Two years of Putin’s insane war in photos: From wounded heroes to senseless destruction, MailOnline looks back at the most startling images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

FEBRUARY 24, 2024: A Ukraine Army serviceman rests laying on a bed at a rest and recovery base after returning from the front line in the Donetsk region

FEBRUARY 26: Ukrainian serviceman of the ’68 separate hunting brigade named after Olexa Dovbush’ sits in the trench on the front line position at an undisclosed location

FEBRUARY 26: Ukrainian servicemen of the 68th Separate Jager Infantry Brigade ‘Oleksa Dovbush’ fire a howitzer towards Russian positions, at an undisclosed location in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine

FEBRUARY 27: A Ukrainian tank destroys a house used as cover by Russian soldiers in Bakhmut in Ukraine in footage released by the 93rd separate mechanised brigade

FEBRUARY 28: An elderly woman stands in her backyard after shelling in Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut

MARCH 8: A Ukrainian serviceman takes cover in a trench during shelling next to a 105mm howitzer near the city of Bakhmut, as US intelligence claimed at the time that Putin was happy for war to carry on for years 

MARCH 10: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) lays a bouquet of flowers on the open coffin as he attends a memorial service in Kyiv for Dmytro Kotsiubailo, a Ukrainian serviceman who was killed in combat on the front line in Bakhmut

MARCH 10: Local residents of the village of Bohorodychne cross the Siversky Donets river at a destroyed bridge to retrieve bread from the other bank, in Bohorodychne, Donetsk Oblast

MARCH 14: A serviceman wipes away tears as he sits near a man holding a picture of his son at the ‘Memory Wall of Fallen defenders of Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian War’ during a ceremony in Kyiv

MARCH 19: Russia’s President Putin (left) speaks with apartment block residents as he visits the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on his first visit to the territory captured from Ukraine at the start of Moscow’s offensive

MARCH 22: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (front) hugging a servicewoman as he visits the advanced positions of the Ukrainian military in the Bakhmut direction, during a working trip to the Donetsk region

MARCH 23: Ukrainian military paramedics evacuate a wounded serviceman from the front line near Bakhmut

MARCH 26: A tank by the Ukrainian 80th Brigade fires in the direction of Bakhmut, leaving behind clouds of smoke and dust

APRIL 1: Pro-Ukrainian activists trample a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch of Moscow and Russia Kirill outside the historic Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv

APRIL 3: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky leaves the basement of a school, where the villagers were kept for almost month by Russian troops, during a visit in the village of Yagidne, north of Kyiv, to mark the first anniversary of the liberation of the settlement

APRIL 9: A Belarusian volunteer soldier from the Kastus Kalinouski regiment, a regiment made up of Belarusian opposition volunteers formed to defend Ukraine, fires a 120mm mortar round at a front line position near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region

APRIL 10: Two boys stand next to a building destroyed by shelling in the Ukrainian village of Novohryhorivka, in the Mykolaiv region

APRIL 26: Smoke rises from buildings in Bakhmut, Ukraine, the site of heavy battles between Ukrainian and Russian troops

APRIL 29: A still image taken from a handout video made available by the Governor of Sevastopol’s Telegram channel shows a fire at an oil depot in Sevastopol, Crimea

APRIL 29: A massive cloud of smoke is rising after an alleged drone attack in Sevastopol, Crimea

MAY 3: A wounded man sits outside of a local supermarket following Russian strikes in the southern Ukrainian town of Kherson, which killed 16 people according to local authorities

MAY 15: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hugs Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Aylesbury, Britain, during a state visit

MAY 15: Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near the eastern city of Bakhmut, as a Banksy painting left on a building in Irpin, Ukraine, was moved to a different location 

MAY 19: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, during a face-to-face meeting with Kuwait Crown Prince Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (left) on the sidelines of the Arab League Summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

MAY 20: Zelensky with the UK’s Rishi Sunak (left) and other world leaders in Hiroshima, Japan, during the G7 summit at the Grand Prince Hotel to press largely Western-aligned nations for further military, as well as set out a vision for a path to peace in the region

