After months of threats, Russia launched a full, unprovoked invasion of its neighbor Ukraine on February 24, 2022, extending the earlier invasion begun in 2014. On the false pretexts of safeguarding its own security from NATO expansion and countering Ukrainian radicals, Russia initiated the largest ground war in Europe in decades.

The initial phase of the war proved catastrophic. While large areas of southern and eastern Ukraine were quickly occupied by Russian soldiers, territory around Kyiv in particular proved harder to control. Russia withdrew from the Kyiv area at the end of March, after barely a month, revealing ghastly war crimes and the summary executions of hundreds of innocent civilians.

Over more than three years of fighting, hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed along with many thousands of civilians. The death toll in many occupied areas may never be known.

Despite initial stumbles, Russian forces have adapted to Ukraine’s resistance and the war carries on across a frontline extending roughly six hundred miles through the country’s south and east, controlling roughly 19% of Ukraine’s territory. While diplomatic efforts to implement a ceasefire and eventual end to the war have taken on a new energy under the Trump administration, there is little change in the reality on the ground. Drones, bombs, and missiles terrorize civilians throughout the country on a daily basis.

-Brendan Hoffman

KYIV, UKRAINE – FEBRUARY 15, 2024: A man who claims to be from Somalia is held as a prisoner of war after being captured by Ukrainian military forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, where he was serving in the Russian army, on Thursday, February 15, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

LYMAN, UKRAINE – AUGUST 22, 2024: Deminers carrying metal detectors walk through thick smoke from a wildfire presumably caused by shelling on Thursday, August 22, 2024 in Lyman, Ukraine. Large portions of eastern Ukraine’s forests have been severely damaged by war-related wildfires, and fighting them is complicated by the presence of enemy forces, landmines, and unexploded ordnance. While some fires are the inevitable byproduct of explosive detonations, others are an intentional tactic to flush soldiers from their hiding places beneath forest canopies. Ukraine recently began deploying a “dragon” drone, which videos posted to social media showed dropping flaming liquid thermite as it cruised above tree lines. The Russians soon copied the tactic. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

Colored smoke from signal flares obscures the independence monument in the center of Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, during a rally and march held by family members and other supporters of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians being held prisoner by Russia or who have gone missing on Saturday, January 14, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Many of the participants urged Ukraine and Russia to come to an agreement to trade all the prisoners being held on both sides. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

Mourners attend the funeral of Yegor Bartosh, a member of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment who was killed in action, on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 in Korniivka, Ukraine. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

Plastic covers the broken windows of a car that was damaged when a nearby high-rise residential building was hit by a missile early the previous morning on Sunday, June 25, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Authorities located the bodies of two additional victims today, bringing the total number of dead to five. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

Vasyl Oksantiuk, 26, in blue, trains with Boroda, who could not give his name, during a Brazilian jiu jitsu class offered for free to Ukrainian military veterans at TMS Hub on Monday, October 9, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

A Ukrainian service member, who was captured by Russian forces after helping defend the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol for three months, poses for a portrait on Thursday, October 19, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. He spent nine months in Russian captivity, enduring physical and psychological violence and torture, before returning in a prisoner exchange in February of this year. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

Military volunteers at a weapons storage facility receive weapons after the Ukrainian government announced they would arm civilians to resist the Russian invasion on Friday, February 25, 2022 in Fastiv, Ukraine. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

LVIV, UKRAINE – MARCH 8, 2022: Ukrainian soldiers hold a casket containing the remains of fellow soldier Viktor Dudar, who was killed on March 2 in the war against Russia, at Lychakiv Cemetery on Tuesday, March 8, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. The funeral was held for both Dudar and Ivan Koverznev. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

A man sits inside a gymnasium at School Number 1 that has been converted to a facility to house people displaced by the Russian invasion on Sunday, March 13, 2022 in Novoyavorivsk, Ukraine. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

A displaced Ukrainian girl sleeps in a room reserved for women with small children near the main train station on Tuesday, April 12, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. ©Brendan Hoffman

 


KYIV, UKRAINE – OCTOBER 29, 2022: Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, poses for a portrait on Saturday, October 29, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Nuzhin was a prisoner in Russia when he was offered the opportunity to join the Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor, and fight in Ukraine in exchange for his freedom after six months of service. He instead surrendered to Ukrainian forces. CREDIT: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times ©Brendan Hoffman

 

Men hold a blanket to catch a frightened cat that fell from the fifth floor balcony of a residential building that was struck by a Russian missile the previous day on Thursday, November 24, 2022 in Vyshhorod, Ukraine. ©Brendan Hoffman

 

 

BIO

BRENDAN HOFFMAN is an American documentary photographer based in Kyiv, Ukraine, where his work reflects his interest in themes of identity, history, politics, conflict, and the environment. Since 2013 he has primarily covered revolution and war in Ukraine, mostly for The New York Times, and has exhibited his photographs at galleries, museums, educational institutions, and festivals across Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Hoffman was a 2018-19 Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine and the 2018 Philip Jones Griffiths Award winner. He has received grants from the Magnum Foundation, TheDocumentaryProjectFund, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the South Asian Journalists Association, and the National Press Photographers Association, among others.

 

studio@brendanhoffman.com

www.brendanhoffman.com

Instagram: @hoffmanbrendan

Featured Image: KYIV, UKRAINE – MAY 30, 2024: Oleksandr, 32, poses for a portrait outside his apartment on Thursday, May 30, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Oleksandr did not want to reveal his identity because he does not want to be conscripted into the Ukrainian military and sent to the front line as he feels physically incapable of performing combat-related tasks. ©Brendan Hoffman