Year in Ukraine

them are social orphans, children whose parents are unavailable due to drug and alcohol abuse and the resultant hardships. Eighty girls between the ages of 5 and 25 live in near isolation in the Petrokhiv Children's building, a Soviet institution built in the 1960s to house girls with mental disabilities. With the facility understaffed, there are few planned activities, and little preparation for their release at the age of 25. Petrokhiv, Ukraine. 2006. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos

n the Soviet Union and miners were seen as national heroes. But since Ukrainian independence the coal industry has attracted little government investment. The mines here are deep and extraction unprofitable. With many mines in disrepair, safety has become an issue. Scores of them have been closed, leaving many miners jobless. Torez, Donetsk, Ukraine. 2006. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos

Sunni Muslims, have returned to their homeland since the fall of the Soviet Union. Their families were forcibly deported in 1944. Serebrianka, Ukraine. 2006. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos

ill live off the land, picking wild mushrooms in the forests, growing vegetables on former collective farms, and raising livestock. While cultural traditions persist, opportunities for employment remain grim, over fifteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Volhynia, Pohulianka, Ukraine. 2006. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos

and miners were seen as national heroes. But since Ukrainian independence the coal industry has attracted little government investment. The mines here are deep and extraction unprofitable. With many mines in disrepair, safety has become an issue. Scores of them have been closed, leaving many miners jobless. Torez, Donetsk, Ukraine. 2006. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos

ads make the terrain remote and difficult to access. Villagers rely on the land for survival, picking wild mushrooms and berries in the forests, growing vegetables on former collective farms and raising livestock, but the lure of city jobs attracts much of the area's youth, causing villages to be depleted.Volhyn, Ukraine. 2006. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos

Villagers here still live off the land, picking wild mushrooms in the forests, growing vegetables on former collective farms, and raising livestock. While cultural traditions persist, opportunities for employment remain grim, over fifteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Volhynia, Pohulianka, Ukraine. 2006. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos

aine. 2005. © Carolyn Drake | Magnum Photos