This was my fourth trip to Ukraine as a photojournalist. During my previous visit, I found confidence and hope that the war might soon end. This time, I saw greater exhaustion, resignation and little hope of an immediate end to the fighting.
I spent a month in Kyiv and the surrounding areas as Russian drone and missile attacks on the capital intensified. Air raid alerts sounded day and night, and thousands of residents slept in metro stations when major attacks were expected. Firefighters and emergency workers responded repeatedly to strikes across the city.
What struck me most was how deeply the war had entered everyday life. People returned to damaged homes and businesses, mourned the dead and recovered from injuries sustained in attacks. I met residents who had survived strikes by only a few meters and a couple who celebrated their wedding on the same day a drone damaged their apartment.
Still, life in the city continued. People met in cafes, children returned to school and filed into shelters, and soldiers came home for brief visits with their families. Each morning, people stopped for a nationwide minute of silence honoring those killed in the war.
On this trip, Kyiv felt like a city living not between moments of war, but within them.
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
