Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.
I snapped this picture from the car window on the road to Kyiv from western Ukraine last month. My Ukrainian colleagues and I had just been reporting from the town of Ternopil, which was targeted by an early-morning Russian missile attack.
It had been a scene of such sorrow and desolation. The attack blasted the top off an apartment building, killing more than 35 people, including children. The building's jagged bricks stood against the empty sky. I saw clothes had been blown into the trees.
Around the same time, a U.S.-backed peace proposal widely seen as favoring Russian interests came to light.
The heaviness of the moment weighed hard. Yet as I rode through the snowy countryside on that Sunday morning, I saw people heading to church, probably as they'd done for centuries.
I was struck by the quiet beauty and, given the circumstances, the sadness of the scene. But it also conveyed a resilience. Against overwhelming odds, the Ukrainians were continuing on with their lives.
See more photos from around the world:
- Greetings from Amman, Jordan, where history lent a colossal hand
- Greetings from Yimianpo, China, where artisans carve Russian nesting dolls
- Greetings from the Arctic Circle, where an icebreaker ship drew polar bears' attention
- Greetings from Johannesburg, South Africa, where spring bursts with jacaranda blooms
- Greetings from high up in Colombia's Andes, where 'prairie-style meat' is a delicacy
Copyright 2025 NPR
