Sakar Maan, one of the activists that lead the initiative, inside the Iraqi airforce plane holding some of the letters about to be dropped over Mosul. © IWPR

Training session in social media for imams in Kyzylorda, a city in south-central Kazakstan. © CABAR/IWPR

IWPR-supported initiative showed that Venezuelan government was heavily involved in distributing pro-regime disinformation. They also identified a network of social media accounts posing as media outlets that existed exclusively to promote Chavista issues in the global media. © Edilzon Gamez/Getty Images

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A man pushes his bike through debris and destroyed Russian military vehicles on a street on April 06, 2022 in Bucha, Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of committing a "deliberate massacre" as they occupied and eventually retreated from Bucha, 25km northwest of Kyiv. Hundreds of bodies have been found in the days since Ukrainian forces regained control of the town. © Chris McGrath/Getty Images

The reporters of Black Box, (l to r) Stefan Bejan, Stela Mihailovici, Mariana Rata and Ilie Gulca, the investigative journalism programme of Moldova's independent television channel TV8, tracked tangled routes for money flowing to offshore companies from Moldova. © Black Box

Malala Yousafzai gives a speech at an event at Barber Institute of Fine Art, November 2015 in Birmingham, England. © Richard Stonehouse/Getty Images

Four Million Love Letters to Mosul >

IWPR helped organise a mass airdrop of messages of solidarity from ordinary Iraqis to residents of Mosul suffering under Islamic State (IS) occupation.

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We never heard of such thing during a war; usually airplanes drop bombs and [this] airplane is dropping love letters.

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I was able to persuade families that it was a good thing to give their girls an education.

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A 38-year-old Kyrgyz imam

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Combating Disinformation in Venezuela >

Media and NGO alliance reveals extent to which the issue affects country’s online information space.

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As a result of one of C-Informa's first investigations, Twitter closed nearly 150 accounts dedicated to distributing propaganda.

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OUR MISSION

IWPR gives voice to people at the frontlines of conflict and transition to help them drive change.

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Giving Voice, Driving Change

Covering War Crimes in Ukraine >

IWPR reporting project provides unique insight and access to historic opportunity to see justice done for wartime atrocities.

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IWPR's Justice Report is extremely relevant for western audiences, both professional and the general public… [and] a source of factual information and analysis.

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The Cashier of Dubai: Investigative Journalism with Impact >

Moldova story leads to international legal cooperation in anti-corruption case.

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Disinformation is the main driver of instability.

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IWPR’s media law expert in Moldova

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Malala’s IWPR Roots >

Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai began her campaigning work as a 12-year-old IWPR trainee in a Pakistani programme empowering young people through public debate and dialogue.

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In IWPR's Open Minds, we students learned how to express ourselves and the problems of others through the media. We learned so much in the trainings.

Malala Yousafzai

Pakistani activist for female education and Nobel Prize laureate

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An Arab Model for Democracy

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Featured Comments

People hold photos, lay flowers and light candles during a vigil outside the Fox News and NBC News headquarters in Washington, D.C., August 11, 2025, honouring journalists killed in Gaza, including Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues. © Mehmet Eser/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

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Sexual harassment and stalking are the most commonly reported forms of technology-facilitated violence experienced by women and girls. © Kiwistocks/Freepik

Digital Abuse Knows No Borders

People visit a market in the city of Homs on January 22, 2025. Homs, the country’s third-largest city, has a mixed population of Sunni and Shia Muslims, Alawites and Christians and was heavily damaged in fighting over the years. © Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Once Again, Ordinary Syrians Suffer

Mother of Ukrainian officer Ivan Skrypnyk cries during the funeral ceremony for her son on March 17, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. The soldier died in Sunday's airstrike on the nearby International Center for Peacekeeping and Security at the Yavoriv military complex. © Alexey Furman/Getty Images

Negotiations Over Ukraine Are Missing a Human Dimension

Equality is Crucial for Democracy

A Palestinian boy is seen carrying food aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in al-Shati refugee camp on January 13, 2009, in Gaza City. © Abid Katib/Getty Images

How Malign Information Harms Humanitarian Workers

The Beirut skyline is seen at sunset on August 06, 2024 in Beirut, Lebanon. The recent assassination of a Hezbollah military commander in Lebanon, as well as the killing of the political leader of Hamas in Iran, has heightened concerns of a wider regional war between Israel and Iran-backed enemies like Hezbollah. © Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Lebanon: Nothing About This is Normal

A Ukrainian tank drives down a street in the heavily damaged town of Siversk which is situated near the front lines with Russia in Siversk, Ukraine. © Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Why Ukraine’s Fight Must Continue

Palestinians injured in Israeli air raids arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital on October 24, 2023 in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Gaza. Two weeks after a deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel that sparked a retaliatory siege of Gaza, in which thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. © Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images

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Palestinians walk to Khan Younis December 10, 2001 after crossing a checkpoint into an Israeli settled area in the Gaza strip. A crane on the Israeli side builds up a wall around the settlement. In the background are buildings in Khan Younis that Israeli forces have fired into. © Roger Lemoyne/Getty Images

How Flowers and Fruit Failed to Build a State

In the Name of Ukraine

A family walks through the cars parked waiting to visit the tents of the Armenian Red Cross on September 26, 2023 in Kornidzor, Armenia. About 100,000 Armenians have fled the Nagorny Karabakh region, out of a population of 120,000, since Azerbaijan launched a military operation and regained control of the breakaway region. © Astrig Agopian/Getty Images

Nagorny Karabakh: The Consequences of International Inaction

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U.S. President Donald Trump (C) answers questions during a signing ceremony with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (L), and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (R) in the State Dining Room of the White House on August 8, 2025 in Washington, DC. The agreement signed during the ceremony is intended to bring an end to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijani that has lasted for decades. © Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

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The trial of the Russian servicemen Konstantin Smirnov and Denis Podgorny began in July 2024 and the verdict was announced by a three-judge panel of the Chernihiv District Court on February 3, 2025. © Oksana Matsopa/IWPR

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Photo Essays

Ukrainians have dug trenches along the crescent-shaped 1,000km-long front. The ditches are surrounding with barbed wire; sandbags and wooden planks are positioned along the muddy walls. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Hay bales covered in snow in Donetsk region. Ukraine’s winter is harsh and unforgiving: while fighting along the frontline continues the gruelling frost has slowed combat operations. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

