Soldiers spend time swimming in the pool during the course. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption
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China's leader Xi Jinping claps as he listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin via a video link, from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Dec. 2, 2019. Xi will meet Putin this week on a visit to Moscow. Noel Celis/Pool photo via AP hide caption
Max, 33, a Ukrainian sniper, poses in the backyard of the reconnaissance team's safe house in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. He's holding a "trophy" — an antitank missile taken off Russian soldiers. Frank Langfitt/NPR hide caption
In the Donbas, Russia's vast numbers of troops weigh heavily on Ukraine's defenders
Black smoke rises after shelling in Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 3, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Olga and Nikolay Grinik with their son, Kirill (left), and daughter, Miroslava (right), in Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, in July 2018. The family lived about 50 yards away from a Ukrainian front-line military position in old Avdiivka. They owned the only horse in town, Lastochka (Swallow), and made extra money giving cart rides to children in downtown Avdiivka. Anastasia Taylor-Lind hide caption
An apartment burns after Russian shelling in Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, on Wednesday. Libkos/AP hide caption
A boy rides a bicycle near an armored tank with a Ukrainian flag in the town of Izium, recently liberated by Ukrainian armed forces, in the Kharkiv region on Monday. Russian troops occupied Izium on April 1. Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption
A man stands in front of a crater that was made from a missile strike in Slovyansk on Sunday morning. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption
Along the front lines in Ukraine, cut off from resources, a resilient city holds on
Irina Garmash, a mother of four from the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, sits on an evacuation train that has stopped in the center-eastern city of Dnipro, on July 8. The train carries residents from the eastern Donbas region fleeing war during the Russian invasion. Carol Guzy for NPR hide caption
Riding Ukraine's last train line out of Donbas with families fleeing for their lives
Firefighters work to extinguish an apartment building and cars burning after shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on Monday. Alexei Alexandrov/AP hide caption
Black smoke and soot rise from the city of Sievierodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, during a battle between Russian and Ukrainian troops on Thursday. Ukraine's leader has called it the epicenter of the fight for the Donbas region. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The Ukrainian parliament's Ruslan Stefanchuk delivers a speech at the European Parliament on Wednesday in Strasbourg, France. Jean-Francois Badias/AP hide caption
Smoke rises this week in the city of Sievierodonetsk during heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Firemen extinguish a fire at a gypsum manufacturing plant after shelling in the city of Bakhmut, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, on Friday. Russia pressed on with a deadly offensive to capture key points in the Donbas this week. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A missile lies on the ground in the city of Lysychansk, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, on Thursday. Ukraine said the war in the region hit maximum level. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A man walks past a damaged building after a strike in Kramatorsk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, on Wednesday. Aris Mennis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Smoke and debris ascend after a strike at a factory in the city of Soledar, in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, on Tuesday. At the three-month point since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, fighting has been intensifying in the east. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Russian-backed Donetsk militia fighters man "Gvozdika" (Carnation) self-propelled artillery vehicles to fire toward a Ukrainian army position outside Donetsk, in territory held by the separatist Donetsk government in eastern Ukraine, Friday. Fighting has intensified in the Donbas region this week. Alexei Alexandrov/AP hide caption
A woman walks next to a damaged building after a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Russia ratcheted up its battle for control of Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland on Tuesday, intensifying assaults on cities and towns along a front hundreds of miles long in what officials on both sides described as a new phase of the war. Felipe Dana/AP hide caption
Ukrainian soldiers stand on an armored personnel carrier not far from the front line with Russian troops in Izium district, Kharkiv region, on Monday. Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Personal belongings of victims and burned vehicles are seen after an alleged rocket attack Friday at the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Herve Bar/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A Ukrainian soldier stands in front of a destroyed Russian armored personnel carrier in a village on the frontline of the northern part of the Kyiv region on Monday. Russia says its troops are starting to withdraw from Kyiv, thought the Pentagon believes they will likely be deployed elsewhere in Ukraine. Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Russian troops leaving Kyiv area as Moscow focuses more on eastern Ukraine
A view of some of the damage after shelling in pro-Russian, separatist-controlled Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, on Monday. Several houses and garages were damaged, and some homes were completely burned down. Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images hide caption
An elderly woman walks with a cart March 14 in a residential area damaged in what is said was an explosion of a ballistic missile in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in the northern part of the Donetsk oblast. Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images hide caption