Emile Ducke

Winter in Ukraine’s eastern steppe brings an inescapable cold. The wind blowing through damaged homes, the shattered windows, the chill in your bones — it feels as if it will be permanent.

Since Russian troops were pushed out of the city of Kherson, they have bombed it relentlessly. Closely held river operations could change that.

In Izium, in eastern Ukraine, the buildings are in ruins and services are spotty. Barely recovered, its residents worry that more mayhem may lie ahead.

The torture rooms in the battered Ukrainian city of Kupiansk have been empty for months. But Moscow’s advancing forces are just five miles away.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia views Odesa as a culturally important part of his nation. But many in the Ukrainian city reject the connection and view the country that has been attacking it with loathing.

Odesa, a port city long beloved by travelers, had been largely spared the worst of the war, but that began changing this week.

Not everyone evacuated when the Chernobyl nuclear plant melted down in 1986. The few who stayed lived through another calamity when Russian troops marched in.

“My children left, but I don’t want to. I warm myself with an electric heater when there is power,” Alyona Kovalyova said.

Ukrainians have faced bombings, torture and rape without giving in to Russia. But will America and Europe show the same resolve?

Once a vast prison ground for political exiles, the banks of the Ket River are now home to a range of solitary settlements.