MAY 28: A Ukrainian soldier fires a mortar at Russian positions on the front line near Bakhmut, Ukraine

JUNE 4: A satellite image shows Nova Kakhovka Dam, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kherson region, Ukraine

JUNE 7: Residents of southern Ukraine, some who spent the night on rooftops, braced for a second day of swelling floodwaters, after the Nova Kakhovka dam collapsed and destroyed entire villages

JUNE 8: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (centre) speaks to Ihor Klymenko (centre right), head of the National police of Ukraine, during a visit to Kherson, Ukraine

JUNE 13: The body of a Russian soldier is seen, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the front line in Donetsk, as Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin continued his public feud with Putin in the days before he led a column of tanks up to Moscow

JUNE 14: The body of a Russian soldier is seen near a destroyed Russian tank, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the front line in the newly liberated village Storozheve in Donetsk region

JUNE 16: Local residents take shelter in a metro station in the centre of Kyiv during a Russian missile attack. Ukraine said afterwards that it downed 12 Russian missiles over Kyiv

JUNE 22: Members of the Espanola special force unit pose during a training session on the wild beaches on the Azov Sea outside Mariupol. The group was formed by football ultras who came to Mariupol, where they train and patrol the stands at the main football stadium

JUNE 23: A Ukrainian artilleryman fires a 2A36 Giatsint-B field gun toward Russian positions near Avdiivka in the Donetsk region

JUNE 24: Servicemen from private military company (PMC) Wagner Group ride a tank reading ‘Siberia’ on a street in downtown Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia

JUNE 24: Members of the Wagner Group prepare to depart from the Southern Military District’s headquarters and return to their base in Rostov-on-Don, Russia

JUNE 29: Rescues and police officers attend anti-radiation drills for case of an emergency situation at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine

JULY 2: A Ukrainian serviceman of the 3rd Assault Brigade fires a 122mm mortar towards Russian positions at the front line, near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine

JULY 4: Two women and a girl run away from Palace of Culture ‘Chemist’ in Pervomaiskyi, Ukraine, where they were gathering for the funeral of a fallen soldier, after a missile hit nearby

JULY 4: A couple lead a woman under the hands from damaged residential building on July 4, 2023, in Pervomaiskyi, Ukraine. People were gathered on the main square for the funeral ceremony of a fallen soldier when a missile hit on a nearby parking lot next to residential high-rise buildings. As a result of the shelling, 38 people were injured, including 12 children

JULY 6: Rescuers stand in front of a apartment building partially destroyed by a missile strike in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The missile hit an apartment block in Ukraine’s Lviv, killing four people

JULY 11: President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky and the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska stand together on the stage during the Raising the Flag for Ukraine NATO event in a sign of solidarity, just five days after now-dead Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led a column of tanks up to Moscow 

JULY 17: This video grab taken from a crimea24TV footage shows the damaged Kerch bridge – linking Crimea to Russia – which was heavily damaged following an attack the Russians claim involved two Ukrainian drones

JULY 20: A firefighter works at a site of an administrative building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Odesa

JULY 23: Church personnel inspect damages inside the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, Ukraine

JULY 31: A toy car lies between destroyed cars at a site of an apartment building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine

AUGUST 3: Prisoners eat lunch in the cafeteria inside the Russian prisoner of war detention camp in the Lviv region, western Ukraine

AUGUST 9: Ukrainian soldiers shooting from a SPG-9 grenade launcher in the Serebrianskyi forest on Russian position near Kreminna in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine

AUGUST 10: This picture shows the aftermath of shelling by shock drones on an oil depot in the Rivne region, Western Ukraine. No injured people were reported, according to local authorities

AUGUST 14: Rescuers work at the place of rocket debris falling on a hypermarket in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa

AUGUST 15: A handout picture shows a burning building after a rocket attack in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Ukraine was attacked overnight with 28 rockets of different classes, 16 of which were shot down according to a statement from the Ukrainian Air Force

