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AP’s team in Ukraine delivers unparalleled coverage of Russian invasion

Natali Sevriukova reacts outside her building following a Russian rocket attack on the capital city of Kyiv, Feb. 25, 2022, one day into the Russian invasion on Ukraine. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

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Kateryna Suharokova kisses her newborn son Makar in a maternity hospital’s basement, converted into a medical ward and bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022. – AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka

From images of a young girl killed by shelling to an eyewitness account of a makeshift maternity ward inside a bomb shelter, AP’s team of more than two dozen journalists across Ukraine documented for the world in vivid detail how the Russian invasion is playing out on the ground.

The all-formats coverage began as Russian troops massed at Ukraine’s borders and has not let up since the assault began more than a week ago.

In the coastal city of Mariupol, one of AP’s standout packages told of a new mother struggling to control her emotions while holding her baby in a bomb shelter. Medical professionals were also using the space in the hospital basement to receive casualties,including the body of a young man brought in on a stretcher.

“Do I need to say more? This is just a boy,” a doctor told an AP video journalist,lifting the sheet that covered the deceased.

A similar scene played out 260 miles north in Kharkiv,Ukraine’s second-largest city close by the border with Russia, where mothers and their newborns were protected by mattresses piled against the windows of a bomb shelter.

A series of photo galleries showcased the hundreds of images captured by AP photographers. One gallery showed citizen soldiers training to repel Russian troops. Another showed families sheltering in subway stations and basements. Yet another showed children caught up in the war, including a baby swaddled in bright pink in a crush of people waiting to board a train to Poland.

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“Show this to Putin. The eyes of this child, and crying doctors,” a doctor shouted to an AP journalist in the room as ambulance personnel and city hospital staff in Mariupol tried unsuccessfully to save a 6-year-old girl injured in Russian shelling of a residential area, Feb. 27, 2022. – AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka

AP staffers across the world have been vital in explaining the economic,political and social repercussions of the war,from editors and writers in Moscow,Washington and New York tracking government responses and diplomacy in a slew of global capitals, to those covering the expanding refugee crisis along the Polish and Hungarian borders. But the journalists on the ground in Ukraine have been the anchor — setting AP’s coverage apart by producing memorable images and authoritative text as the story develops by the hour.

Included on the all-formats Ukraine team: Andy Drake,Francesca Ebel,Emilio Morenatti,Vadim Ghirda,Sasha Stashevskyi,Efrem Lukatsky,Inna Varenytsia,Bernat Armangue,Andrea Rosa,Susie Blann,Mstyslav Chernov,Evgeniy Maloletka,Nicolae Dumitrache,Yuras Karmanau,Hakan Kaplan and Sergei Grits,as well as some journalists who are not named for their safety.

For tenacity and bravery in chronicling the Russian invasion, the team in Ukraine earns the respect and gratitude of their colleagues worldwide and is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

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