AP photographers capture defining images of grinding war in Ukraine

By Emilio Morenatti, Vadim Ghirda and Efrem Lukatsky

As Russia pressed its war on Ukraine for a second week, AP photographers fulfilled the cooperative’s mission to inform the world with timeliness and accuracy. Their images resonated with online audiences and landed on front pages around the globe — from people desperately fleeing the fighting, to civilians preparing to defend their homeland, to cities under siege, to the grim consequences of war.

Courageous staffers and stringers in key positions throughout Ukraine have all contributed essential images. For AP’s Best of the Week — Second Winner, we honor three photographers working largely from Kyiv in the early weeks of the conflict:

Emilio Morenatti

Barcelona-based staff photographer

Morenatti AP 22064466229919 ss — Ukrainian soldiers help a fleeing family crossing the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 5, 2022. – AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Morenatti AP 22064478334810 ss — Ukrainian soldiers attend to a semiconscious woman who had crossed the Irpin River as she fled Kyiv, March 5, 2022. – AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Morenatti AP 22063530542516 ss — Militiamen carry the coffin of Volodymyr Nezhenets, 54, during his funeral in Kyiv, March 4, 2022. A small group of reservists were burying their comrade who was one of three killed in an ambush by Russian “saboteurs” according to Ukrainian authorities. – AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Morenatti AP 22063553703592 ss — The windshield of a bus is shattered following an ambush days earlier in Kyiv, March 4, 2022. Reservist Volodymyr Nezhenets, 54, was one of three killed in the Feb. 26 ambush. As Nezhenets was buried a few kilometers away by his comrades, the ruins of the convoy in which he was killed six days earlier was still in the road among charred vehicles, a spatter of blood on the driver’s seat. – AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Morenattti AP 22063578198477 ss — A man carries a baby above the crowd as people at the Kyiv station try to board a train west to Lviv, March 4. 2022. Ukrainian men had to stay to defend the country while women and children are leaving Ukraine to seek refuge in neighboring countries. – AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Morenattti AP 22062548713819 ss — A woman cries as she says goodbye to her husband before boarding a train bound for Lviv from the Kyiv station, March 3, 2022. – AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Morenatti AP 22060601900909 ss — Animal-keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at the Kiev Zoo in Kyiv, March 1, 2022. Russian strikes pounded the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and other civilian targets, and a mileslong convoy of Russian tanks and other vehicles appeared headed toward the capital. – AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Morenatti AP 22066506468342 ss — A Ukrainian police officer runs with a child amid the sound of artillery in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, March 7, 2022. – AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti

Vadim Ghirda

Bucharest-based staff photographer

Ghirda AP 22064497311215 ss — An elderly woman is assisted while crossing the Irpin River, under a bridge destroyed by a Russian airstrike, as civilians flee the town of Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv, March 5, 2022. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda

Ghirda AP 22064568725014 ss — A man is carried in a wheelbarrow after crossing on an improvised path under a bridge destroyed by a Russian airstrike, as people flee the town of Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv, March 5, 2022. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda

Ghirda AP 22064127613656 ss — Andrey Goncharuk, 68, a member of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, walks amid debris in the backyard of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike, according to locals, in Gorenka on the outskirts of Kyiv, March 2, 2022. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda

Ghirda AP 22062674020089 ss — A woman cries in the small basement of a house crowded with people seeking shelter from Russian airstrikes on the outskirts of Kyiv, March 2, 2022. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda

Ghirda AP 22062588064709 ss — People leaving their relatives press their palms against a window of a Lviv-bound train on the platform in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 3, 2022. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda

Ghirda AP 22062613095999 ss — A child clutches a man’s leg before boarding a Lviv bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 3, 2022. As women, children, elderly and disabled fled to safety, most men stayed to defend Ukraine against the Russian advance. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda

Efrem Lukatsky

Kyiv-based staff photographer

Lukatsky AP 22061415355782 ss — During an air raid alert, a woman holds her newborn child in the basement of a maternity hospital, converted into a medical ward and bomb shelter, in Kyiv, March 2, 2022. – AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky

Lukatsky AP 22062513324023 ss — A building burns after an air raid on Kyiv, March 3, 2022. – AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky

Lukatsky AP 22061308630949 ss — A gym lies in ruins following shelling in Kyiv, March 2, 2022. Russian forces escalated their attacks on crowded cities in what Ukraine’s president called a blatant campaign of terror. – AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky

Lukatsky AP 22060344738595 ss — Morgue workers look at the body of a member of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces at a hospital in Brovary, outside Kyiv, March 1, 2022. – AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky

Lukatsky AP 22064527350709 ss — At a Kyiv cemetery, March 5, 2022, paramedics use the Ukrainian flag to cover the grave of colleague Valentyna Pushych, killed by Russian troops. – AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky

Lukatsky AP 22063603504283 ss — A bust of Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet and revered national figure, stands against the background of a house of culture destroyed in an overnight air raid on the village of Byshiv, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Kyiv, March 4, 2022. – AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky

David Ake, AP assistant managing editor and director of photography had this to say:

“You can’t walk down a hall at AP headquarters without someone stopping you to comment on the images being made by the team in Ukraine. And while the photos are remarkable individually, collectively the body of work is heart-stopping. The AP has a long, storied history of covering wars with a camera. Among those photojournalists are legendary names: Joe Rosenthal, Eddie Adams, Horst Faas, Henri Huet and Anja Niedringhaus to name just a few. This week’s Best of the Week winners and their Ukraine colleagues are worthy successors to that distinguished list.”

In recognition of their remarkable images and more from AP’s photojournalists in Ukraine, we salute Morenatti, Ghirda and Lukatsky with AP’s Best of the Week — Second Winner honors.