Ukraine in 2025: A year in photos
The Kyiv Independent looks back at some of the most memorable moments for Ukrainians in 2025 in photos. (The Kyiv Independent)
The year 2025 arrived with talk of peace. It ended to the rattle of air-defense systems across Ukraine.
It was a year shaped by negotiations and expectations, driven by U.S. President Donald Trump's push for a settlement — even as Russia continued to strike Ukrainian cities.
The war did not end. Russian strikes did not stop.
Early in 2025, hopes ran high in Kyiv that Washington would finally pressure Moscow into ending its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Those hopes evaporated when Trump redirected his criticism away from the Kremlin and toward President Volodymyr Zelensky — a shift from Ukraine's most important ally.
That tension culminated in a heated Oval Office exchange between the two presidents over U.S. aid — a moment that crystallized Kyiv's growing unease.
At home, the year was no less turbulent. For the first time since the full-scale invasion began, Ukrainians took to the streets in mass protests against their own government. The trigger was a bill passed by parliament and signed by Zelensky that threatened to effectively destroy two of Ukraine's key anti-corruption institutions. The same bodies that, just months later, delivered a bombshell by releasing an investigation into Timur Mindich, a Zelensky associate and former business partner.
But memory of 2025 will be defined less by politics than by terror from the sky.
Russian missiles and drones tore into Ukrainian cities with relentless precision. People were killed in their beds. Children died on playgrounds. Summer nights in Kyiv were broken by sirens, explosions, and smoke.
Still, the front line mostly held. Despite new offensives and fresh pressure, Russia failed to deliver a decisive breakthrough.
As the year comes to a close, Russia is renewing its demands that Ukraine surrender the entirety of eastern Donetsk Oblast — a territory Ukraine has defended for more than a decade and that Moscow has failed to fully capture — in exchange for a peace deal.
This is 2025 in Ukraine, told in photographs:
Feb. 2. Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Ukrainian military members stand next to the entrance sign to Donetsk Oblast, protected by an anti-drone net and surrounded by Ukrainian brigade flags.
(Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images)
Feb. 28. Washington, D.C., U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump (C) and Vice President JD Vance (R) get into a heated argument with President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C.
(Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
March 23. Kyiv, Ukraine.
A firefighter stands on a wrecked apartment building following a Russian night drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, amid efforts toward a proposed mutual halt to strikes on energy assets.
(Andrew Kravchenko / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
April 24. Kyiv, Ukraine.
The aftermath of a missile strike on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, which killed two people and injured at least 54 others, including six children and a pregnant woman.
(Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images)
May 6. Undisclosed location, Ukraine.
Family embraces a Ukrainian soldier released from Russian captivity during a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia that returned 205 Ukrainian defenders, including three officers and 202 soldiers and sergeants.
(Oleksandr Magula / Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers)
May 23. Undisclosed location, Ukraine.
Relatives and military personnel welcome Ukrainian servicemen following a major prisoner of war swap with Russia at an undisclosed location in Ukraine.
(Andrew Kravchenko / Bloomberg)
June 9. Kyiv, Ukraine.
A wounded Ukrainian rescuer holds red carnations during a farewell ceremony honoring Pavlo Yezhor, Danylo Skadin, and Andriy Remennyi, three emergency workers killed by a Russian missile strike on June 6 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
(Danylo Pavlov / Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers)
June 14. Chernihiv, Ukraine.
Local residents holding Ukrainian flags greet soldiers who returned from Russian captivity following a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.
(Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images)
June 17. Kyiv, Ukraine.
Medics carry a wounded woman on a stretcher following a combined Russian drone and missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, which killed at least 14 people and damaged residential buildings, a kindergarten, and civilian infrastructure across multiple districts of the capital.
(Serhii Korovayny / Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers)
July 4. Kyiv, Ukraine.
Flames and smoke billow from buildings during a mass Russian drone and missile strike on Ukraine’s capital, as Russia intensified aerial attacks.
