As the Russia-Ukraine war drags on, refugees long to return home

Valentyna, a Ukrainian refugee from the Lviv area, works on a self-portrait in a room at a refugee shelter in Warsaw, Poland. As Russia’s war against Ukraine reaches the sixth-month mark, many refugees are coming to the bitter realization that they will not be returning home soon. With shelling around a nuclear power plant and missiles threatening even western regions of Ukraine, many refugees don’t feel safe at home, even if those areas are under Ukrainian control. (AP)

Svitlana Syzovab, a Ukrainian refugee, takes care of her grandson Hordii in a flat in Pruszkow, Poland on Wednesday. (AP)

Taisiia Mokrozub, a Ukrainian refugee from Zaporizhzhia, holds her son Hordii during an interview with The Associated Press in a flat in Pruszkow, Poland, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. (AP)

Ukrainian refugee children play on a playground at a refugee shelter in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday. (AP)

Marina Galla, a refugee from Ukraine, sits in front of the Schwerin castle in Schwerin, Germany. They are biding their time, waiting for the end of a war that shows no signs of ending soon, longing for home and refusing to think too far into the future. (AP)

Tetiana Bilous, a Ukrainian refugee from Vinnytsia, right, gives birthday flowers to a colleague in the back room of a coffee shop where she works in the kitchen in Warsaw. Russia’s invasion has created the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. The UN refugee agency says a third of Ukrainians have fled their homes, with more than 6.6 million displaced within the country and over 6.6 million more across the continent. (AP)

Ukrainian women with children enter a refugee shelter in Warsaw. The global technology company Siemens has converted some of its offices in Warsaw into a refugee shelter for over 150 people who have fled the war in Ukraine. (AP)