AP PHOTOS on Day 43: Gathering the dead, clutching to life

At a home in Bucha, from where Russian soldiers recently retreated, municipal workers remove a dead body. In a school yard in Chernihiv, a boy clutching a loaf of bread is part of a crowd receiving humanitarian aid. And at a training camp near Kharkiv, a soldier practices rappelling down a wall.

Across Ukraine, people are grappling with the realities of Russia’s brutal invasion -- tending to the deceased, feeding the hungry and preparing for the next phase of a war that shows no sign of letting up.

Russian troops retreating from cities surrounding Kyiv left behind crushed buildings, destroyed cars and starving families — images that helped explain Ukrainian leaders’ desperate pleas for more Western help to halt Moscow’s next offensive.

Amid all the despair, though, there were signs of hope for the future: At a park in Kyiv, a female soldier with a rifle slung across her back wore fatigues and a crown of white roses as she nuzzled another soldier who would soon become her husband.

___

This gallery contains graphic content.