Ukraine's 2022: year in Rubryka's photos

From March 1 until the end of the year, our reporter Mykola Tymchenko documented the war and Ukrainians in Kyiv, on the front lines, in the de-occupied cities and villages of the north, east, and south. These are the main photos of Rubryka's year. They show the strength of our people. They show every one of us.

We publish this selection with the belief that the next year 2023, the keyword will be Victory.

March 1

"Defending the homeland is not only holding a weapon, but it is also the rear." Street cuisine in one of Kyiv's districts appeared at this location on February 25. Those engaged in protection and assistance to our defenders were fed here.

March 3

Locals are digging trenches on the outskirts of Kyiv to protect the city from russian invaders.

March 6

On this day, volunteers from one of the battalions of the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lesya Ivashchenko and Valery Filimonov, head of Kyiv Plast, got married almost on the front lines. Lesya and Valery have been together for twenty years and have an 18-year-old daughter, but they haven't had time to get married yet. Now, during the war, Lesya and Valery signed up for the Territorial Defense together, signed a contract, and became service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

March 10

Fighters of the 112th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of Kyiv are improving their skills in throwing Molotov cocktails.

March 18

In Kyiv, a residential quarter in the Podilskyi district was shelled. The photo shows the consequences.

March 21

Destroyed as a result of the missile hitting the shopping center in Kyiv. March 21, 2022.

April 6

Borodyanka in the Kyiv region was released. A cat that was left alone, without owners.

April 7

Anastasia and Vyacheslav, soldiers of the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade of the city of Kyiv, got married in the center of the capital on Starokyivska Hill.

April 10

Demining in the Kyiv region. A sapper carries an artillery shell to the detonation site.

The mining of the territory is one of the biggest problems of Ukraine, the solution to which will take years. In addition to the mines laid by the russian invaders in 2022, unexploded shells, for example, from the First World War, are still found in Ukraine.

April 10

"The Second Army of the World" in the forests near Kyiv.

April 20

Lyudmila Kunytska is next to the car where the russians killed her mother when the family was leaving occupied Irpin in the Kyiv region on March 6.

"They started shooting at us. They threw a grenade at the first car driving in front of us. Two people also died there. Then they started firing RPGs near the second car. I was sitting in the passenger seat of my car, and my mother was sitting behind me. When I turned, I saw that my mother had a fountain of blood from her neck. She was already bleeding. I still tried to give her a scarf to help cover the wound, but nothing helped. She bled out literally in a few seconds. My mother is in front of my eyes. The russian occupiers did not let me approach her or help her in any way. They didn't let us take the bodies."

April 24

A Territorial Defense fighter lights a candle on an Easter basket near St. Andrew's Church. During the occupation, dead local residents were buried in mass graves in the church courtyard.

April 29

Kyiv, April 29, seven in the morning. Communal services clear the streets after rocket fire by russian troops. Radio Liberty producer Vira Hyrych died from a rocket hitting a residential building.

April 28

Another shelling of Kyiv by russian missiles.

May 1

Saveliy Krotkih, 10 years old, near the grave of his father, Ihor Krotkih, who died on March 21, 2022, defending the city of Irpin from russian troops.

May 10

The photo shows Olha Fedorivna and her dog Vadik from the village of Moshchun in the Kyiv region. They are planting potatoes and do not yet know that a full-scale war will begin in a year. That in early March, the russians will carry out airstrikes with unguided bombs on the village. That the house will be destroyed. That Olha Fedorivna and her husband Oleksandr Ivanovich, who once survived the Second World War as children, will die in one day. In their own basement.

That Vadik, the dog, will survive. And there will be nothing left.

Between the photos, there is a difference of a year and one day in March when the russians erased another priceless human life. We will not forgive.

May 28

In the Church of St. Nicholas of the UGCC, at the Askold grave, they said goodbye to the soldier of the battalion named after General Kulchytsky, Oleksandr Zaporozhets (Porsh), who died in the battle with the russian occupiers on May 25, 2022.

June 28

A tired rescuer at the site of a russian missile hitting the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk. 28 people died as a result of the attack.

