An elderly woman draped in snow. A child peering out a train window into the unknown. A pair of hands bound. From Jan. 25 to April 8, AP photographer Vadim Ghirda took some of the most recognizable images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A woman and child peer out of the window of a bus as they leave Sievierodonetsk, the Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.

Ghirda spent his earliest days in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as tensions rose over warnings that Russia planned to invade Ukraine. Russia, at the time, strenuously denied such plans and then did invade on Feb. 24.

A Ukrainian serviceman, seen through a camouflage mesh, stands at a front line position in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Jan. 29, 2022.

The first days of the invasion found Ghirda in bombarded Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, crouching in the snow next to a dead soldier and a destroyed Russian rocket launcher.

The body of a serviceman is coated in snow next to a destroyed Russian military multiple rocket launcher vehicle on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2022.

Then he was on to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to document the frantic crush of people trying to leave the country while they still could. His camera captured a serene-looking baby in the middle of the anxious crowd. Ghirda was there again as the flight from the capital region later became more dangerous, photographing an elderly woman clutching her head after crossing the Irpin River under a bridge that had been destroyed.

An elderly lady gets assisted while crossing the Irpin river, under a bridge that was destroyed, as civilians flee the town of Irpin, Ukraine, March 5, 2022.

He also documented some of the horrors found in the northern Ukrainian town of Bucha, where Ukrainian officials say Russian soldiers committed war crimes before withdrawing.

A man and child ride on a bicycle as bodies of civilians lie in the street in the formerly Russian-occupied Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Ukraine, April 2, 2022.

Amid the destruction of war, Ghirda found gentle moments. A woman with a dozen dogs at a sunny triage point after leaving Irpin. A teenager rubbing noses with her soldier boyfriend, a suitcase nearby.

Bogdana, 17, rubs noses with her boyfriend Ivan, 19, in Brovary, Ukraine, March 20, 2022.

A soldier trying to avoid being bitten by an ostrich in one of the more unusual evacuation attempts of the war, at a zoo on the outskirts of Kyiv.

A Ukrainian serviceman tries to avoid being bitten by an ostrich at a heavily damaged private zoo as soldiers and volunteers attempted to evacuate the surviving animals to safety in the village of Yasnohorodka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 30, 2022.

He also found flowers placed on a charred Ukrainian military vehicle on April 1, a sign of mourning but also, perhaps, one of spring as well.

Flowers are placed on a Ukrainian military armored fighting vehicle destroyed during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces outside Kyiv, Ukraine, April 1, 2022.

“What I remember is being in awe at how people cope with this and try to not leave a soul behind, be it hamster, cat or huge dog. And, leaving on a crowded train home with super heavy suitcases, I thought how would I feel if a photographer would now stare at me through his lens as I struggle," Ghirda said.

An elderly lady sits in a wheelchair after being evacuated from Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 8, 2022.

"And again I was in awe at the kindness and generosity of all those people who offered me the honor to share with the world their personal tragedy.”

A Ukrainian serviceman stands in a heavily damaged building in Stoyanka, Ukraine, March 27, 2022.

A man carries shopping bags as heavy smoke from a warehouse destroyed by Russian bombardment casts shadows on the road outside Kyiv, Ukraine, March 24, 2022.

Motria Oleksiienko, 99, traumatized by the Russian occupation, is comforted by Tetiana Oleksiienko in a room without heating in the village of Andriivka, Ukraine, heavily affected by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, April 6, 2022.

The statue of Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri is almost covered with sandbags to protect it from potential damage from shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 23, 2022.

Civilians cheer along with a Ukrainian serviceman as a convoy of military and aid vehicles arrive in the formerly Russian-occupied Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Ukraine, April 2, 2022.

A Ukrainian serviceman takes a selfie standing on a destroyed Russian tank after Ukrainian forces overran a Russian position outside Kyiv, Ukraine, March 31, 2022.

A dead body lies by the swimming pool of a home for the elderly in Bucha, Ukraine, April 7, 2022.

A resident looks for belongings in an apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodyanka, Ukraine, April 5, 2022.

A Ukrainian soldier walks by the Antonov An-225 Mriya aircraft destroyed during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces at the Antonov Airport in Hostomel, Ukraine, April 2, 2022.

Firefighters carry the dead body of an elderly woman after a bombing in a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 15, 2022.

The bodies of village Mayor Olga Sukhenko, her husband and son, and that of a man believed to be a Ukrainian serviceman, who was not yet identified, lie in pit in the village of Motyzhyn, Ukraine, April 3, 2022.

A Ukrainian soldier walks in a trench at a front line position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Jan. 31, 2022.

A young woman handles a weapon during basic combat training for civilians, organized by the Special Forces Unit Azov, of Ukraine's National Guard, in Mariupol, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Feb. 13, 2022.

A dead body of a man with his hands tied behind his back lies on the pavement in Bucha, Ukraine, April 3, 2022.

An injured woman evacuated from Irpin lies on a stretcher in an ambulance on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 26, 2022.

A Ukrainian soldier speaks, backdropped by a bullet-riddled effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a media interview at a front line position in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Feb. 1, 2022.

Ukrainian serviceman Ivan Skuratovskyi patrols the ruins of an industrial area, now a front line position outside Avdiivka, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Feb. 4, 2022.

Antonina, 84, sits in a wheelchair after being evacuated along with her twelve dogs from Irpin, at a triage point in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 11, 2022.

A woman bids a man goodbye after boarding a Lviv bound train, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 3, 2022.

A Ukrainian serviceman walks by a building that was hit by a large caliber mortar shell in the front line village of Krymske, Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine, Feb. 19, 2022.

A man carries a baby as people struggle on stairways after a last-minute change of the departure platform for a Lviv bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.

Firefighters climb a ladder while working to extinguish a blaze in a destroyed apartment building after a bombing in a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 15, 2022.

A woman cries in the small basement of a house crowded with people seeking shelter from Russian airstrikes and shelling in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, March 2, 2022.

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