AP photos from Ukraine in 2024 convey wartime horror and hope

A man falls to his death from the window of a burning apartment after a Russian air strike. Two girls in pink tutus join a ballet class in a bomb shelter.

The grisly evidence of war is everywhere in Ukraine, where, for a third year, soldiers and civilians are enduring the Russian army’s onslaught.

AP photographers have traveled across the country, capturing the agony and the life-affirming joy witnessed in the conflict.

Bombs and missiles have turned residential neighborhoods into fiery infernos, while relentless attacks have destroyed homes, hospitals and schools.

Evacuations in front-line areas tear apart Ukrainian communities. The elderly are wrenched away from their longtime homes and neighbors.

AP photos have evoked the grief and the poignancy of funerals for fallen soldiers and for families killed by the Russian shelling. Open coffins, including those of children, provide a glimpse of the tragedy.

The United Nations accuses Russia of numerous human rights violations in Ukraine. They include aiming at civilian targets, devastating attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, and the forced transfer and deportation of children.

By the end of October, the UN estimated that the war had killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians and injured almost 27,000.

Despite the suffering and hardship, civilians carry on with some everyday activities that wouldn’t be out of place in peacetime.

In northeastern Ukraine, about 20 young girls assemble for ballet lessons at the Princess Ballet Studio, where the windowless room doubles as a bomb shelter amid almost hourly air raids.

Children leap into the water at Kyiv’s Liko Diving School. Another boy looks thoughtful as he learns chess strategy from an elderly man in one of the Ukrainian capital’s public parks.

Clowns perform at a children’s hospital. Young people wave their arms and dance at a festival concert featuring an active serviceman in Ukraine’s Hroza battalion.

Yet, amid the bleakness and destruction, life goes on. At maternity hospital №7 in Odesa, Yulia Ponomarenko kisses her newborn baby Marianna.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Crows fly above multi-storey apartment buildings during a blackout in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Cadets turn on their flashlights to commemorate 659 Ukrainian children, who were killed during the war with Russia, in a military lyceum on World Children's Day in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Vladyslava Kulinich, right, Tetiana Nosova, who have the clown names Lala and Zhuzha, prepare to perform at Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)

Rescuers help elderly residents to leave their damaged home after Russia's guided air bomb hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

A damaged monument to Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin stands in a central square in Sudzha, Kursk region, Russia, Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. This image was approved by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry before publication. (AP Photo)

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 110th brigade pets dogs on his position at the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

The crowd reacts as the performer who goes by the name 'the Coma Coma', and an active serviceman of the Hroza battalion, performs during the Kvartyrynka music festival in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

A Ukrainian serviceman hugs his comrade after returning from captivity during a POWs exchange in Sumy region, Ukraine, Friday, May 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian tank passes by a burning car near the Russian-Ukrainian border, Sumy region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Stanislav, an injured Russian prisoner of war, lies in bed at the detention center in Ukraine's Lviv region, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Yulia Ponomarenko kisses her newborn baby Marianna, at the maternity hospital №7 in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 (AP Photo/Nina Lyashonok)

People mourn near the coffins of Yaroslav Bazylevych's family members during the funeral service in the Garrison Church in Lviv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Mykola Tys)

Local residents sit on a bench near the building damaged by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

An elderly man plays chess with a boy training him to perfect his game in Taras Shevchenko Park, in Kyiv Ukraine, Sunday, April 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

People bid farewell and lay flowers in the coffin of fallen Ukrainian serviceman Vadym Popelniuk, born in 1991, during a religious service in Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A man crosses a street downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Mother and teacher prepare the girls to practice in a ballet studio in a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A shell-shocked Ukrainian soldier of the Azov brigade sits at the stabilization point after arriving from the front line, near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Emergency services work at the site of Okhmatdyt children's hospital hit by Russian missiles, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Children wearing traditional outfits wait before performing songs during a show of traditions for Masnytsia, a holiday that originates in pagan times, celebrating the end of winter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A man lies on the ground as he watches his burning house destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Vovchansk, Ukraine, on Saturday, May 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Security guards search captured Russian soldiers with a metal detector at the prisoner of war detention center in Ukraine's Lviv region, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A boy dives into the water during training in Kyiv's Liko Diving School, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Natalia Sheleshei, 39, with her children Yehor, 12, and Anastasia, 5, wait for the return of Serhii at their apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian serviceman in protective suit demonstrates grenade launcher to women during a training course for national resistance for local population in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Sept.13, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

