With courage and conviction, AP journalists document Russia's war on Ukraine.
Kateryna Suharokova kisses her newborn son Makar in a maternity hospital’s basement, converted into a medical ward and bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
From images of a young girl killed by shelling to an eyewitness account of a makeshift maternity ward inside a bomb shelter, AP’s team of more than two dozen journalists across Ukraine documented for the world in vivid detail how the Russian invasion is playing out on the ground.
The all-formats coverage began as Russian troops massed at Ukraine’s borders and has not let up since the assault began more than a week ago.
In the coastal city of Mariupol, one of AP’s standout packages told of a new mother struggling to control her emotions while holding her baby in a bomb shelter. Medical professionals were also using the space in the hospital basement to receive casualties, including the body of a young man brought in on a stretcher.
“Do I need to say more? This is just a boy,” a doctor told an AP video journalist, lifting the sheet that covered the deceased.
A similar scene played out 260 miles north in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city close by the border with Russia, where mothers and their newborns were protected by mattresses piled against the windows of a bomb shelter.
Snow collects on the body of a serviceman beside a destroyed Russian military multiple rocket launcher vehicle on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022, one day into the Russian invasion.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
A woman walks past debris in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022, after Russia launched a barrage of air and missile strikes on Ukraine.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A woman and child peer from the window of a bus as they leave Sievierodonetsk, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
Traffic comes to a virtual standstill as people leave Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022. Many were fleeing to western Ukraine or Poland.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
A woman waits for a train as she tries to leave Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022. Explosions were heard before dawn in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odessa as Russian launched its invasion of Ukraine.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
A woman holds her baby as she gets on a bus leaving Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Ukrainian servicemen sit atop armored personnel carriers on a road in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
A Ukrainian firefighter walks through debris of a downed aircraft seen in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022. It was unclear what aircraft had crashed and what had brought it down amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
AP Photo / Oleksandr Ratushniak
The body of a soldier lies on the ground as Ukrainian Army soldiers stand by in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022. Russia was pressing its invasion toward the capital after unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases, and sending in troops and tanks.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
Ukrainian soldiers take positions in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Svyatoslav, 6, looks at his tablet in a public basement used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
People pass time in the capital’s subway, using it as a shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
A single window is illuminated on a residential building with other lighting turned off for security, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
A gaping hole is left in an apartment building following a rocket attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022. Russian troops pressed toward Ukraine’s capital and street fighting broke out as city officials urged residents to take shelter.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
A soldier’s pierced helmet lies near debris of burning military trucks on a street in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
A Ukrainian soldier walks past debris of a burning military truck on a street in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
A woman reacts, looking at her apartment building damaged by a Russian rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
An armed civil defender stands guard at a checkpoint in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Ukrainian soldiers take positions outside a military facility as two cars burn on a street in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Ukrainian refugees walk along vehicles lining-up to cross from Ukraine into Moldova at a border crossing near Mayaky-Udobne, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.
AP Photo / Sergei Grits
One day after they were married, newlyweds Svyatoslav Fursinb, left, and Yarina Arieva pose for photo after they joined the ranks of the city territorial defense in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022.
AP Photo / Mikhail Palinchak
Civilian members of a territorial defense unit prepare their weapons to repel Russian forces in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.
AP Photo / Mikhail Palinchak
Ukrainian troops escort a man suspected of being a Russian agent in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
Armed civil defenders pose for a photo while patrolling an empty street during curfew in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
Civil defenders prepare Molotov cocktails in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
An armed civil defender holds a Kalashnikov assault rifle while patrolling an empty street during curfew in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
A women holds a child and a dog iat a shelter inside a building in Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A child looks out from from a train while waiting to leave Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, headed to western Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022. Thousands of people were fleeing west and into neighboring countries in the wake of the Russian invasion.
AP Photo / Andriy Andriyenko
A couple embrace as the woman prepared to board a train leaving Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, headed to western Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Andriy Andriyenko
A Russian armored personnel carrier burns amid damaged and abandoned light utility vehicles after fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022. Authorities in Ukraine’s second-largest city said that Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv were engaged in fighting with Russian troops.
AP Photo / Marienko Andrew
Passengers inside Lviv railway station in western Ukraine wait for a train to Poland, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Bernat Armangue
African residents in Ukraine wait for a train on the platform of Lviv’s main railway station in western Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022. Thousands of people massed at the station, attempting to board trains that would take them out of Ukraine as the Russian invasion continued.
AP Photo / Bernat Armangue
An elderly Ukrainian woman eats a slice of bread inside Lviv’s crowded main railway station in western Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its fifth day.
AP Photo / Bernat Armangue
People prepare for the night in an improvised bomb shelter at a sports center that can accommodate up to 2,000 people, in Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
As sirens sounded for new attacks, an oncology patient rests on a couch in a basement used as a bomb shelter at Okhmadet, a children’s hospital in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Ukrainian volunteers tear cloth into strips to make camouflage nets in Lviv, western Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.
AP Photo / Bernat Armangue
A woman walks on a platform as people crowd to board a Lviv-bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
A child cries as people scramble after a last-minute change of departure platform for a Lviv-bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
A child sits on a suitcase waiting to board a Lviv-bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
Kateryna Suharokova holds her newborn son Makar a maternity hospital’s basement, converted into a medical ward and used as a bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A series of photo galleries showcased the hundreds of images captured by AP photographers. One gallery showed citizen soldiers training to repel Russian troops. Another showed families sheltering in subway stations and basements. Yet another showed children caught up in the war, including a baby swaddled in bright pink in a crush of people waiting to board a train to Poland.
“Show this to Putin. The eyes of this child, and crying doctors,” a doctor shouted to an AP journalist in the room as ambulance personnel and city hospital staff in Mariupol tried unsuccessfully to save a 6-year-old girl injured in Russian shelling of a residential area, Feb. 27, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
AP staffers across the world have been vital in explaining the economic, political and social repercussions of the war, from editors and writers in Moscow, Washington and New York tracking government responses and diplomacy in a slew of global capitals, to those covering the expanding refugee crisis along the Polish and Hungarian borders. But the journalists on the ground in Ukraine have been the anchor — setting AP’s coverage apart by producing memorable images and authoritative text as the story develops by the hour.
Included on the all-formats Ukraine team: Andy Drake, Francesca Ebel, Emilio Morenatti, Vadim Ghirda, Sasha Stashevskyi, Efrem Lukatsky, Inna Varenytsia, Bernat Armangue, Andrea Rosa, Susie Blann, Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Nicolae Dumitrache, Yuras Karmanau, Hakan Kaplan and Sergei Grits, as well as some journalists who are not named for their safety.
For tenacity and bravery in chronicling the Russian invasion, the team in Ukraine earns the respect and gratitude of their colleagues worldwide and is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
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