Photos: Ukraine’s civilian forces grow as more enlist in the fight against Russia

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Photos: Ukraine’s civilian forces grow as more enlist in the fight against Russia

Marco Storel – March 4, 2022

Editor’s note: Graphic content

Yevghen Zbormyrsky, 49, runs in front of his burning home after it was shelled in the city of Irpin, Ukraine, outside the country’s capital of Kyiv, on Friday, March 4.Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

Russian military forces have invaded Ukraine.

The wide-scale incursion began on Thursday, Feb. 24. Ukraine’s military has claimed that Russia has faced steep casualties as a result of fierce fighting; the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged Wednesday, March 2, that 498 Russian troops had been killed and another 1,597 injured in the “special military operation.”

Oksana is hugged by her son, Dmytro, during a funeral for her husband, Volodymyr Nezhenets, in the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, March 4. A small group of reservists buried their comrade after Nezhenets was one of three killed on Saturday, Feb. 26, in an ambush Ukrainian authorities say was caused by Russian “saboteurs.”Emilio Morenatti/AP

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, an estimated 1 million have fled to neighboring E.U. states, according to the United Nations. Tens of thousands have also enlisted in the military in the week since Russia’s invasion began. Ukraine’s defense ministry reported Thursday, March 3, that they’d get help from roughly 16,000 military volunteers, too.

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A closer look at the volunteers who are signing up to fight the Russians

Russian and Ukrainian leaders held cease-fire negotiations on Monday, Feb. 28, but they ended with no breakthrough to end the fighting. A second round of talks Thursday, March 3, ended with an agreement to hold a third round “very soon.”

The head of Russia’s delegation said the countries had agreed to establish humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and agreed on the “possibility” of a temporary ceasefire during humanitarian operations.

U.S. officials had said for weeks that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was imminent, a warning that Russia, in turn, dismissed as scaremongering. U.S. President Joe Biden warned of a “catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.”Sponsor Message

The U.S. has joined international partners in levying heavy new sanctions against Russia’s military and economy in the days since the invasion began. President Biden has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his country would bear the costs of the attack.

A bus is riddled with holes from a machine gun after an ambush in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, March 4. Emilio Morenatti/AP

Ukrainian artillerymen keep position in the Luhansk region on Wednesday, March 2. Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he speaks during a press conference in Kyiv on March 3, 2022. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West on March 3, 2022, to increase military aid to Ukraine, saying Russia would advance on the rest of Europe otherwise. “If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give me planes!” Zelensky said at a press conference. Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images

A child learns how to use an AK-47 assault rifle during a self-defense course for civilians in the outskirts of Lviv, in western Ukraine, on Friday, March 4. Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

People remove personal belongings from a burning house after being shelled in the city of Irpin, Ukraine, outside the country’s capital of Kyiv, on Friday, March 4. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

Women and children try to get onto a train bound for Lviv, Ukraine, at Kyiv’s train station Thursday, March 3. Ukrainian men have been conscripted to fight in the war while hundreds of thousands of women and children flee the country to seek refuge in neighboring nations that are members of the EU. Emilio Morenatti/AP

Stanislav, 40, says goodbye to his son, David, 2, and his wife, Anna, 35, on a train to Lviv, Ukraine, at Kyiv’s train station Thursday, March 3. Stanislav was staying to fight while his family was leaving the country to seek refuge in a neighboring country. Emilio Morenatti/AP

A newborn baby is seen in the bomb shelter of a maternity hospital Tuesday, March 2, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

A woman sits in a tent as people take shelter in a subway station turned into a bomb shelter Wednesday, March 2, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Members of a territorial defense unit prepare to deploy to various parts of the city on Tuesday, March 2, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

A Ukrainian serviceman walks past as fire and smoke rises over a damaged logistics center after being shelled Thursday, March 3, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Local militiaman Valery, 37, carries a child as he helps a fleeing family across a bridge destroyed by artillery on the outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2. Emilio Morenatti/AP

A boy uses a tablet sitting in a metro car at an underground station being used as bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2. On the seventh day of fighting in Ukraine, Russia claimed to control the southern port city of Kherson, street battles raged in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and Kyiv braced for an expected assault by a nearby convoy of Russian forces. Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images

A woman cries as she leaves a house damaged by a Russian airstrike, according to locals, in Gorenka, Ukraine, just outside the country’s capital of Kyiv on Wednesday, March 2. Vadim Ghirda/AP

A group of women and a boy walk to the train station as they try to leave Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2. Emilio Morenatti/AP

A blast is seen engulfing a TV tower in Kyiv, Ukraine, amid Russia’s continuing invasion Tuesday, March 1. Carlos Barria/Reuters

An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha, Ukraine, close to the nation’s capital of Kyiv, on Tuesday, March 1. Serhii Nuzhnenko/AP

A member of the Ukrainian Emergency Service surveys damage to Kharkiv’s City Hall in the city’s central square following shelling Tuesday, March 1. Russian strikes pounded the square in the country’s second-largest city — in addition to other civilian sites Tuesday — in what the country’s president condemned as a blatant campaign of terror by Moscow. Pavel Dorogoy/AP

Members of a Ukrainian civil defense unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown up bridge on Kyiv’s northern front on Tuesday, March 1. Satellite photos showed a Russian convoy stretching for about 40 miles and advancing slowly toward the capital Tuesday. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

A girl draws at a table set up in the bomb shelter at the Okhmadet Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, on Tuesday, March 1. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Mothers tend to their children undergoing cancer treatments on Saturday, Feb. 28, in the bomb shelter of the oncology ward at Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

German citizen Boris carries his baby Josephine to a train evacuating residents to western regions of Ukraine on Monday, Feb. 28, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Josephine was born two days ago from a Ukrainian surogate mother in Kyiv. Boris and his wife, Margarete, said they were registered on the German embassy’s evacuation list. Pierre Crom/Getty Images

Ukrainian volunteers sort donated clothes for later distribution to the local population in Lviv, western Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 2. Bernat Armangue/AP

A man looks at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Serhii Nuzhnenko/AP

Nigerian students in Ukraine wait at the platform in Lviv’s railway station on Sunday, Feb. 27. Thousands of people massed at Lviv’s main train station on Sunday, attempting to board trains to leave Ukraine. Bernat Armangue/AP

A couple embraces before the woman boards a train leaving for western Ukraine, at the railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday. The U.N. refugee agency says nearly 120,000 people have so far fled Ukraine into neighboring countries in the wake of the Russian invasion. Andriy Andriyenko/AP

Author: John Hanno

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Bogan High School. Worked in Alaska after the earthquake. Joined U.S. Army at 17. Sergeant, B Battery, 3rd Battalion, 84th Artillery, 7th Army. Member of 12 different unions, including 4 different locals of the I.B.E.W. Worked for fortune 50, 100 and 200 companies as an industrial electrician, electrical/electronic technician.