounded. (George Ivanchenko)People watch as the building of the National University "Odesa Law Academy" burns following a Russian missile strike on April 29, 2024. The Russian army targeted a park area in Odesa with cluster munition, killing five civilians and injuring 32. (Oleksandr Gimanov)Workers at one of the largest thermal power plants in Kharkiv, Ukraine, which was destroyed by Russian missile strikes in April 2024. Due to constant Russian attacks on Kharkiv’s energy infrastructure, the city is facing a 50% electricity deficit. (Olha Ivashchenko)People bid farewell to the fallen soldier and activist Pavlo Petrychenko near St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2024. (Stas Kozliuk)
Soldiers of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade “Kholodnyi Yar” fire an MK-19 automatic grenade launcher towards the Russian positions in Donetsk Oblast on May 11, 2024. (Mykola Oliinyk / 93rd Mechanized Brigade “Kholodnyi Yar”)Smoke rises from the Ukrainian border city of Vovchansk, which is bombarded daily by heavy artillery, in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on May 17, 2024. (Libkos/Getty Images)A Ukrainian war veteran during training with the first football team in Ukraine made up of veterans who suffered amputations due to war injuries in Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine, in May 2024. (Danylo Pavlov)People gathered to attend the farewell ceremony for Iryna "Cheka" Tsybukh (pictured), a combat medic with the Hospitallers volunteer battalion, who was killed in action in the Kharkiv Oblast, in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 2, 2024. (Viacheslav Ratynskyi)Artillerymen of the 24th Separate Mechanised Brigade named after King Danylo fire a 122mm self-propelled howitzer, “Gvozdika,” towards Avdiivka in the Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on June 5, 2024. (Oleg Petrasiuk / 24th Separate Mechanised Brigade named after King Danylo)The mobile fire group soldiers from the 126th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade observe the sky near the front line in the Kherson Oblast in June 2024. (Ivan Antypenko)Children play on a playground near a destroyed building in the village of Novohrodivka, located on the border of Mykolaiv and Kherson щblasts, Ukraine in June 2024. (Kateryna Moskaliuk)A Ukrainian soldier from the 24th Mechanized Brigade attempts to play a damaged piano in a ruined building in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on June 24, 2024. (Oleg Petrasiuk / 24th Mechanized Brigade, Ukrainian Armed Forces)Apricots lie on the scorched earth near Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine in June 2024. (Roman Pilipey)Children learn to swim in a pool during power outages in Kharkiv, Ukraine in June 2024. (Olha Ivashchenko)The aftermath of the Russian missile attack on the "Okhmatdyt" children's hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 8, 2024. (Vlada Liberova/Libkos/Getty Images)A Ukrainian soldier cries on his comrade's shoulder after returning from the Kursk Oblast, near the Rusian border in the Sumy Oblast of Ukraine. on Aug. 14, 2024. (Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images) Dragon's teeth in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine on Aug. 17, 2024. (George Ivanchenko)Russian conscript soldiers, who were captured by Ukrainian forces during an offensive on Russian territory in Kursk Oblast, cover their faces in one of Ukraine's prisons in an undisclosed location, Ukraine in August 2024. (Olha Ivashchenko)A Ukrainian tank near the Russia-Ukraine border in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine in August 2024. (Nikoletta Stoyanova)While columns of military equipment head in the direction of Russia, the civilian populationion is being evacuated from the border area of the Sumy Oblast, Ukraine, in August 2024. (Roman Pilipey)Ukrainian rescuers extinguish a fire at an electrical substation damaged by a Russian strike in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, in August 2024. (Oleksandr Babenko)Wounded Ukrainian soldiers, after fighting in the Vuhledar area, are being evacuated from a field hospital near Kurakhove, Donetsk Oblast, in September 2024. (Valentyn Kuzan / 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade)Volunteers from "East SOS" provided medical assistance to an elderly man during the evacuation of civilians from Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, in September 2024. (Vlada Liberova)Ukrainian soldiers stand next to a building hit by a Russian missile, killing at least 3 people and injuring 31 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in September 2024. (Nikoletta Stoyanova)A medic from the 108th Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" of the 59th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces rests on a couch, waiting to receive the wounded at a stabilization point in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on Oct. 20, 2024. (Viacheslav Ratynskyi)People watch as a multi-story residential building burns after being hit by debris from a Russian kamikaze drone in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 26, 2024. (Oleksii Filipov)An artilleryman from the "Buzkyi Gard" unit lights a cigarette at the D-30 howitzer positions in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine in October 2024. (Ivan Antypenko)Anastasia Hvozdikova stands next to her husband, Anton, who is in a military hospital after being injured by an FPV drone in an undisclosed location in October 2024. (Kostyantyn and Vlada Liberov)A unit of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service launched ‘Black Fury’ drones at a missile warehouse in an unknown location on Nov. 12, 2024. (Olga Ivashchenko)Ukrainian cadets servicemen hold lit candles as they stand before the Motherland Monument during a commemoration ceremony marking the 1,000 day of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the National Museum of History of Ukraine in the Second World War, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 19, 2024. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images)A Mi-8 military helicopter flies at a low altitude during a training flight in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine in November 2024. (Yurii Dyachyshyn)Municipal workers clean the square in front of the Derzhprom building, which was hit by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in November 2024. (Ivan Samoylov)Civilians leave the site after a Russian ballistic missile hits the city center in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 20, 2024. (Vlada Liberova/Libkos/Getty Images)Makeshift memorial paying tribute to Ukrainian and foreign fighters at the Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 24, 2024. (Danylo Antoniuk/Anadolu via Getty Images)A chaplain conducts a Christmas prayer with the servicemen of the 33rd Separate Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine's Armed Forces in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, on Dec. 25, 2024. (Volodymyr Petrov / Press Service of the 33rd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces)A traditional Ukrainian Christmas procession with caroling stars, Kolyada, took place in central Kyiv, Ukraine on Dec. 25, 2024. (Serhii Korovayny)
Viacheslav Ratynskyi is a Ukrainian photo reporter and documentary photographer. He works as a photojournalist mostly for Reuters and other media as a contributor. Viacheslav is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP).
