Ukraine war in pictures: Fifty days of devastation, death and destruction
For 50 days Ukrainians have witnessed untold horrors as Russian troops invaded and devastated their land. The story of the war as told in pictures reveals the scars of conflict on faces and cities alike - but also scenes of hope.
By Amar Mehta, news reporter, and Shazad Ahmed, deputy picture editor
Since the first day of the Russian invasion on 24 February, the world has watched in shock as towns and cities across Ukraine have been flattened in the fighting.
Sky News picks out some of the most devastating images after more than 50 days of war.
Image:This image of a teacher bloodied and bandaged became a symbol of Ukrainian bravery in the early days of the war. She was wounded in an airstrike outside Kharkiv on 24 February
Image:Natali Sevriukova could not hide her devastation at the destruction of her home in Kyiv in a rocket attack on 25 February
Image:Surveillance footage shows a missile hitting a residential building in Kyiv on 26 February
Image:After the invasion ordinary Ukrainians stepped up to defend their country. Residents of the city of Uzhhorod prepared Molotov cocktails on 27 February
Image:A charred armoured vehicle lies abandoned on a street in the town of Bucha, later the scene of brutal atrocities, on 28 February
Image:Destroyed military vehicles block a street in Bucha on 1 March, 11 days into the war
Image:The UN says more than 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since the invasion. Among them is this little girl, who tried to block out an air raid signal while waiting for an evacuation train from Kyiv west to Lviv on 2 March
Image:A residential building was destroyed by shelling in Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv, on 3 March
Image:People walk past the remains of a missile at a bus terminal in Kyiv on 4 March
Image:The remains of a Russian fighting aircraft smoulder in the northern city of Chernihiv on 5 March. The Kremlin has denied its army has sustained big losses but Ukrainian officials say at least 19,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far
Image:There was still time for love during war when Lesia Ivashchenko and Valerii Fylymonov, members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces, got married in Kyiv on 6 March
Image:There was little to be salvaged from the rubble of homes hit by shelling in the northwestern city of Zhytomyr on 7 March
Image:People file across a makeshift river crossing below a destroyed bridge as they flee from advancing Russian troops in the town of Irpin outside Kyiv on 8 March
Image:The shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol prompted international outrage. Mariana Vishegirskaya was injured but escaped the building on March 9 and later gave birth to a healthy baby girl
Image:Tanks are destroyed on the outskirts of the northern city of Brovary on 10 March
Image:A girl plays inside a makeshift camp for women and children at the train station in Lviv on 11 March. Ukrainians were forced to take shelter in stations and underground as Russian shelling wrecked their homes above
Image:A destroyed tank darkens the separatist-controlled town of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region on 12 March
Image:A Ukrainian soldier walks along a trench with a Javelin missile system at a position on the front line in the north Kyiv region on 13 March
Image:People and medics help a wounded resident of a house destroyed by shelling in Kyiv on 14 March
Image:Ukrainian servicemen carry a washing machine as they help to relocate goods from a market hit by shelling in Kharkiv on 15 March. Pic: AP
Image:Firefighters work at a site of a fire in Kharkiv on 16 March
Image:Few other cities have witnessed destruction on the scale of Mariupol, where a woman wept in the shadow of an unrecognisable block of flats on 17 March
Image:A missile attack in Vynohradar, Kyiv, on 18 March took the front off a block of flats
Image:Pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle in Mariupol on 19 March
Image:Tetiana Chornovol, former member of the Ukrainian parliament, carries an anti-tank missile on the front line in Kyiv on 20 March
Image:Before the Russians were forced to abandon attempts to take Kyiv, a shopping centre in the capital's PodilAG百家乐在线官网i district was destroyed on 21 March
Image:Doctor Anatolii Pavlov documents the damage done to a psychiatric hospital in Mykolaiv on 22 March
Image:Firefighters work at a residential district that was damaged by shelling in Kyiv on 23 March
Image:A man pushes a cart full of aid given out at a damaged store in Mariupol on 24 March. Millions in aid and military equipment has been given to Ukraine by the international community
Image:A fire rises into the AG百家乐在线官网 in the aftermath of a Russian attack in Kharkiv on 25 March. Pic: AP
Image:The western city of Lviv, close to the border with Poland, became a safer destination for many fleeing Ukrainians but was hit by an airstrike on 26 March
Image:A fire rages at the site of fuel storage facilities hit by cruise missiles in Lviv on 27 March
Image:Programming students Vladislav and Vitali Mamin study in their bomb shelter in Kharkiv on 28 March
Image:A Ukrainian soldier nuzzles a dog that was abandoned by its owners on the front line near Kyiv on 29 March
Image:A fire burns in a building after shelling in Irpin, near the capital Kyiv, on 30 March
Image:As Kremlin troops pulled back from Kyiv, Ukrainian servicemen rode through a former Russian position that had been overrun by their forces outside the capital on 31 March. Pic: AP
Image:Ukrainian rescue workers carry an elderly woman under a destroyed bridge in Irpin on 1 April
Image:A serviceman uses his mobile phone to film a destroyed Russian tank and armoured vehicles in Bucha on 2 April
Image:Bucha, where the Russians are accused of war crimes, has become the site of some of the most devastating scenes. A destroyed Russian tank dwarfs a passerby in this image from 3 April. Pic: AP
Image:Vlad Tanyuk, 6, stands by the grave of his mother Ira Tanyuk, who died of war-induced starvation and stress, on the outskirts of Kyiv on 4 April. Pic: AP
Image:The search for belongings on 5 April in the rubble of an apartment building in Borodyanka is unlikely to have been fruitful. Pic: AP
Image:Firefighters have joined the war effort, dousing a fuel storage facility hit by an airstrike in the Dnipropetrovsk region on 6 April
Image:Pro-Russian troops carry out a search of a house in Mariupol on 7 April
Image:Ukrainian soldiers assess part of a Tochka-U missile after a railway station in Kramatorsk where thousands were waiting for evacuation trains was shelled on 8 April. More than 50 people died in the attack. Pic: AP
Image:Kharkiv, the second biggest city in Ukraine, has suffered from near-constant shelling. An explosion left a crater gaping outside a residential building on 9 April. Pic: AP
Image:A couple in Kharkiv took a moment to go for a walk on 10 April
Image:A rescuer walks during a search operation for bodies under the rubble of a building in Borodyanka on 11 March
Image:Pro-Russian troops load ammunition in Mariupol on 12 April. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the city, according to the mayor, who fears the toll could more than double as Russia prepares for a new offensive in eastern Ukraine
Image:The toll of weeks of war is evident on this woman's face as she embraces a friend in Kharkiv on 13 April
Image:Firefighters begin to clear debris in Pushcha-Vodytsya, a small town outside Kyiv, on 14 April