AUGUST 20: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (right) sit in a F-16 fighter jet at Skrydstrup Airbase in Vojens, Denmark

AUGUST 30: Firefighters work at the site of a missile strike in Kyiv. Russian forces attacked Kyiv overnight killing two people and injuring another, Kyiv City Military Administration Head Serhii Popko reported

SEPTEMBER 3: A portrait of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is displayed next to a sign reading ‘Thank you uncle Zhenya’ at an informal memorial in his tribute in Moscow. Prigozhin was buried on August 29 near his father’s grave during a quiet ceremony at the Porokhov cemetery on the outskirts of St. Petersburg

SEPTEMBER 13: Putin-appointed governor of annexed Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, is looking at the damage caused by a missile attack on the port

SEPTEMBER 14: Children and their teachers wait in a kindergarten’s basement used as a bomb shelter during an air strike alarm in Kryvyi Rih, southern Ukraine

SEPTEMBER 16: An amputee Ukrainian serviceman Andriy, 20, rests after climbing Mount Klyuch, 927m, near the village of Trukhaniv, Lviv region

SEPTEMBER 18: Physiotherapist Roksolana Shmilo (left) talks with Vasyl Grytsenko (right), 29, a Ukrainian amputee soldier after a physiotherapy session at Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, western Ukraine

SEPTEMBER 19: Russian prisoners of war queue for lunch at a camp for Russian POWs in western Ukraine. The centre is the last stop for detainees first held in other cities before being exchanged. Ukrainian officials gave a tour of the camp which opened in 2022 for Russian prisoners of war to journalists

SEPTEMBER 20: Volodymyr Zelensky (left) seen preparing for a speech to members of the UN Security Council, asking them to remove Russia’s ability to veto resolutions put forward to the body 

SEPTEMBER 22: Ukraine hit the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol in a missile attack, causing clouds of smoke to rise from the building

SEPTEMBER 23: Ukrainian military medics treat a wounded Ukrainian soldier in a Ukrainian stabilization point in an undisclosed location near Bakhmut

SEPTEMBER 25: Oleksiy, a Ukrainian serviceman, kisses his wife Maryna, who arrived on a train from Kyiv to visit him, at the railway station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region

SEPTEMBER 29: Young Ukrainian cadets of Kyiv’s ‘Cadets Corp’ military school dance after the graduation ceremony at the Monument to Prince Volodymyr in Kyiv

SEPTEMBER 29: People waving Russian flags attend a concert dedicated to the first anniversary of the annexation of four regions of Ukraine Russian troops control – Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, at Red Square in central Moscow

OCTOBER 3: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) rewards Ukrainian servicemen during to his visit to military positions on the front line between Lyman and Kupiansk in Ukraine

OCTOBER 5: People lift the coffin of late Ukrainian serviceman Spartak Yarkin who was killed by a Russian sniper in Bucha in March 2022, during a reburial ceremony at Heroes’ Alley in the town of Irpin, near Kyiv

OCTOBER 5: Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (left) and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) arrive for the opening ceremony of the third European Political Community (EPC) Summit at the Congress Hall in Granada, Spain

OCTOBER 6: Rescuers work at the site of a rocket attack on Kharkiv. According to the State Emergency Services of Ukraine, a child was killed and more than 20 other civilians were injured in the attack

OCTOBER 22: A view shows a hole in the roof after a strike on a postal terminal in the Korotych settlement near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine. At least six people were killed and 16 others injured after a Russian missile hit the Nove Poshta postal terminal

OCTOBER 27: A serviceman of Separate 14th Regiment of Armed Forces of Ukraine, call-sign Kyiv, prepares to launch a FPV drone on a position on the front line in Zaporizhia region

OCTOBER 28: Schoolchildren wearing gas masks and suits attend a training in the military-patriotic program ‘School of Future Commanders’ in Russian-occupied Sevastopol. The training conducted under the guidance of military personnel include disciplines such as multi-sport racing, tactical medicine, and weapons handling

OCTOBER 30: A serviceman, wearing prosthetic legs, walks past the Ukrainian flags symbolising the fallen soldiers on the Independence Square in Kyiv

