Ukraine's Home-Front Helpers

Kyiv locals make candles on October 30 for use in the trenches.

Sources of light on the front lines are becoming increasingly valuable amid Russian strikes targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure as the nights get longer during the winter months.

Workers with newly assembled buggies that were designed and made in a workshop in Kryviy Rih, central Ukraine, in September.

Buggies are prized on the battlefield for the open design that offers easy mounting and dismounting for fighters, a nearly unobstructed field of fire, and the vehicles’ ability to turn tight circles when a fast retreat is needed.

Blacksmith Anton Zaika shows off a newly made stove in his workshop in Sumy in August. The wood-burning stoves were designed by the 32-year-old specifically for use in the trenches as a source of warmth and as a cooking device.

A volunteer weaves camouflage netting inside a bomb shelter in Kyiv in April.  The netting is used by both sides to hide vehicles and troops from drone cameras.

Handmade camouflage netting laid out in a courtyard in Lviv in September. 

Volunteers in Kyiv in June pack plant-based products that will be sent to vegan front-line soldiers.

Andriy Paliy prepares materials that he uses to produce armor plates at his workshop in Zaporizhzhya in May. Before the invasion, the self-taught blacksmith made swords and medieval suits of armor but now he makes ballistic protection for the Ukrainian military.
 

Locals from Lviv construct anti-tank obstacles in March. The “Czech hedgehog” tank barriers are favored for being easy to move on and off roads. They are also able to withstand explosions -- even if blasted into the air, the barriers bounce back to earth and remain effective.
 

Ukrainian women making tactical vests in the port city of Odesa in March.

A Ukrainian man grinds the edges off an armor plate that was upcycled from the leaf spring of a vehicle's suspension system. This photo was taken in the Zakarpattya region in March.

A man fills sacks with sand as part of preparations for the defense of Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital was surrounded by Russian forces in early March.

A volunteer prepares meals for soldiers and members of the territorial defense defending the eastern city of Kharkiv in March.