Photographs of mothers crying over the coffins of their murdered children, people fleeing the war on trains and buses, bodies of the dead in the streets…
These photographs of the war in Kosovo and Ukraine were taken over 20 years apart, but they bear a frightening resemblance, and serve as a reminder that war has the same face everywhere, it brings endless human suffering and great destruction.
While the war in Kosovo ended in 1999 after NATO intervention, what Russia started against Ukraine in 2022 continues, and with it the suffering of Ukrainians.
Kosovo: An Albanian woman cries over the coffin of her son, a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighter, killed in 1999. According to the Humanitarian Law Center, nearly 2.000 KLA fighters were killed during the war in Kosovo.
Ukraine: The mother of Major Ivan Skrypnyk cries over the coffin of her son, who died as a result of a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian military base in Yavoriv. In early 2026, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 55 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed defending Ukraine since the start of the war in 2022. However, the exact number of deaths is unknown.
Kosovo: A group of Albanians after arriving on foot from Peja to the border with Montenegro on March 30, 1999.
Ukraine: A woman being transported in a cart, among people fleeing Russian attacks in Irpin, near Kiev on March 9, 2022.
Kosovo: An overcrowded train in Pristina carrying scores of Albanian refugees, fleeing Kosovo towards Macedonia [now North Macedonia] on April 1, 1999. According to the UNHCR, 800 to 900 Albanians were forced to flee the country during the 1998–1999 war.
Ukraine: People fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine gather at a train station in Lviv, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. An estimated 6.9 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee Ukraine since the war began on February 24, 2022, according to the UNHCR. This is the largest number of refugees in Europe since World War II.
Kosovo: A Kosovo Albanian refugee child looks out the window of a bus transporting refugees to a camp in Turkey on April 6, 1999.
Ukraine: Two children from Krivoy Rog sit inside a car transporting them to Germany on March 12, 2022. They left an elementary school in Pruemist, Poland, which had been converted into a shelter.
Kosovo: A Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighter while training in the Drenica region, west of the Kosovo capital, Pristina, on February 15, 1999. Dozens of female KLA fighters were among those killed.
Ukraine: Ukrainian women, dressed in new military uniforms designed specifically for women, during training.
participate in a training. Thousands of women are reported to be fighting on the front lines in Ukraine.
Kosovo: A member of the Kosovo Liberation Army walks past the body of a villager from Recak. Forty-five Albanian civilians were killed by Serbian forces on January 15, 1999. The Recak massacre is considered one of the key moments that influenced NATO’s intervention against Serbian forces.
Ukraine: A body with its hands tied with a white cloth, which residents say was shot by Russian soldiers, is seen lying on the streets of Bucha, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. 458 civilians were killed in Bucha, according to Ukrainian authorities. Some of the victims had their hands tied and, according to officials, were shot at close range./REL