Ukrainian soldiers of the 3rd assault brigade fly an FPV exploding drone over Russian positions in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Olha Faichuk, 79, kisses her neighbor as she is evacuated from her home, which was heavily damaged by a Russian airstrike in Lukiantsi, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A woman cries during the funeral ceremony of Ihor Kusochek, Ukrainian soldier of the Azov brigade in Bobrovytsia, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Friday Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A man falls down to death from a burning apartment window after Russia's guided air bomb strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

Firefighters extinguish a fire after a Russian attack on a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

BANGKOK (AP) — The Biden administration plans to raise tariffs on solar wafers, polysilicon and some tungsten products from China to protect U.S. clean energy businesses.

The notice from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said tariffs on Chinese-made solar wafers and polysilicon will rise to 50% from 25% and duties on certain tungsten products will increase from zero to 25%, effective on Jan. 1, following a review of Chinese trade practices under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act.

The decision followed a public comment period after the USTR said in September that it was considering such actions.

“The tariff increases announced today will further blunt the harmful policies and practices by the People’s Republic of China," USTR Katharine Tai said in a statement. "These actions will complement the domestic investments made under the Biden-Harris Administration to promote a clean energy economy, while increasing the resilience of critical supply chains.”

Reports Thursday said U.S. and Chinese officials were meeting this week and next for trade talks ahead of the year's end.

Last week, Washington tightened restrictions on Chinese access to advanced semiconductor technology. Beijing responded by banning exports to the U.S. of certain critical minerals needed to make computer chips, such as gallium, germanium and antimony. It also stepped up its controls on graphite exports to the U.S.

China provides a very large share of most of those materials and the United States has been working to secure alternative sources in Africa and other parts of the world.

Tungsten is another strategically vital metal whose production is dominated by China. The U.S. does not produce it, but South Korea is a potential big supplier. It's used to make armaments and is also used in x-ray tubes and light bulb filaments, among other industrial applications. U.S. imports of the metal from China fell to $10.9 million in 2023 from $19.5 million the year before.

After Beijing announced its ban on exporting gallium and the other materials to the United States, analysts said tungsten was another likely area where China might strike back.

Trade frictions have been escalating ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese goods, among other threats. President Joe Biden has said Trump’s promise of broad tariffs on foreign imports would be a mistake.

His administration has kept in place tariffs that Trump imposed during his first term in office, but says it has a more targeted approach.

China has sharply ramped up production of cheap electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries at a time when the Biden administration has championed moves to support those industries in the U.S.

The U.S. and other trading partners say China improperly subsidizes exports, giving exporters of solar panels and other products an unfair advantage in overseas markets, where its manufacturers charge lower prices thanks to government support. Washington also says China improperly pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.

China accounts for more than 80% of the market for solar panels at all stages of production, according to the International Energy Agency, more than double domestic demand for those products. Its huge economies of scale have made solar power more affordable, but also concentrated the supply chain inside China. The IEA has urged other countries to assess their solar panel supply chains and develop strategies to address any risks.

In early 2018, the Trump administration imposed 30% tariffs on imports of Chinese solar panels. Beijing filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization charging that the U.S. was unfairly supporting electric vehicle purchases.

The investigation that led the USTR to raise the tariffs on solar panels concluded with a report in May that has prompted increases in tariffs on a range of products including electric vehicles, syringes and needles, medical gloves and facemasks, semiconductors and steel and aluminum products, among others.

It has pushed tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles up to 100% from 25%, raised tariffs on Chinese-made lithium batteries to 25% from 7.5%.

FILE - Workers check solar panels at a solar power station on a factory roof in Changxing, eastern China's Zhejiang province on Feb. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/File)

Solar panels on a roof are seen near the sunrise over Jiangmen in southern China's Guangdong province on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

The sun sets over electric pylons along a solar farm near Weifang in eastern China's Shandong province on March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Solar panels on a roof are seen near the sunrise over Jiangmen in southern China's Guangdong province on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)