Ukraine will fight "to the end" without "any concessions or compromises" with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky launched Wednesday in an address to the Nation on his country's Independence Day, which also marks six months of Russian invasion.

Ukrainian authorities banned all public gatherings in the capital on Wednesday fearing Russian strikes and called on Ukrainians across the country to remain vigilant and descend into shelters in the event of anti-aircraft sirens.

However, Ukrainians have tried to maintain a semblance of normal life, despite the anxiety-inducing war context, during these first six months of conflict.

A striking contrast in the images that follow.


Directed by:

Olivier JUSZCZAK

  • This Independence Day comes in a context of high tension. 

  • After a semester of war, tens of thousands of deaths and immense destruction, this anniversary of independence acquired in 1991 vis-à-vis the USSR will not give rise to festivities.

  • However, Ukrainians are trying to keep a semblance of normal life despite the context of the war.

    Like here, in the month of April in the city in the west of the country, Lviv, certainly further away from the fighting.

  • In Kramatorsk, a city located in the Donbass and pounded by Russian bombardments, this teenager continued to move around on a skateboard last May.

  • In Bakhmut, on the eastern front, this little girl was helping her milk-producing family with their daily chores on May 12.

  • Still in May, the bright colors of this little boy's toy contrasted with the dull atmosphere of the destroyed buildings of the city of Borodyanka, after the passage of the Russian army.

  • Same striking contrast with this young girl on her swing, June 7.

  • In Irpin, last June, this teenager absorbed by her smartphone ignored the chaotic decor surrounding her for a few moments.

  • Summer is also the time for weddings, despite the bombardments...

  • In kyiv, we continued to go shopping by slaloming between the sandbags, on June 7.

  • And visitor distractions have also changed...

  • In terms of the military toll, according to kyiv, 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives since the February 24 invasion.

  • Six months after the start of the war, missiles continue to rain down daily on Mykolaiv, a large city in southern Ukraine, but the inhabitants note with horror or resignation that they have adapted to this new reality.

  • The UN has confirmed the deaths of more than 5,500 Ukrainian civilians.

    But the actual toll is likely much larger.

    For the southeastern city of Mariupol alone, the Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, declared on April 12: "we can say that between 20,000 and 22,000 people died in Mariupol", the city besieged by the Russian troops.

  • civilians

  • Conflict

  • Slideshow

  • War

  • Kyiv (Kyiv)

  • War in Ukraine