July 2

Tyoma, 7 years old. The boy is playing with ammunition remnants in the destroyed Ascension Church in the village of Lukashivka, Chernihiv region. The village was under russian occupation for 21 days — it was liberated at the end of March. In the Church of the Ascension, the russians set up a headquarters and ammunition depot. After the village's liberation from the russians, the bodies of shot people were found in the church.

July 5

Rain at last! Kharkiv region. Arrangement of the defense line. July, 2022.

July 28

A man stands in the courtyard of a destroyed school in Mykolaiv. On July 28, the russians launched a massive shelling of Mykolaiv around four in the morning. Residential buildings, a warehouse of the water station of the Shipbuilding University, and a local gymnasium were damaged.

July 28

The village of Lymany, Mykolaiv Oblast. The strong, tanned hands of 61-year-old Vasyl deftly wield pitchforks. His skin is covered in thick soot and sweat. On the day of our meeting, as well as on the rest of the days of the summer of 2022, it is particularly hot under the southern sun — in addition to the hot climate, Mykolaiv Oblast is affected by shelling and fires afterward. "I have been here all my life; I was born here and came to earth here. All these people were given plots, and they left; they let me do what I wanted. So I planted a little here. Over there, behind the beam, I have another plot. Look, it's on fire… I want to collect what I can before the fire reaches it."

August 1 

Life wins. Kharkiv, Northern Saltivka is the district that suffered the most from the shelling of the russians.

August 12

A serviceman of the 112th Territorial Defense brigade prepares to cook breakfast. Donetsk region, positions at "zero."

August 22

The village of Moschun, a few kilometers from Kyiv. A little girl is playing on the ashes of one of the hundreds of destroyed houses here. There is still no electricity in this part of the village. Residents also have problems with water — electric pumps for wells are not working.

September 16

De-occupied Izyum, Kharkiv region. The cemetery where 445 (estimated number, according to the plaques on the crosses) residents of the city who died as a result of the occupation are buried.

September 18

The village of Vovchanski Khutory in Kharkiv Oblast. russia will no longer be here.

September 18

Vovchansk, Kharkiv region. Torture site, where the russians kept dozens of locals.

October 11

The youngest child was one year old. Separate graves and mass burial. Exhumation of the bodies of victims of the occupiers was carried out in de-occupied Lyman in the Donetsk region. So far, it has been possible to establish two places of mass burials on the territory of Lyman. According to the townspeople, civilians are buried in one place, soldiers in another.

October 16

Released Kupyansk, Kharkiv region. Children are looking for firewood for cooking. At that time, the city did not have electricity, gas and water supply, and mobile communication.

October 17

On the morning of Monday, October 17, 2022, russia launched 28 Shahed-136 kamikaze drones toward Kyiv. Most of the drones were destroyed by the air defense forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but five of them exploded in the Shevchenkiv district of Kyiv. Three hit critical infrastructure objects, one hit a residential building, and police officers shot down another.

As a result of the series of attacks, four people were injured. Five died.

November 10

The Territorial defense fighter and his bride married on the Desna River banks.

November 13

 Kherson residents rejoice at the liberation of the city.

November 14

President Zelensky visited the newly liberated Kherson.

November 14

The girls greet the Ukrainian military, who liberated their native Kherson from the invaders a few days ago.

November 17

The last lesson. Shyroke village, Mykolayiv region.

November 19

In the morning, the first train since the beginning of the war arrived in Kherson, liberated from the occupiers.

November 26

We remember. We are aware like never before. In Kyiv, the memory of the victims of the Holodomor was commemorated. People brought candles and spikelets to the monument.

December 17

On December 16, during another massive rocket attack, Oleh Vasylyshyn, a soldier of the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade of the city of Kyiv, was in a position at a distance of about a kilometer from an important energy facility in the city of Kyiv and shot down one of the missiles that were supposed to hit the building with a trophy machine gun that his comrades captured in the battles in the east of Ukraine.

This is not a miracle. This is the strength and tenacity of our soldiers. This is Ukraine's struggle.