NOVEMBER 1: Ukrainian servicemen look their smartphones as they wait, shelting from the autumn rain as they stand next frescos in St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv

NOVEMBER 8: Members of Ukraine’s National Guard Omega Special Purpose fire a SPG-9 anti-tank grenade launcher toward Russian troops in the front line town of Avdiivka

NOVEMBER 8: A woman holds her cat outside her heavily bombed residential building in Avdiivka which has been targeted by Russian military airstrikes

NOVEMBER 8: Buildings have been heavily bombed in Avdiivka. Moscow’s forces have been intensifying air bombardments and trying to move forward with ground forces

NOVEMBER 11: Ukrainian soldiers take shelter in their fighting position in the direction of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast 

NOVEMBER 15: Rescuers work to reach potential victims in the aftermath of an overnight shelling in the Selodove village, Donetsk region, Ukraine

NOVEMBER 16: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) welcomes Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron prior to a meeting in Kyiv. Cameron traveled to Kyiv for his first overseas visit to ‘underline the UK’s steadfast support for Ukraine’ amid the Russian invasion, the British government said in a statement

NOVEMBER 18: Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery from their fighting position in the direction of Bakhmut, Ukraine

NOVEMBER 23: Zelensky met with the European Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen (left) in Kyiv, welcoming a ‘coalition’ of 20 nations, known as the ‘Ramstein Group’, which provided a boost to Ukraine’s air defences 

NOVEMBER 25: People view the rubble of a kindergarten damaged during drone strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine

DECEMBER 12: A Ukrainian Cultural Forces musician performs for sick soldiers at a recovery centre in an undisclosed area in the Donetsk region, offering troops a chance to unwind and clear their heads of warfare

DECEMBER 12: Zelensky meets US president Joe Biden in the White House in an attempt to rescue a critical $61 billion aid package that is still being held up in Congress

DECEMBER 15: Ukrainian tank crews practice the evacuation of a comrade during a drill not far from the front line in the Bakhmut direction, as EU leaders formally agreed to open accession talks to being Ukraine into the bloc

DECEMBER 24: Ukrainian soldiers of the 14th separate mechanized brigade attend a Christmas Eve meal near the front line outside Kupiansk region as Ukrainians celebrate their first Christmas according to a new calendar, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine

DECEMBER 26: People walk past a New Year decoration – Kremlin Star, bearing a Z letter, a insignia of Russian troops in Ukraine, in front of the Monument dedicated to Heroes of the WWI, in western Moscow

DECEMBER 28: A Ukrainian soldier fires towards the Russian position as the Ukrainian soldiers from the artillery unit wait for ammunition assistance at the frontline in the direction of Avdiivka as the Russia-Ukraine war continues in Donetsk

DECEMBER 31: Rescuers respond at the site of a missile strike on a bank building in Kharkiv, Ukraine. For the second night in a row, Russian troops attacked Kharkiv from the air, resulting in the destruction or damage of several buildings and injuring 26 people

JANUARY 2, 2024: Fire and burnt-out cars are seen after a missile strike in Kyiv while a fire ball erupts

JANUARY 9: Ukrainian soldiers on armoured personnel carriers prepare to shoot at Russian positions by carrying out counter-attack actions, shelling the positions of the Russian army and firing from a large-calibre machine gun in Lyman district, Ukraine

JANUARY 12: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (left) takes a picture of a wounded war veteran with President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) during a visit to a hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine

JANUARY 12: A black bear named Yampil, who was rescued from a Ukrainian village with the same name, was rehomed at Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder, West Lothian. Ukrainian soldiers discovered an abandoned zoo in the village of Yampil when they arrived in July 2022. The black bear was one of only 200 animals to survive the invasion

JANUARY 17: A local resident walks past a destroyed car in the courtyard of a residential building damaged following a drone attack in Odesa

