News

Photos: Ukraine's civilian forces grow as more enlist in the fight against Russia

By Marco Storel

Published February 24, 2022 at 12:23 PM EST

Yevghen Zbormyrsky, 49, runs in front of his burning home after it was shelled in the city of Irpin, Ukraine, outside the country's capital of Kyiv, on Friday, March 4.

Updated March 4, 2022 at 1:52 PM ET

Editor's note: Graphic content

Russian military forces have invaded Ukraine.

The wide-scale incursion began on Thursday, Feb. 24. Ukraine's military has claimed that Russia has faced steep casualties as a result of fierce fighting; the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged Wednesday, March 2, that 498 Russian troops had been killed and another 1,597 injured in the "special military operation."

Oksana is hugged by her son, Dmytro, during a funeral for her husband, Volodymyr Nezhenets, in the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, March 4. A small group of reservists buried their comrade after Nezhenets was one of three killed on Saturday, Feb. 26, in an ambush Ukrainian authorities say was caused by Russian "saboteurs."

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, an estimated 1 million have fled to neighboring E.U. states, according to the United Nations. Tens of thousands have also enlisted in the military in the week since Russia's invasion began. Ukraine's defense ministry reported Thursday, March 3, that they'd get help from roughly 16,000 military volunteers, too.

Russian and Ukrainian leaders held cease-fire negotiations on Monday, Feb. 28, but they ended with no breakthrough to end the fighting. A second round of talks Thursday, March 3, ended with an agreement to hold a third round "very soon."

The head of Russia's delegation said the countries had agreed to establish humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and agreed on the "possibility" of a temporary ceasefire during humanitarian operations.

U.S. officials had said for weeks that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was imminent, a warning that Russia, in turn, dismissed as scaremongering. U.S. President Joe Biden warned of a "catastrophic loss of life and human suffering."

The U.S. has joined international partners in levying heavy new sanctions against Russia's military and economy in the days since the invasion began. President Biden has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his country would bear the costs of the attack.

A bus is riddled with holes from a machine gun after an ambush in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, March 4.

Ukrainian artillerymen keep position in the Luhansk region on Wednesday, March 2.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he speaks during a press conference in Kyiv on March 3, 2022. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West on March 3, 2022, to increase military aid to Ukraine, saying Russia would advance on the rest of Europe otherwise. "If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give me planes!" Zelensky said at a press conference.

A child learns how to use an AK-47 assault rifle during a self-defense course for civilians in the outskirts of Lviv, in western Ukraine, on Friday, March 4.

People remove personal belongings from a burning house after being shelled in the city of Irpin, Ukraine, outside the country's capital of Kyiv, on Friday, March 4.

Women and children try to get onto a train bound for Lviv, Ukraine, at Kyiv's train station Thursday, March 3. Ukrainian men have been conscripted to fight in the war while hundreds of thousands of women and children flee the country to seek refuge in neighboring nations that are members of the EU.

Stanislav, 40, says goodbye to his son, David, 2, and his wife, Anna, 35, on a train to Lviv, Ukraine, at Kyiv's train station Thursday, March 3. Stanislav was staying to fight while his family was leaving the country to seek refuge in a neighboring country.

A newborn baby is seen in the bomb shelter of a maternity hospital Tuesday, March 2, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

A woman sits in a tent as people take shelter in a subway station turned into a bomb shelter Wednesday, March 2, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Members of a territorial defense unit prepare to deploy to various parts of the city on Tuesday, March 2, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

A Ukrainian serviceman walks past as fire and smoke rises over a damaged logistics center after being shelled Thursday, March 3, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Local militiaman Valery, 37, carries a child as he helps a fleeing family across a bridge destroyed by artillery on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2. — Local militiaman Valery, 37, carries a child as he helps a fleeing family across a bridge destroyed by artillery on the outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2.

A boy uses a tablet sitting in a metro car at an underground station being used as bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2. On the seventh day of fighting in Ukraine, Russia claimed to control the southern port city of Kherson, street battles raged in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and Kyiv braced for an expected assault by a nearby convoy of Russian forces.

A woman cries as she leaves a house damaged by a Russian airstrike, according to locals, in Gorenka, Ukraine, just outside the country's capital of Kyiv on Wednesday, March 2.

A group of women and a boy walk to the train station as they try to leave Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2.

A blast is seen in a TV tower, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, on Tuesday, March 1. — A blast is seen engulfing a TV tower in Kyiv, Ukraine, amid Russia's continuing invasion Tuesday, March 1.

An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, on Tuesday, March 1. — An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha, Ukraine, close to the nation's capital of Kyiv, on Tuesday, March 1.

A member of the Ukrainian Emergency Service surveys damage to Kharkiv's City Hall in the city's central square following shelling Tuesday, March 1. Russian strikes pounded the square in the country's second-largest city — in addition to other civilian sites Tuesday — in what the country's president condemned as a blatant campaign of terror by Moscow.

Members of a Ukrainian civil defense unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown up bridge on Kyiv's northern front on Tuesday, March 1. Satellite photos showed a Russian convoy stretching for about 40 miles and advancing slowly toward the capital Tuesday.

A girl draws at a table set up in the bomb shelter at the Okhmadet Children's Hospital in Kyiv, on Tuesday, March 1.

Mothers tend to their children undergoing cancer treatments on Saturday, Feb. 28, in the bomb shelter of the oncology ward at Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine.

German citizen Boris carries his baby Josephine to a train evacuating residents to western regions of Ukraine on Monday, Feb. 28, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Josephine was born two days ago from a Ukrainian surogate mother in Kyiv. Boris and his wife, Margarete, said they were registered on the German embassy's evacuation list.

Ukrainian volunteers sort donated clothes for later distribution to the local population in Lviv, western Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2.

A man looks at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022.

Nigerian students in Ukraine wait at the platform in Lviv railway station on Sunday. Thousands of people massed at Lviv's main train station on Sunday, attempting to board trains to leave Ukraine. — Nigerian students in Ukraine wait at the platform in Lviv's railway station on Sunday, Feb. 27. Thousands of people massed at Lviv's main train station on Sunday, attempting to board trains to leave Ukraine.

A couple embraces before the woman boards a train leaving for western Ukraine, at the railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday. The U.N. refugee agency says nearly 120,000 people have so far fled Ukraine into neighboring countries in the wake of the Russian invasion.