Olka Kossowska
A place to hide
On Thursday, February 24, 2022, at 3:45 a.m., Vladimir Putin delivered a televised address announcing the start of a "special military operation" to defend the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces crossed Ukraine's borders and began advancing into its territory. As a result of these actions, thousands of Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes. Many of them are elderly or disabled people who had to seek shelter in nursing homes and refugee centers in the western part of the country.
The material was produced for Smartaid.
Lviv, Ukraine – January 2023. A woman stands under an umbrella amidst fresh graves at the military section of the Lychakiv Cemetery (Mars Field). At this stage of the war, the rows of burials honoring fallen Ukrainian soldiers had begun to mark the landscape of the city.
Lviv, Ukraine – December 2025. A passerby walks past a sea of Ukrainian flags at the same military cemetery, illustrating the staggering human cost of the ongoing war. Over three years later, the burial ground has expanded significantly, filling the horizon with tributes to the fallen.
Worshippers attend a service inside the Holy Trinity Church in central Kharkiv, Ukraine, on December 7, 2025. Amidst frequent power outages that leave the interior in semi-darkness.
Kyiv, Sophia Square. The monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky is enclosed in a protective sarcophagus to save it from bombardment. Beside the dark structure stands a Christmas tree decorated with doves of peace, marking the second winter of the full-scale invasion.
A driver stands beside her car on Khreshchatyk Street near Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, Ukraine, at 9:00 AM on December 3, 2025. Following a city initiative launched in late 2025 to honor the victims of the Russian invasion, traffic on the capital's main thoroughfare comes to a complete halt every morning. Traffic lights turn red and a metronome broadcasts the passing seconds over loudspeakers, transforming the bustling city center into a temporary memorial of collective grief and respect.
Kyiv, Ukraine. Inside the logistics center of the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation. A volunteer assembles tactical first aid kits (IFAKs) for soldiers on the front lines. The window is barricaded with sandbags for protection. The text on her hoodie reads: "Time heals, pain will pass."
Lviv, Ukraine. The historic St. George's Cathedral during the war. Statues are wrapped in protective materials and sandbags are piled at the entrance to shield the UNESCO heritage site from potential Russian missile strikes.
Igor from Drohobych and Oleg from Polyana are soldiers who ended up in the hospital of Drohobych not because of their wounds but because of other health problems (high blood pressure and stomach problems).
Valentyna Yakievska Pusieva, 84, rests at a shelter following her evacuation from the Donetsk region on September 8, 2022. She arrived accompanied by her husband, Sergey Andreevich, who remains paralyzed and unable to speak after suffering a stroke. Ms. Pusieva is a survivor of two wars; she lost an arm and a leg to a shell explosion at the age of four during World War II.
Chernihiv, Ukraine Date: December 3, 2025 Caption: Vitalij (34) holds his newborn son just hours after his birth at a maternity center in Chernihiv, Ukraine. While his wife Katerina (32) rests, a mobile phone charges from a power bank nearby—a ubiquitous necessity due to rolling blackouts caused by targeted Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. For this family, their first child represents a new generation born into a reality of war, where moments of intimacy coexist with the logistical struggle for light and warmth.
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Children gaze into the colorful window of a candy shop in the historic center of Lviv, Ukraine, in 2024. Despite the ongoing Russian invasion, the western city remains a hub of relative safety and tourism, where residents and displaced persons attempt to maintain a semblance of normalcy and preserve childhood joy amidst the conflict
A student in a festive dress walks past a projection screen during a celebration at the Hlynska Special School in the Sumy region, Ukraine, on December 6, 2025. Volunteers from Lviv traveled to the facility, located near the Russian border, to deliver gifts to the children. The graphic on the screen depicts a Ukrainian soldier standing alongside Saint Nicholas, symbolizing the merging of religious tradition with military reality. Following calendar reforms in Ukraine, the beloved children's holiday now coincides with the Day of the Armed Forces.
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Vitia Shcherbak, 27, arranges a collection of his sketches on his bed at the Zaklad branch of the Hruszkiv Psychoneurological Residential Institution. An orphan originally from Kharkiv, Shcherbak was evacuated to this facility after enduring eight months sheltering underground with other residents to survive the initial invasion.
Mrs. Alexandra lived in one of the bombed-out flat blocks near the airport in Hostomel. Today she lives with a friend of her younger son who is fighting at the front. She comes under the destroyed building to get her cat, which keeps running away and returning home. Mrs. Alexandra's older son was killed in the Donbass. He was an officer.
Luba Aleksandrovna shakes a carpet outside the apartment building where she lives in Chernihiv, Ukraine. Behind her stands a section of the same residential block that was bombed by Russian forces on 3 March 2022 at 12:15 p.m. during the siege. The airstrike destroyed the apartment building and nearby infrastructure including a grocery store, a pharmacy, and a cardiology dispensary. According to investigations, the attack was carried out using a FAB-500 aerial bomb. The explosion killed 47 people and injured 18 others
Vitia takes part in a workshop on making a traditional Ukrainian Christmas decoration called a didukh. A didukh, crafted from rye, wheat or oats, symbolizes ancestors, prosperity and the harvest, and is traditionally placed in a position of honor in the home during the Christmas season.
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A young woman sits in contemplation at Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in Kyiv, Ukraine, in August 2024. The lawn behind her has been transformed into a makeshift memorial, filled with thousands of small flags placed by relatives to honor soldiers killed since the start of the Russian invasion.