An artilleryman of the 21st Separate Mechanised Brigade works on the 2s1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, along the frontline in Donetsk region. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

In winter camouflage is arduous: with no leaves on the trees any colour changes are instantly noticeable in the all-white landscape. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Mortar launchers of the Mariupol 56th separate motorised infantry brigade work with a 120-mm mortar at the Bakhmut direction, © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

A serviceman with the infantry of the 24th Separate Mechanised Brigade. More than a million Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are estimated to be fighting in eastern Ukraine, as temperatures plummet and winter weather bites. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

A Ukrainian soldier in a “blindazh”, hidden bunker. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Cats are key allies in the trenches as they hunt mice, which infiltrate the ditches in search of food and warmth, at times chewing heating or internet cables. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

The harsh winter conditions have slowed the pace of combat operations but fighting continues. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

A cat resting with a soldier in a “blindazh, the soldiers’ dwellings in the trenches. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Weaponry of the infantry of the 24th Separate Mechanised Brigade. Named after King Danylo it holds positions near Horlivka, a town occupied since 2014. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Fighting continues amid the gruelling winter cold. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

An elderly couple living in a frontline village near Bakhmut shows photos of their children. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

man living in a frontline village near Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, indicates where an artillery shell hit his yard, destroyed the kitchen and crushing his car. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Despite the fighting and the impossible conditions, civilians have trickled back to de-occupied Ukrainian towns close to the front. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Artillerymen of the 21st Separate Mechanised Brigade work on the 2s1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system in Donetsk region. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

A family in a de-occupied village near Lyman, in Donetsk region. On October 3, 2022 Ukrainian forces liberated the town, home to one of Ukraine’s railway hubs, and found that 80 per cent of the buildings had been damaged or destroyed. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

People in frontline communities are determined to stay and carry on their lives, but conditions are harsher in the winter months. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Communities have stocked up on firewood, candles and gas canisters ahead of the winter months, but life along Ukraine’s fighting front remains precarious. © Oleh Arkhanhorodsky

Along the Frontline in Ukraine’s Unforgiving Winter

Madlena Ghahiryan with two of her nine grandchildren. “The journey from our homeland was harrowing. We had no food, not even bread… We found wood along the way, lit a fire and managed to roast some potatoes.” © Siranush Sargsyan

Kindergarten No. 6 in Artashat, a city of 22,000 people in western Armenia, was turned into a temporary shelter for 74 people from Nagorny Karabakh. © Siranush Sargsyan

Karine Harutyunyan, the director of the kindergarten, works distributing humanitarian aid sent by diaspora Armenians. Harutyunyan noted that they needed all basic household items including beds, blankets, household appliances and clothing as most people left with just the clothes they were wearing. © Siranush Sargsyan

The 74 refugees hosted in the kindergarten come from various districts of Karabakh. They all arrived within days from Azerbaijan’s military offensive to regain control of the region after 30 years of conflict. © Siranush Sargsyan

Marianna Abrahamyan’s most precious thing is her little parrot, the only thing the 14-year-old managed to take as she fled Stepanakert with her family. © Siranush Sargsyan

Alvard Dadayan's daughter-in-law feeds children in the shelter. © Siranush Sargsyan

Displaced families take turns using the only washing machine in the kindergarten. State aid programmes and support from NGOs and international organisations cannot address the needs of such a large number of people, note refugees and aid workers. © Siranush Sargsyan

The kindergarten houses entire families in its small classrooms. © Siranush Sargsyan

Madlena Ghahiryan irons clothes in one of the rooms of the kindergarten that has been turned into a living room. The 62-year-old nurse from the village of Khramort shares a room with 17 members of her family. © Siranush Sargsyan

The journey to Armenia was particularly hard for old people like Julieta Shahbazyan, who, at 86, left her native village of Aygestan for the first time. She is living in the kindergarten with 23 members of her family. © Siranush Sargsyan

Miriam, the wife of Julieta Shahbazyan’s grandson, is the only person in her extended family with a job: she works at the local confectionery factory in Artashat. © Siranush Sargsyan

Alvard Dadayan's grandchildren live and play in the kindergarten. “They are my only joy,” said the 54-year-old from Stepanakert, who lost her husband in the 1990s during the first Karabakh war. © Siranush Sargsyan

Hermine Hayrapetyan, 35, says she does not have concrete plans for the future. “We still struggle to grasp the full extent of what has happened to us, we do not know what the future holds.” © Siranush Sargsyan

Hayrapetyan's nephew, Artur, is studying in one of the kindergarten’s corridors. He attends Artashat’s school number five. © Siranush Sargsyan

Marianna and her cousin Anna. On September 19, as Azerbaijan launched its military offensive, communication was bad and Anna was missing. Her mother and aunt searched for her and found her in a basement in Stepanakert where strangers had sheltered her from the bombardments. © Siranush Sargsyan

Nagorny Karabakh’s Armenians Struggle to Cope with Displacement

Largely populated by ethnic Tajiks, Gelon sits at 2,336 metres, surrounded by the Hisar range, part of the Pamir-Alay mountain system. It can take up to three hours to cover the 70 kilometres from Uzbkistan’s southern city of Shakhrisabz to reach this high-altitude village. © Abdulhak Turgunov

A woman carries grass on a donkey through the village. Donkeys and horses are key to the village as narrow streets and rough terrain make it difficult to use cars and other vehicles. Tractors also struggle with the uneven terrain; villagers largely plant their crops by hand and use donkeys and cows for ploughing. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Tajiik “non” bread, is traditionally baked in the tandoor, a clay oven. Gelon has its own mill, which produces flour from locally grown grains. © Abdulhak Turgunov

A couple head to the fields on a small tractor, a rarity in the area. The land around Gelon buzzes with life in summer as villagers prepare for the long, harsh winter months. They bring their crops, including the village’s famed potatoes, down to the valley and return with supplies to get through the winter when traveling down to the plain is extremely difficult. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Animal husbandry is central to village life: cattle and flocks are kept on the ground floor of each house and villagers graze them in turns. Carpentry, blacksmithing, pottery and other crafts also support the local economy. © Abdulhak Turgunov

A road sign indicating the way to Gelon is supplemented by a warning about the dangerous road ahead. © Abdulhak Turgunov

A boy drives his sheep to pasture in the mountains. © Abdulhak Turgunov

One of Gelon’s oldest residents, known as Grandfather Rozakul. In his late 70s, he is an example of the villagers’ longevity as the average life expectancy is 78-80 years, compared to Uzbekistan’s average of 73.8 years. © Abdulhak Turgunov

The Hisorak reservoir at 1,800 metres above sea level provides water to the area. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Cows head to the Hisorak reservoir, a key water resource for the area around Gelon. Scorching summers affect the reservoir’s water levels. © Abdulhak Turgunov

A woman washes carpets in the street by her house. Carpets are central to Tajik houses and are regularly beaten and scrubbed. © Abdulhak Turgunov

One of many local tandoors, the traditional oven made of clay used to baked non, Tajik bread. The village has two schools, a teahouse and a small market. A small museum displays traditional musical instruments and old photographs. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Men at the entrance of the mosque named after Muhammad Ibn Geloni. The mosque is not only a place for prayers, but a centre for the local community. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Gelon’s mosque named after Muhammad Ibn Geloni was built in 1848. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Village elders outside the mosque. Usto Toichi (left) is Gelon’s well-known carpenter and knife maker. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Residents work on the roof of an old house, near one of the local tandoor bread ovens. In the close-knit community mutual support is important: residents say they all know each other “up to the seventh generation”. © Abdulhak Turgunov

A woman pours grain on the roof. Some of the village’s oldest houses have an earthen roof and residents use the surface to dry fruit and grain. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Gelon’s ambulance. The village has a small clinic, which serves various communities in the area. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Children learn very early in their life to ride donkeys as the animals are key to life in the village. © Abdulhak Turgunov

Nizоm, a driver, in his garden. © Abdulhak Turgunov

The Tajik Community on Uzbekistan’s Highlands

A resident ventures out of his apartment block in north Saltivka. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

Serhiy, 59, cooks dinner with neighbours and friends on a open fire in the yard of his apartment block. (May 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

A resident in north Saltivka’s Str. Nataly Uzhviy street chops trees. The whole area lacks electricity and gas and people resort to cutting trees to cook and warm themselves. (May 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

Saltivka resident shows a soldier the most damaged places in Barabasovo market. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

Firefighters brigade rush to Nataly Uzhviy street as Russian troops shell the northern area of Saltivka. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

A destroyed Russian tank sits abandoned on tram tracks in south Saltivka. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

Firefighters tame a fire in an apartment block on. Lesya Serduka streets after rockets were fired on north Saltivka. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

A woman rides her bicycle trough destroyed houses and deserted streets in north Saltivka in early April when the district suffered some of the most intense shelling. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

A room in the half-destroyed School 172 is used as a communal kitchen with an open fire. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

Weeks of relentless shelling has left the sprawling district littered with burned car and destroyed houses. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

A man stares at his flat struck by a Russian rocket in mid-April 2022. © Oleksandr Magula

A destroyed house with graffiti reading "Люди" – People. (April 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

Mykhail indicates what remains of his apartment after a day of shelling. His block still stands, but little more than ash remains of many flats. (May 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

Panorama view of North Saltivka and abandoned apartments. (May 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

A view of what remains of Lesya Serdyka street. (May 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

A Ukrainian army checkpoint during a demining operation in northern Saltivka. Mines as well as remnants of rockets, abandoned military vehicles and also widely banned cluster munitions are all across the district. (May 2022) © Oleksandr Magula

Kharkiv’s Ghost District

The troupe of the Drama Theater of Mariupol at the end of the play. © Sergey Hudak

Ihor Kitrysh and Olena Bila, both 41, worked together in Mariupol for 19 years. After a Russian rocket destroyed their apartment, the couple and their ten-year-old son moved in to the theatre’s costume workshop. On March 15, they decided to leave and head to the Kharkiv region, where Ihor is originally from. From there, they traveled to Chernivtsi, western Ukraine, where they worked in the local theatre. They then moved to Uzhhorod when they learnt that the crew would revive the theatre there. © Sergey Hudak

Actor Dmytro Murantsev, 22, was in the theatre basement with his girlfriend when the Russians shelled the building. They survived because they stayed down as his girlfriend was cooking fish on a fire. When the basement filled with dust, they managed to get out. “I remember that it was cold and that we ran. I was in my Spiderman pyjamas.” © Sergey Hudak

Lyudmila Kolosovych follows the rehearsal of Cry of a Nation. The 58-year-old acting director of the Mariupol Drama Theater joined the crew in 2020. “I chose to relocate to Uzhhorod because it is the farthest point from military operations. In such conditions, actors will be able to be calm and focus on their work.” © Sergey Hudak

Vera Lebedynska, 64, sheltered from the shelling in the theatre for two weeks. She survived the March 16 attack. "We ran over corpses," she recalled. It took her eight days to get from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. Traumatised, she made it to the Lviv region where she stopped, trying to recover. But when she heard about the revival of the Mariupol theatre, "I immediately said ‘I'm coming!" © Sergey Hudak

Anatoly Shevchenko, 68, has been with the Mariupol Drama Theatre’s crew for 23 years. He endured the shelling of the port city with his mother and sister. When his mother died of a heart attack, Shevchenko could not bury her. He still struggles to come to terms with it. Together with his sister he was sent to a filtration camp and then to Russia. From there they managed to get to Georgia, then to Germany and Poland. Finally, they made it back into Ukraine. © Sergey Hudak

People look at photographs from the frontline in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, by photojournalist Serhiy Vaganov. An exhibition was organised in the foyer of the Transcarpathian Regional Music and Drama Theatre in Uzhhorod. © Sergey Hudak

A member of Ukraine’s armed forces stares at photographs from the frontline in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, by photojournalist Serhiy Vaganov. © Sergey Hudak

Uzhhorod writer Bundy Sholtes in the foyer of the Transcarpathian Regional Music and Drama Theatre. © Sergey Hudak

The seven actors in a scene of Cry of a Nation. © Sergey Hudak

Ihor Kitrysh as Vasyl Stus, a Ukrainian writer who died in a Soviet labor camp in 1985 at the age of 47. © Sergey Hudak

A scene from the play Cry of a Nation. © Sergey Hudak

The stage of the Mariupol theatre during Cry of a Nation. © Sergey Hudak

Ihor Kitrysh and Olena Bila and their ten-year-old son Matviy in their role of Vasyl Stus, his wife and son Dmytro. © Sergey Hudak

A scene from the performance of Cry of a Nation. © Sergey Hudak

Cry of the Nation ends with Stus' call to fight for Ukraine and the audience breaks into a standing ovation. © Sergey Hudak

Mariupol Drama Theatre actors at the end of their first show since the bombing of the building on March 16. © Sergey Hudak

A woman wipes her tears after the performance Cry of a Nation.

Mariupol Theatre’s Actors Interpret the Cry of a Nation

Vasyl leaves the battlefield after being wounded. He lost his son, a soldier, in early March. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Russian T-72 tank on fire after a clash with the armed forces of Ukraine, Lugansk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A Ukrainian MLRS Grad is shot from Ukrainian positions in Luhansk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Ukrainian soldiers fight near the village of Zolote, Lugansk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A Ukrainian soldier walks near a destroyed Russian tank in the village of Gusarovka, in Kharkiv region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A soldier's boot splattered with blood in the waiting room of a military hospital in Kramatorsk, north of Donetsk. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A Ukrainian tanker surfaces from the military vehicle after a successful battle south of Kharkiv region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A Ukrainian soldier walks past a missile from the MLRS Uragan at a frontline position near Izyum. The town, about 124 kilometres south of Kharkiv, was the site of a fierce battle as Russian sought to control it due to its importance as a transport node. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Ukrainian soldiers preparing for an attack in Luhansk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Ukrainian artillerymen rest at their positions in the Lugansk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A military medic and police officers try to help people after a rocket attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk, a city with a pre-war population of 157,000, north of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Eva plays with her kitten near the shelter where she lives with her mother and brother in the city of Rubizhne, about 117 kilometres north of Luhansk. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A resident of the city of Lysychansk walks past the remains of a Smerch rocket on a city street in April. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Residents of Lysychansk examine the crater from the explosion of a FAB 500 air bomb in the courtyard of a multi-storey building in mid-April. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Kharkiv residents in the city’s Geroev Pratsi metro station. Many families have sheltered in metro stations for over two months. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Residents of Lyman, a town controlled by the Russian-backed separatists of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, in an armoured bus during the evacuation of the village of Rayhorodka, Donetsk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Volunteers carry Lyman resident Nina Tikhomirova on a stretcher into an ambulance during her evacuation from the village of Raigorodka, Donetsk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A private house destroyed by an artillery shell in the village of Mykolaivka, Donetsk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Employees of Ukraine’s state emergency situations service help a disabled person during the evacuation of civilians at the railway station in the city of Pokrovsk, in Donetsk region. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Residents of Severodonetsk hide in the basement of a house during artillery shelling. © Anatoliy Stepanov

A wounded resident of Severodonetsk in the hospital before surgery. A shell exploded in his yard in April. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Residents of Severodonetsk come out of hiding after shelling, four days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

An apartment building in Bakhmut destroyed by rocket fire on June 13, 2022. Civilians feel the onslaught of advancing Russian troops in the city located about 60 kilometres south-west of Severodonetsk and is located on the main road leading to the city at the epicentre of the fighting. © Anatoliy Stepanov

Ukraine: The Fight for the “Dead Cities”

Women dance to mark Navruz in Baysun, a village in Uzbekistan’s south-eastern region of Surkhandarya. The village is known for its festival, the Baysun Bahori, meaning Spring of Baysun. © Abdulkhak Turgunov

Sprouted grain is a symbol of Navruz andit can be found on every table in the communities marking the festivity, from the Balkans to Central Asia. Shoots are usually of wheat, but they can also be of barley or lentils, and are an auspicious symbol for abundant harvest and prosperity. Grown on a plate, they are the centrepiece of all Navruz tables. © Abdulkhak Turgunov

Women sing and play the doira, Uzbekistan’s national musical instrument. A tambourine-like instrument, the doira has a medium-sized frame with a tightly stretched membrane and jingles attached. Also known as daf, it is considered one of Central Asia’s most ancient percussive instruments and it was originally played only by women during shamanic rituals. © Abdulkhak Turgunov

A folk ensemble performs during Navruz. © Abdulkhak Turgunov

Traditionally cooked only by women, sumalak’s origins are shrouded in legend. According to one Uzbek story, a poor woman, needing to feed her four children, put river pebbles and a bunch of grass in her biggest cauldron and cooked it for a long time so that her kids would fall asleep without asking for food. She also fell asleep and when she woke up found the cauldron full of a brown, sweet and nourishing paste. She thought that angels, witnessing her plight, decided to help her. She fed her children and shared the food with neighbours, a custom which remains today. © Abdulkhak Turgunov

A large bonfire welcomed Navruz in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on the night of March 21, 2023. In villages and towns across the countries marking the celebration, people jump over small fires to symbolise a leap from the past towards the future. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

A man dances near the Navruz bonfire, in central Dushanbe. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

Women stirring large quantities of sumalak in Dushanbe. One legend about the dish involves a farmer, who moistened wheat grains as he prepared to sow. The grains sprouted, so he asked his wife to cook them so they would not go to waste. After a long boil, the dish turned into the sweet paste still eaten today. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

Women sell plates of sumalak at a Navruz fair in Dushanbe. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

Women sing and play the doira, also known as daf. The tambourine-like instrument has a frame with a tightly stretched membrane and jingles attached. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

A buzkashi competition in a field in Vahdat, a suburb of Dushanbe. In Tajikistan’s traditional equestrian sport, common also in Afghanistan, men on horseback take the carcass of a dead goat from each other and throw it into a goal. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

A Tajik woman in traditional clothes plays the daf, or doira, a tambourine-like instrument with jingles, played across Central Asia. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

Tajik women sit at a covered dastarkhan, a traditional space where food is eaten. It comes from the Turkic word meaning tablecloth. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

Tajik young women in national clothes. © Abdurakhmon Rakhmonov

Celebrating Navruz, the Spring Jubilee

A woman stands in the centre of Tiraspol, holding a No War sign. Public opinion about the war remains divided: there are between 100,000 and 120,000 Ukrainians living in the region, but ties with Russia are strong. © Alexander Udodov

Tents and temporary sanitary facilities were set up at Kuchurgan-Pervomaisk, the main crossing point between Transnistria and Ukraine, in Odesa region. Ukraine shut its side of the border on February 28. © Alexander Udodov

The Transnistrian side of the now-closed Kuchurgan-Pervomaisk crossing point with Ukraine. The closest village on the other side is Mayak, about three kilometres away. Transnistria has welcomed up to 6,000 refugees. © Alexander Udodov

Food and basic items to be distributed to Ukrainian refugees in Palanca, a Moldovan village about 65 km from the Black Sea port of Odesa. © Alexander Udodov

A sign says No War in a Tiraspol apartment hosting refugees from Ukraine. Authorities have allocated temporary housing for Ukrainians crossing into Transnistria, with many residents making their homes available. © Alexander Udodov

Job advertisements to work in Moscow and other Russian cities are an everyday sight in Transnistria. An estimated one third of the territory’s residents work in Russia. Leaflets offering jobs in Poland are also becoming more common. © Alexander Udodov

A Russian flag painted on an apartment block in a residential area. Ties with Russia are profound, and Russians are about 29 per cent of the region’s 473,000 residents, making them the largest group. © Alexander Udodov

An old woman begs in central Tiraspol by the equestrian monument dedicated to Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, the Russian general who founded the city in 1792. Poverty is high, particularly among old people, and low salaries push hundreds out of the region every year in search of jobs. © Alexander Udodov

A lone musician busks in the centre of Tiraspol by a sign indicating that all the money raised will be donated to refugee assistance. © Alexander Udodov

A billboard reads Transnistria is Founded to Live on the flag of the breakaway republic, the only one in the world that still bears the hammer and sickle insignia. The banner marks the 30th anniversary of the de facto authorities’ declaration of independence, on September 2, 1990. © Alexander Udodov

The entrance of one of Russia’s two military bases in the region. There is also another base in the city of Bender, but ordinary people do not have access to it. © Alexander Udodov

The officers’ quarters of the Russian army in Tiraspol. © Alexander Udodov

People queue at the cash machine of one of the branches of the Russian Sberbank bank in Tiraspol. © Alexander Udodov

A woman wears a mask on a bus in Tiraspol. The region has been supplied with Covid-19 vaccines from both the Russian Federation and Moldova. The authorities offer vaccines to Ukrainian refugees who have not been immunised. © Alexandru Vengher

An elderly woman wears a mask on a bus in Tiraspol. © Alexandru Vengher

A bust of Lenin sits in front of the House of Soviets, one of Tiraspol’s landmarks and home to the city’s de facto local authorities. Built in the 1950s, the four-storey building features a massive ten-column portico. © Alexander Udodov

An imperious statue of Lenin guards Transnistria’s Brutalist de facto parliament in Tiraspol. © Alexander Udodov

A bust of Lenin in front of an administrative building in Tiraspol, with the territory’s red-green-red flag. Featuring a golden hammer and sickle, it was the official flag of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic until the fall of the USSR and was adopted by the region in 2000. © Alexander Udodov

Ukrainians Seek Refuge in Transnistria

“Happy Chanukah” and a menorah stitched on cloth during a children’s gathering at the Mygdal Jewish Centre. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

A giant menorah was erected in the heart of Odesa, close to the landmark statue of Duc de Richelieu, the Frenchman who played a key role in making Odesa a flourishing port. Only people with a special pass can access the area, which has been off limits since the beginning of the invasion. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

A billboard reads “The brave carries the light”. It is dedicated to the city electricians working around the clock to repair the electric grid. Russian attacks in Odesa region has put the grid under pressure and left hundreds of thousands with no electricity or heating. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Mikhailo is about to light the first candle at the Mygdal Jewish Centre. A former student of the centre, he returned to Odesa from Lviv, where he currently lives, to celebrate Hannukah. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Preparing the krustyky, traditional Ukrainian fried biscuits, at Odesa’s main Jewish community centre, Mygdal Jewish Centre. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Children at the Odesa’s Mygdal Jewish Centre during Hannukah. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Activities with children at Odesa’s Mygdal Jewish Centre during Hannukah. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Children prepare the dough that will be used to cook krustyky, traditional Ukrainian fried biscuits, at Odesa’s main Jewish community centre, Mygdal Jewish Centre. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Two older people at the Odesa’s main Jewish community centre, Mygdal Jewish Centre. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Stained glass decorate the windows in Odesa’s main Jewish community centre, Mygdal Jewish Centre. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

People gathering in Odesa’s main Jewish community centre, Mygdal Jewish Centre, ahead of lighting the third candle of Hannukah. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Dim light in the Brod synagogue in Odesa. In Soviet times, the synagogue was closed and the building was handed over to the regional archive. While it has been recognised as a monument, the archive remains in the premises: the Jewish community has tried to get the building back to its sacred purpose but no decision has been taken. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

A couple eat at candlelight in a café in Odesa. Like most of Ukraine, the city remains in the dark as Russian shelling has been targeting power plants across the country, leaving millions with no electricity and no heating. © Zhenia Pedin / IWPR

Light Over Darkness: Hannukah in Odesa

The Manasyan brothers - Vigen, 46, and Arthur, 38 - get ready for the harvest. Most of their arable lands fell under Azerbaijani control in 2020, but they retain a small wheatfield near their house and tend vineyards for an owner who too scared to go there due to the proximity of Azerbaijan’s military posts. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

A vehicle loaded with soil drives into Machkalashen, a village of a few hundred residents in Karabakh’s Martuni district and a few hundred yards from Azerbaijani controlled territory. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Originally from Hadrut, Shushan moved to Machkalashen when she got married. Three of her four sons are serving in the army, the youngest is still in school. “If there is another war, we will all be killed, now we have nowhere to go. Before the 44-day war our borders were further away, we felt safer - at a greater distance from the border and the enemy, but now it is too close,” she told IWPR. Hadrut fell under Azerbaijani control in 2020 and she laments not being able to visit the grave of her relatives, including her father’s, who died in the first Karabakh war in the 1990s. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Machkalashen’s shop is the village’s central meeting place where residents gather to discuss daily news, the situation on the border and plan their agricultural work. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

The harvest does not stop, even though the vineyards the Manasyans tend are less than a kilometre from Azerbaijan’s military positions. In 2021, Azerbaijani troops inched forward and tried to position themselves right by the vineyard. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Shushan, Sareda, Nora during the harvest. Resident use large parts of the harvest, producing wine and vodka for personal use, but some of it is sold to wine producers. The main winery among Karabakh’s 15 producers, Kataro, was based in the village of Togh, in Hadrut region, which fell under the control of Azerbaijan in 2020. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Anush and Arthur Manasyan married 11 years ago and have two children. The couple live with Arthur’s mother, and his brother Vigen lives with his family in the house next door. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Workers join forces to push the truck where grapes are unloaded from the buckets. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Bunches of Rkatsitelli pile up by the truck. Once full, it will be driven to Martuni where the grapes will be unloaded at the local branch of the BH Brandy Company, a Yerevan-based brand producing about one million bottles a year of wine, brandy and vodka. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Heno, 76, helps his neighbours during the harvest. During the first Karabakh war, a Grad rocket exploded in his house, killing his wife Sharmagh and leaving him to raise their six children alone. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

The coffee breaks in the vineyards are an opportunity to recover energy and unload tension: the awareness of being so close to the borderline never leaves the locals. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

The main church in Amaras valley, St. Grigoris, dates back to the fourth century. Locals say that the soil around the monastery has healing powers because it was soaked in the holy blood of the eponymous saint. Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, reportedly opened the first Armenian school in the monastery. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

In Sos, Anush is with pupils who have just finished a class with their chess teacher, Margo. Chess is a mandatory subject in second, third and fourth grade. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Winters are cold in the highlands in Sos and Machkalashen. In the school yard wood is being collected to be used as firewood during the winter season. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Sareda, 66, holds the portrait of her son Sevak, who was killed by a combat drone in the 2020 war. He was the first of Machkalashen’s 11 victims. “I stayed in the village until the end, thinking that I could protect my son, but I couldn't,” she said. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Nora fled Azerbaijan’s south-western town of Fizuli, Varanda in Armenian, during the first Karabakh war. All her children live in Armenia with their families, but she decided to stay in her grandfather's house in Machkalashen village. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

A Fearful Harvest in Karabakh’s Vineyards

Lyudmila Kudelya, 73, hangs laundry near the ruins of her son's house, which burned down after a 120-mm mine hit their yard in February 2017. (February 3, 2022) © IWPR

Lyudmila on the doorstep of her house in Avdiivka. “Victor and I received this land slot from the [coke] plant. There was a pasture. We were young, strong. I remember on the first of May, on holidays, we cleared everything here and began to build the house.” (February 3, 2022) © IWPR

An abandoned house in the village of Pisky, in Donetsk region, bears the sign of heavy artillery. Before the war, the village had a population of about 3,000 people. Today only 40 remain, all of them elderly. (December 13, 2021) © IWPR

A piano and the remains of belongings in an abandoned kindergarten in Pisky. The village lies a handful of kilometres from the airport of Donetsk. At the height of the fighting for the control of the airport, the village was a key crossing point for the Ukrainian army. The airport fell to the control of the Russian-backed militias in January 2015. (January 25, 2022) © IWPR

An old Soviet car in an abandoned house in Pisky, Donetsk region (December 13, 2021)

A family photo album lies abandoned in an empty apartment building in Pisky, Donetsk region (January 25, 2022)

Sergiy, 58, at the window of his house in Avdiivka. In 2018, several 120 mm and 82 mm calibre mortar mines hit his yard. “A large mine fell in front of the house. A few more around the house. Thanks to the volunteers, one new window was set up. The second space for window I closed with boxes of sand. I do not want this all to start again. But I live in fear.” (February 3, 2022) © IWPR

An abandoned apartment building destroyed by heavy shelling in Pisky, Donetsk region. (December 15, 2021)

An abandoned house in the outskirts of Avdiivka. The city was subjected to constant heavy shelling between 2014 and 2018. (February 3, 2022) © IWPR

In Avdiivka, Lidia, 61, looks after the house of her neighbour, Darya. In the spring of 2017, several 120 mm mortar rounds hit Darya’s yard. (February 3, 2022) © IWPR

An abandoned house in the outskirts of Avdiivka, Donetsk region. Between January 29 and February 4 2017, the city was embroiled in heavy fighting, which left the city without electricity and heating for several days. (February 3, 2022) © IWPR

Lyudmila, 73, stands near the remains of her son's house. (February 3, 2022)

Lyudmila, 73, in her courtyard. After her son’s house was destroyed, he moved into a house in the same neighbourhood. (February 3, 2022) © IWPR

A portrait of Victor Kudelya, Lyudmila’s husband, taken on February 25, 2017 after artillery from the Russian-backed militias hit his son’s house. He died in 2018. © IWPR

Abandoned apartment buildings in Pisky. (December 15, 2021) Due to the brutal shelling by the end of 2014, almost all residents had left the village. © IWPR

Private houses, deeply damaged by shelling, in the outskirts of Avdiivka. The area between Avdiivka and the neighbouring Yasynuvata, under separatist control, remains one of the hotspots of the conflict. (February 3, 2022) © IWPR

A damaged and abandoned private house in the outskirts of Avdiivka. (February 3, 2022)

Ukraine: Elderly People On the Frontline Battle Loneliness and Fear

Kartli was built in Soviet times as a sanatorium for patients with heart conditions. As hundreds of thousands of Georgians fled Abkhazia at the end of the conflict in late 1993, authorities allocated about 200 families housing there in what was supposed to be a temporary measure. Thirty years on, 130 are still there. © David Mdzinarishvili

Residents of the Soviet-era sanatorium-turned-collective centre Kartli protest against dire living conditions in front of the ministry of internally displaced persons from the occupied territories. © David Mdzinarishvili

Neighbours chat in one of the corridors; laundry hangs in the background. The 14-square-metre rooms were meant to house a maximum of two people at a time, but since the 1990s have been home to entire families. © David Mdzinarishvili

Nanuli Shulaia, 62, is originally from Sokumi, Abkhazia’s capital city. In January, debris fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing her grandson. “We temporarily moved the kids to our relatives – staying here is very risky. New cracks appear on the wall every day, while the existing ones grow even deeper,” she said. © David Mdzinarishvili

Nanuli Shulaia. There is no natural gas in the building. Most of the IDPs get their heating from pellet stoves or electric heating. This is not enough to dry up the damp walls. © David Mdzinarishvili

Nanuli Shulaia in her room. “In Sokhumi, I left a three-bedroom apartment and two-storey house. When we came here, I started crying – how could we fit into one room? My mother-in-law reassured me that we’d survive here a few months and then go back home. I was 32 then, I am 62 now,” she said. © David Mdzinarishvili

A resident of the Kartli complex folds laundry in a corridor where residents hang up clothes since the rooms are too small. © David Mdzinarishvili

The sanatorium-turned-collective centre stands by the so-called Tbilisi Sea, an artificial lake that serves as the capital’s water reservoir. © David Mdzinarishvili

Irma Nachkebia, 52, from Sokhumi, shows the crumbling conditions of the building.

Irma Nachkebia, 52, displays her abandoned house in Abkhazia on her phone. The photo was sent to her by acquaintances. © David Mdzinarishvili

Irma Nachkebia and her neighbour Maluza Baghbaia, 54, from Ochamchire, watch videos of Sokhumi they found online. © David Mdzinarishvili

Gela Ormotsadze, 38, and Diana Davlianidze, 49, discuss the government’s offer regarding their relocation. Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili offered IDPS in Kartli the possibility of either searching for a new place by themselves (the price must be maximum 550 US dollars per square metre) or waiting for housing due to be completed by the end of 2022. Before that, the government will provide 300 Georgian Lari (100 US dollars) per month to cover rent expenses. © David Mdzinarishvili

Gela Ormotsadze, 38, shows the deeply damaged walls in Kartli. The complex, comprising two buildings, is slowly collapsing as the foundations are fragile due to water infiltration. © David Mdzinarishvili

Six-year-old Elene sits on the bed of in her aunt’s 14 sq metre room.

Diana Davlianidze, 49, looks out from the window by the banner, “Maybe at least you can be helped.” On January 16, Zurab Kiria, 52, an IDP, killed himself. According to his neighbours, his last words were, “Maybe at least you can be helped.” © David Mdzinarishvili

Laundry hanging out to dry in the corridor of the former sanatorium.

An old couch and broken watch in the hall in one of the two buildings of the Kartli complex.

A corner of the entrance hall of the Soviet sanatorium, which was turned into collective centre in 1992. What was supposed to be a temporary housing measure for the hundreds of thousands of Georgians fleeing Abkhazia turned into permanent housing. © David Mdzinarishvili

An internally displaced woman from Abkhazia hangs laundry from the window of her room in Kartli.

Laundry and a three-wheeled bike in the entrance hall of the former sanatorium.

Georgian Displaced Still Long for a Home

The ruins of Petro's house after it was hit by four rockets.

The wreckage of a bridge en route to the Polis’kyi region.

Destroyed military equipment scattered across the road on the drive from Kyiv.

Leftover Russian ammunition lies abandoned in Zirka.

The Maryanivka community centre, decorated in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Locals sit outside a typical wooden house in Zirka.

Children play in the village of Rahivka, south west of Zirka.

Lyudmyla Yankina (left) distributes aid in the village of Rahivka

Halyna Mykytivna Semenenko, a former factory and post-office worker in the village of Zirka.

Ruslana Morina (centre), a primary school teacher, stands with fellow locals.

A house in the village of Zirka.

Ihor Denysiuk, a builder and beekeeper in the village of Zirka.

A water tower decnrated in the colours of the national flag lies destroyed in Zirka.

A poster advertising tours of the Chernobyl former nuclear site.

The remnants of a Russian base lie abandoned in Luhovyky.

All that was left of an improvised base for Russian soldiers in Luhovyky.

The Russian soldiers left scattered remnants of equipment behind when they moved on from in Luhovyky.

Life on the Chernobyl Front

A man stands in front of the sign “I Love Ukraine” in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the capital’s central square. Since the start of Ukraine's independence movement in 1990, the Maidan has been the site of political rallies including large-scale radical protest campaigns as well as the 2014 demonstrations. (February 24, 2022) © IWPR

Queues at bank machines in Irpin, a town of 60,000 in the Kyiv region’s northwest. (February 24, 2022)

A message at a bank machine in Irpin states that it has run out of cash. (February 24, 2022)

On the horizon smoke comes from the Hostomel airport. About 10 kilometres from Kyiv, Hostomel is a key international cargo airfield and home to the Antonov aircraft company. Kyiv forces re-took control of the airfield after Russian troops tried to seize it. (February 24, 2022) © IWPR

A long queue at a gas station starts in Irpin, just beyond Kyiv’s city boundary. (February 24, 2022)

A poster in downtown Kyiv calls on Ukrainians to join the Territorial Defence Unit, a military reserve component of the armed forces with auxiliary functions. (February 24, 2022) © IWPR

Khreshchatyk, Kyiv’s main street, is deserted in the early evening hours. (February 24, 2022)

People with travel bags rushing to a shelter in the centre of Kyiv. (February 24, 2022)

man sits in a parking lot in front of a closed shopping centre in Irpin, a town just beyond Kyiv’s city boundaries. (February 24, 2022) © IWPR

The deserted parking lot of a large shopping centre in Irpin. (February 24, 2022)

Lights in the gas station have been turned off, presumably to avoid drawing attention to crowded sites as the battle for control of the Hostomel airfield rages less than eight km away from Irpin. (February 24, 2022) © IWPR

Vasily and Yesenia walk in the deserted centre of Kyiv. “We went out for a walk in the evening. We feel more scared at home." (February 24, 2022) © IWPR

Staff in a supermarket in Bucha send customers away as it now operates with reduced working hours. (February 24, 2022) © IWPR

Valery Fedulkin and Galina Fedulkina fled from Donetsk to Irpin in 2016 as they wanted to live away from the conflict. They lie on the bed near their “go” bags. (February 24, 2022) © IWPR

Civilians Take Cover as Russians Invade Kyiv

Krasnopliske cemetery of unidentified defenders of Ukraine in Dnipro.

Inna Dumchyk, Lozivatka, (Kriviy Rig region) – Yaroslav Dumchyk went missing near Ilovaisk, in Donetsk region, during the 26 days of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-supported and armed militias. The city fell into the pro-Moscow forces on September 2, 2014. Yaroslav’s mother, Inna, says that he called her in December of the same year. © Zoya Shu

Liliana Kolesova, Pokrovsk (Donetsk region) – Liliana last saw her son as a teenager. Today, Yevhen would be 25. In July 2014, 17-year-old Yevhen got into a car with three acquaintances in his native Pokrovsk, a city of about 60,000 people in Donetsk region. None of the four young men have returned or has been found thus far. © Zoya Shu

Maryna Tsyba, Pavlograd (Dnipropetrovsk region) – Serhiy Shevchenko’s medals still hang in his room. He was a good volleyball player but admired the army and after graduating from school he signed up and enlisted. © Zoya Shu

Galina Pugachova, Kharkiv – The first time Pavlo went to the seaside he returned with a gift for his mother Galina: a seagull's feather. He was 11. © Zoya Shu

Yadviga Lozinska, Dnipro – Yadviga has not touched Andriy's closet; his son’s belongings are still there.

Larisa Martyrosova, Pokrovsk (Donetsk region) – “My son Spartak lived with a girl. He left to get groceries by car on August 20, 2014. At night, they called his girlfriend and asked if Spartak Martyrosov was her husband. They said that he was in Makiivka in a basement, kept by Zakriev Mansur, a Chechen militiaman.” © Zoya Shu

Victoria Yaremchuk, Kropivnitsky (Kirovhrad region) – Oleksandr Yaremchuk went missing on Ukraine’s independence day, on August 24, 2014. The history and law teacher-turned-soldier was evacuating the wounded from Savur-Mohyla, in Donetsk region, close to the Russian border. © Zoya Shu

Kateryna Khomyak, Lutsk Kateryna – Khomyak’s two sons, Dmytro and Volodymyr, served in the Aydar Battalion. They went missing after the battalion was ambushed south of Shchastia on September 5, 2014. © Zoya Shu

Tetiana Dobrovolska, Kropivnitsky (Kirovhrad region) – "Serhiy is alive somewhere, a witness saw him in 2016 in a basement in the Donetsk region, and then he was seen in a prison in Makiivka,” Tetiana Dobrovolska believes. © Zoya Shu

Svitlana Anikina, Pavlograd (Dnipropetrovsk region) – Maksym Anikin was 24 when he vanished in Ilovaisk. He was a crew member of a BMP-2 tank in the 93rd separate mechanized brigade. © Zoya Shu

Ukrainian Mothers Cling on to Hope

Simple wooden crosses with numbers mark graves in Pishchanske cemetery on Shakespeare Street in Izyum’s outskirts, where Russians buried most of the residents who died during the occupation. © Danil Pavlov

Employees of Ukraine’s state emergency service carry a body bag in the pine forest in the outskirts of the retaken town of Izyum. Ukrainian authorities discovered a mass burial site with hundreds of graves. © Danil Pavlov

Protected by head-to-toe suits and rubber gloves, workers recover the remains of the victims. They carefully collect and classify all possible objects, which could help to identify those buried in unmarked graves. © Danil Pavlov

An investigator examines an exhumed body. As of November, 447 bodies had been found, of both military personnel and civilians, including children. On November 28, DNA analysis identified the body of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a young poet and writer, who kept a diary about Russian occupation and hid it under a cherry tree in his garden. © Danil Pavlov

A black bag containing an exhumed body from the mass grave in Izyum reads 344 “Unknown man”.

Police officers work in a tent near the mass burial site.

A refrigerated truck transports exhumed bodies from Izyum’s mass grave site.

Priest Yuriy Potykun conducts a memorial service at the mass burial site in the forest on the outskirts of Izyum. © Danil Pavlov

Viktor Sytnyk, 64, holds the death certificate of his mother Natalia who died on May 21. After a rocket hit their house, she was rushed to the local hospital and underwent surgery, but died following a traumatic shock. © Danil Pavlov

After detailing the circumstances of how his mother died to the prosecutor, Viktor Sytnyk signs a statement giving his consent to provide DNA samples and process personal data. © Danil Pavlov

Prosecutor Ivan Likhovyn sorts Viktor Sytnyk’s DNA samples. Cotton swabs are rubbed inside his cheek, packed in an envelope and sent for forensic analysis. © Danil Pavlov

Prosecutor Ivan Likhovyn packs Viktor Sytnyk's DNA samples in an envelope. The sample will be added to the database with those collected from exhumed bodies in the mass grave to find a match. © Danil Pavlov

The investigator records the details of the death of Victor Sytnyk's mother. By the time Viktor had arranged the funeral and returned to the morgue, his mother’s body was gone. He was told that a team organised by the occupation authorities had already taken it to the cemetery. © Danil Pavlov

A woman sits with a prosecutor in Izyum’s makeshift police station in a former shopping centre. Residents who are trying to locate the bodies of their beloved queue to give testimonies and provide DNA samples. © Danil Pavlov

A woman tries to connect a broken phone to a prosecutor's computer to show a copy of her dead mother's passport. © Danil Pavlov

Viktor Sytnykin in the yard of his house. He is clinging on to the hope that the body of his 90-year-old mother Natalia will be identified. "I don't believe [the Russians] will be punished, but I want my mother to have at least a grave," the former forest ranger said. © Danil Pavlov

Viktor Sytnyk near his house in Izyum. On May 21, a rocket fell in their yard, shattering the window in his mother Natalia’s room. She died from her injuries. © Danil Pavlov

Viktor Sytnyk feeds cats in the kitchen of his house.

Viktor Sytnyk shows a pillow cut by shrapnel, with which he covered his face to walk into his mother’s room after a rocket fell in their yard on May 21. © Danil Pavlov

Local residents take all available wood from a destroyed school to use as firewood. There is no heating in the town, and electricity is limited to the bare minimum. © Danil Pavlov

A woman walks in front of the skeleton of a building in central Izyum. Hardly a building in the town is left undamaged. © Danil Pavlov

Ukrainian servicemen at the checkpoint at the entrance of Izyum. Russian troops retreated on September 10, six months after occupying the town in the Kharkiv region. © Danil Pavlov

A chair with the Ukrainian flag sits in front of the heavily damaged building of Izyum’s district court.

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