(Oleksii Filippov / AFP via Getty Images)
July 19. Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Ukrainian servicemen from the 59th Brigade mobile air defense unit fire a Soviet-made ZU-23 anti-aircraft autocannon toward a Russian drone from a sunflower field near Pavlohrad.
(Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images)
July 21. Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Teenagers play volleyball in the front-line region of Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, beside a Soviet-era fighter jet monument.
(Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images)
July 21. Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
A soldier is evacuated from an infantry position using an armored infantry fighting vehicle during a medical evacuation conducted by the 505th Separate Marine Battalion near the border between Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
(Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images)
July 22. Kyiv, Ukraine.
People attend a rally against a law threatening the country's key anti-corruption institutions, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
(Danylo Antoniuk / The Kyiv Independent)
July. Near Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Medical aid is provided at a stabilization point of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion after a soldier was wounded by an first-person view drone.
(Kostiantyn and Vlada Liberov)
Aug. 15. Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) reaches out to shake hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) as they pose on the tarmac at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson during Putin’s visit to Alaska, his first trip to a Western country since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)
July 24. Chasiv Yar, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
An aerial view at dawn shows the ruins of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, as Russian forces continued their long-running campaign against the fortified eastern city.
(Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images)
October. Kostyantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Soldiers from the anti-aircraft missile battalion of the 24th Mechanized Brigade install an anti-drone net along a road while standing guard with rifles, looking out for Russian first-person view drones.
(Oleg Petrasiuk / Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers)
Sept. 2. Kyiv, Ukraine.
Students rest in the bomb shelter of the Kyiv State Music Lyceum on the second day of classes after the start of the school year during an air alert that lasted more than three hours.
(Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)
Summer. Undisclosed location, Ukraine.
Soldiers of the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, named after King Danylo, train at a military ground. They serve under a special contract for under-25s who are not yet eligible for the draft but can voluntarily enlist.
(Oleg Petrasiuk / Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers)
July 27. Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.
A team of medics from the 4th Separate Battalion helps a seriously wounded soldier at a stabilization point after evacuation from the front lines.
(Lisa Bukreyeva / Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers)
Sept. 23. New York City, N.Y., U.S.
President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) and Andriy Yermak, then-President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff (L), walk to a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
Sept. 28. Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine.
Apartments are seen damaged on the outskirts of Kyiv following a Russian overnight attack, as first responders continued clearing debris at multiple strike sites across Kyiv Oblast.
(Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images)
Oct. 3. Near Druzhkivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Soldier Ruslan carries wounded reporter George Ivanchenko on a stretcher after a Russian first-person-view drone strike near Druzhkivka.
(George Ivanchenko / Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers)
"It was a targeted strike by an FPV (first-person view) drone. I’m alive. My leg was amputated. My closest friend, brother, and mentor, Antoni Lallican, is dead," Ivanchenko wrote on Facebook just days after the attack while undergoing treatment at a hospital.
Oct. 6. Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine.
Members of an all-women unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crew with the Typhoon special forces unit of the National Guard of Ukraine pose for a portrait after completing a mission.
(Oksana Parafeniuk / For the Washington Post via Getty Images)
Oct. 8. Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.
Ukrainian soldiers from a mobile air defense unit of the 116th Mechanized Brigade monitor for incoming Russian drones at an undisclosed location near the front line in northeastern Ukraine.
(Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images)
Oct. 10. Kyiv, Ukraine.
Vehicle lights illuminate a highway during a blackout after a power loss in Kyiv, following a massive Russian drone and missile attack that disrupted electricity and water supply in parts of the capital.
(Andrew Kravchenko / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sept. 18. Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Soldiers of the 24th Mechanized Brigade operate a 2S3 Akatsiya howitzer in eastern Ukraine.
(Serhii Korovayny / Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers)
Oct. 24. Pohreby, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine.
Family members and fellow villagers bid farewell to a local family killed by a Russian drone strike.
(Viacheslav Ratynskyi / The Kyiv Independent)
This story was produced with the support of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers.
