{"id":6,"date":"2026-01-21T10:59:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/?p=6"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:59:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:59:36","slug":"ukraine-endures-a-second-year-of-war-with-scenes-of-grief-suffering-and-also-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/?p=6","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine endures a second year of war with scenes of grief, suffering and also joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The second year of Ukraine\u2019s fight against <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion<\/a> brought no respite for Ukrainian soldiers or civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Associated Press photographers documented the past 12 months of death and destruction, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ukraine-funerals-photos-1b045736c9dcf476c82d054740df181a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">agony and grief<\/a> \u2014 as well as the glimpses of joy \u2014 that are staples of life during war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The countryside in eastern areas of Ukraine \u2014 an industrial region bordering Russia where <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-war-bakhmut-9056fed0866bfb4c651283d85c895544\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">some of the most intense <\/a>fighting has unfolded since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022 \u2014 is now punctuated with splintered and smashed trees reminiscent of a World War I battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along the front line, soldiers battled from trenches and relied heavily on artillery, in another echo of the 1914-18 conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<p>Away from it, bodies littered ruined buildings, forests and roadsides during the war&#8217;s second year. Russian barrages repeatedly <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-missile-strike-85dea3d9af59589d372333a23de9130a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blasted civilian targets<\/a>, frequently reducing apartment buildings to rubble, flames and smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1768993093298_2239\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/57cf18ae6b8f5ba693497e1a\/12ab26b8-ae8c-4bb9-8861-c08fc7325e89\/acabf0270d584bf2aeeae95e20047d33.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A woman holds her pets after her house was flooded when the Kakhovka dam collapsed, in Kherson, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo\/Evgeniy Maloletka)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Communities disappeared, replaced by <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-politics-world-news-f97bb069c5f27e98de4b6752cb96475a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">grim desolation<\/a>. Relatives wept over the open coffins of their loved ones. The young and old, and their pets, lost their homes or fled them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The conflict has killed more than 10,000 civilians and wounded nearly 20,000 others, the United Nations says. The cost of reconstruction is likely to run into hundreds of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the casualties, Ukraine expects that <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ukraine-russia-war-amputees-wounded-soldiers-e2c5c47ea4b8326d980e630d3df87b77\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 20,000 people<\/a>, many of them soldiers, will have a limb amputated. Many are victims of anti-tank mines, aerial bombs, missiles and artillery shells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Images of women learning to fire guns and cadets trying on gas masks are a reminder that Ukraine would like to get still more people in arms. Amid <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-war-weariness-military-service-avdviika-39ea62b27e0d8cefcf31c1c1c6dd8f92\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">war weariness<\/a> and the physical and emotional strains on families, a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ukraine-russia-war-draft-b2ca1d0ecd72019be2217a653989fbc2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">broader mobilization<\/a> to push back Moscow\u2019s forces is a sensitive issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the bleakness, there are snatched moments of joy: dancing in a subway station, students celebrating graduation, people taking a dip in a peaceful lake, a couple sitting on a park bench, and Christmas celebrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second year of Ukraine\u2019s fight against Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion brought no respite for Ukrainian soldiers or civilians. Associated Press photographers documented the past 12 months of death and destruction, agony and grief \u2014 as well as the glimpses of joy \u2014 that are staples of life during war. The countryside in eastern areas of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions\/12"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.edubanc.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}