AP PHOTOS: Day 17: Images of destruction, Ukrainian defiance

In besieged towns and cities around Ukraine on Saturday, smoke rose from destroyed buildings and burned-out cars. Soldiers patrolled deserted, debris-filled streets. And hospitals struggled to treat the injured, provide shelter and deliver babies.

Meanwhile, the exodus of refugees from the country continued. There were tearful goodbyes at train stations, and tears of joy when some family members were united across the border in Poland.

Among the images captured by Associated Press photographers on Day 17 of the war there were also pictures of defiance — from a welder working on tire-deflating spikes to a refugee with fingernails painted the colors of the Ukrainian flag.