When Russian forces invaded Ukraine, they planned to rip through the country and take it by storm. Instead they met extraordinary resistance which has led to the conflict still raging two years on. The defiance in the face of Vladimir Putin’s brutal war has inspired the world. Here are some of the iconic images that define the Ukrainians’ bravery…
Ray of hope: A Ukrainian soldier is bathed in light during Russia’s brutal siege of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol
Putting their lives on the line: Members of the Ukrainian National Guard – armed with machine guns and kitted out with body armour – take up a defensive position on a deserted overpass in Kyiv, ready to do their duty to protect the capital against Russian military forces after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion on February 24, 2022
Helping hand: Soldiers assist refugees on a makeshift river crossing in the city of Irpin after a bridge was destroyed
Firepower to light up the sky: An artillery unit blasts Russian positions outside Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in November 2022
Injured but unbowed: A woman in Chuhuiv after a Russian airstrike
Fresh hope: New mum Aleina gives her baby Snizhana a tender look in the maternity ward in Mykolaiv
Wartime love: Newlyweds Nastya Gracheva and Anton Sokolov pose for a picture in the ruins of Kharkiv
Sunset for fallen heroes: Ukraine flags flutter among the graves in the cemetery in Kharkiv
Poignant: A father says goodbye to his girl in Odessa
Rescue: Emergency workers carry an injured pregnant woman from a bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol
Battled-scarred: Mail photographer Jamie Wiseman’s picture of burnt-out vehicles in Irpin city
Braving the cold: Soldiers use a shopping trolley to evacuate an elderly woman from Irpin as snow falls in Ukraine’s bitter winter
Blown apart: A semi-obliterated administration block in the city of Mykolaiv
Masked and meaning business: Ukrainian servicemen keep their eyes peeled on patrol near their base close to the front line in the Donetsk region in February last year
Shelter: Civilians seeking safety during another air-raid alert in Kyiv
Devastated: Shelling killed at least 12 people sheltering in a theatre in Mariupol
Prayers for the dead: A ceremony at a mass grave in Bucha, the city where Russian forces massacred hundreds of civilians in the early weeks of the war
Honouring a fallen comrade: President Volodymyr Zelensky lays flowers on the open coffin of soldier Dmytro ‘Da Vinci’ Kotsiubailo in Kyiv in March last year
Bloodied: A man is treated after a missile attack in Kharkiv last month
Danger zone: Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko keeps people away from a shelled building