Ukraine war in photos: Graduation day — in a war zone

It‘s a milestone in the life of young people anywhere — a milestone not all are fortunate enough to reach, and one that those who do tend to celebrate and remember forever. That’s just one reason why photographs are almost always a part of graduation days, wherever they happen. Here we look at graduation days in the midst of the war in Ukraine.

Grid has written, in this space and others, about small-scale returns to normalcy in parts of Ukraine — the capital, Kyiv, in particular. In this curation of photos is a look at how this one rite of passage has been marked in some of the most scarred parts of the country. Young girls and boys don graduation outfits and celebrate by dancing and lofting balloons in the Ukrainian colors to the sky. Some mark the occasion in the courtyards of school buildings damaged by airstrikes, others in communities guarded by Ukrainian soldiers. It’s hardly normal, but one senses every effort being made to make it so.

As we would for graduates anywhere, we wish these young people all the best. And for these graduates in particular, we wish them better days ahead.