JANUARY 24: A woman rests on a bed next to her newborn baby in a maternity hospital in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. This maternity hospital is the only one in the entire Donbas region with a neonatal unit and incubators for babies born prematurely. Despite air raid alerts and shelling, it has worked constantly since Russia’s invasion in 2022

JANUARY 25: Military medics give first aid to wounded Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmut, Ukraine

JANUARY 26: Ukrainian soldiers stand in front of a building destroyed by a Russian rocket attack as Russia-Ukraine war continues in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine

JANUARY 27: This aerial photograph shows a destroyed bridge and houses in the village of Bohorodychne, Donetsk region. Bohorodychne is a village that came under heavy attack by Russian forces in June 2022, and captured on August 17, 2022. The Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on September 12, 2022, that they had taken back control over the village

 JANUARY 31: A Ukrainian soldier is wiping away tears after he was freed from captivity as a prisoner of war in Russia

JANUARY 31: A Ukrainian former prisoner of war is getting emotional after returning to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange. Russia’s defence ministry said 195 of its soldiers were freed, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 207 people – both soldiers and prisoners – had returned to Ukraine

FEBRUARY 1: A grab from a video purporting to show Ukrainian drone boats sinking the Russian battleship Ivanovets. The official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine posted the video footage seemingly taken from the uncrewed surface vessels (USVs).

FEBRUARY 1: Ukrainian servicemen make a trench near Bakhmut, as Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of POWs, with Russia getting back 195 soldiers and Ukraine getting back 207

FEBRUARY 3: Ukrainian servicemen of the Skala battalion perform a medical evacuation during a field military exercise in the Donetsk region

FEBRUARY 4: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (centre) poses for a photograph with servicemen during a visit to frontline positions near Robotyne village, Zaporizhzhia region, southeastern Ukraine

FEBRUARY 4: Ukrainian servicemen walk on the road toward their base near the frontline in the Donetsk region, As Russia slammed a EU-Ukraine summit where nations pledged another round of sanctions against Russia

FEBRUARY 7: Ambulance workers help an injured woman to leave the site of a missile attack in Kyiv after Russia fired 44 missiles and 20 drones at Ukraine in a wave of morning aerial attacks

FEBRUARY 8: A woman takes a picture of creation by England-based street artist Banksy, as she walks past an open air exhibition of graffiti created by International and Ukrainian artists which were painted on the ruins of destroyed buildings in the town of Borodyanka, Kyiv region

FEBRUARY 9: Ukrainian soldiers train at a firing range during military training in Donetsk, as Ukraine accused Russia of usig chemical weapons more than 200 times in January alone

FEBRUARY 11: Smoke rises after tank firing in the direction of Bakhmut, where clashes between Russia and Ukraine continue to take place as NATO’s secretary general called on Europe to increase its arms production to support Ukraine 

FEBRUARY 14: Ukrainian soldiers play with cats as they wait to D20 Artillery gun against Russian positions in the direction of Bakhmut, amid more bickering within the US over a proposed military aid package for Ukraine

FEBRUARY 15: A school director inspects a classroom damaged as a result of a missile attack in Lviv, a western Ukrainian city

FEBRUARY 15: Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a Russian oil depot in the Kursk region, which Russian authorities claim was caused by a night-time Ukrainian drone attack

FEBRUARY 17: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris shake hands at the end of a joint press conference at the Munich Security Conference

FEBRUARY 17: An aerial view of the Ukrainian flags wave over thousands of graves of servicemen in Kharkiv

FEBRUARY 19: A Ukrainian soldier of the ‘Tsunami’ regiment fires artillery in the direction of Bakhmut, as Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia vowed to pick up where he left off following his death 

FEBRUARY 20: The Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant that was recently captured by Russian troops in a bloody battle that Ukrainian commanders estimate killed or injured 47,000 Russian soldiers

FEBRUARY 21: A civilian watches the destruction following a missile attack at Ocheretyne settlement of Pokrovsk City, as Russian soldiers were given medals for capturing the city of Avdiivka

FEBRUARY 22: Ukrainian soldiers observe a Ukrainian helicopter, in its fighting position in the direction of Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine