Photo Essay

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

Celebrating Navruz, the Spring Jubilee

Communities gather to prepare sweetmeats, spring clean their neighbourhoods and play equestrian games.

5 Apr 23

Demonstrators face Russian peacekeepers in Ivanyan, a town about 10 kilometres from Stepanakert, where Karabakh’s airport is located. The airfield was renovated in the late 2000s and due to open for commercial flights in 2012 but remained closed due to security reasons, as Azerbaijan has threatened to shoot down flights. As the blockade continued, on January 5 Karabakh authorities called for support for operations of an air bridge “to prevent an urgent humanitarian crisis”. © Siranush Sargsyan/IWPR

Supplies Dwindle as Karabakh Siege Continues

Since December 12, the sole road to Armenia has been closed off, leaving as many as 120,000 people living under blockade.

9 Jan 23

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

Light Over Darkness: Hannukah in Odesa

As Russian shelling plunges Ukraine into blackout, the Jewish community celebrates a miracle that has particular resonance amid the war.

22 Dec 22

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

Ukraine: “I Want My Mother to Have a Grave”

Painful wait for Izyum residents as war crimes investigators collect evidence to identify the dead.

29 Nov 22

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 Fearful Harvest in Karabakh’s Vineyards

Villagers in the Amaras valley vineyards pick grapes a few yards away from Azerbaijan’s military posts.

23 Nov 22

The sign of Isfara, a town in northern Tajikistan, on the border with Kyrgyzstan. The town lies in the homonymous valley which is crossed by the Isfara river. Media reported that the clashes in September broke out along the frontier between Tajikistan's Sughd and Kyrgyzstan's southern Batken provinces because of a dispute over a reservoir and pump, claimed by both sides, on the Isfara river. © IWPR

“We Don’t Want War,” Say Kyrgyz and Tajik Citizens

Over 100 people died in renewed violence along the border in September 2022 as long-standing issues remain unresolved.

24 Oct 22

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

Kharkiv’s Ghost District

Saltivka was home to a third of the city’s population; Russian attacks turned it into a wasteland.

11 Aug 22

The troupe of the Drama Theater of Mariupol at the end of the play.

Mariupol Theatre’s Actors Interpret the Cry of a Nation

Although the iconic cultural centre lies in ruins, those who kept it alive for decades are trying to revive its legacy.

21 Jul 22

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

Ukraine: The Fight for the “Dead Cities”

In eastern Ukraine, Zelensky calls for long-range weapons to contain the Russian advantage in artillery and airpower.

15 Jun 22

Stela Gevorgyan, 37, and her mother lived with a relative when the earthquake hit. The extended family was made homeless, but Gevorgyan’s mother managed to move into the shelter. Her mother died in late 2021 and the daughter still lives there alone. © Armine Avetisyan

Armenia: Three Decades in Temporary Accommodation

Families left homeless by the 1988 earthquake are still living in tiny, makeshift shelters.

8 Jun 22

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