In 2014, Ukraine spiraled into civil conflict, fresh violence shook Gaza, and the Islamic State militant group seized swathes of Iraq and Syria. These are some of the photographs that tell the stories of the year.
2014: The Year In Photos
1
Demonstrators supporting Ukraine's integration with Europe celebrate the New Year on Kyiv's Independence Square, or Maidan, on January 1. The mass "Euromaidan" demonstrations that began in November led to the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych three months later. (Valentyn Ogirenko, Reuters)
2
Thick ice lines the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois, during sub-zero temperatures on January 6. (Scott Olson, Getty Images)
3
A man carries a child as they flee an apparent air strike by government forces in Aleppo, Syria, on January 21. (Ammar Abdullah, Reuters)
4
A man escapes from a blaze at a government building in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on February 7. Protesters set fire to the building and clashed with riot police during several days of unrest over high unemployment and political inertia. (Dado Ruvic, Reuters)
5
Former Taliban fighters, including two women, stand handcuffed near seized weapons at a police headquarters after a military operation in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province on February 4, 2014. (Abdul Mueed, epa)
6
One of the five illuminated Olympic rings fails to open during the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, on February 7. (Phil Noble, Reuters)
7
A Cossack militiaman attacks Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and other members of the punk protest group Pussy Riot as they performed on a street in Sochi, Russia, on February 19. (Morry Gash, AP)
8
A scarecrow-like figure stands on a barricade in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 21. As protesters and government forces fought fierce street battles in the capital, President Viktor Yanukovich fled Kyiv and the parliament voted to strip him of his powers. (Bulent Kilic, AFP)
9
Russians Aleksandr Emereev (left) and Dmitry Zaytsev smile after getting married in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on February 25. Same-sex couples are not able to marry in Russia, and gay Russians have faced growing levels of repression and violence. (Daniel Garcia, AFP)
10
Participants enter the ballroom during the opening ceremony of the Vienna Opera Ball on February 27. (Herbert Neubauer, epa)
11
Kyrgyz horsemen play the traditional Central Asian sport of Kok-Boru (goat pull) during Norouz celebrations in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on March 17. (Igor Kovalenko, epa)
12
A car flies a Russian flag near the Crimean port city of Feodosia on March 24, shortly after Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula. (Shamil Zhumatov, Reuters)
13
The remains of decommissioned submarines float at a nuclear waste disposal plant in the town of Fokino in Russia's far-eastern Primorsky region on March 28. (Yuri Maltsev, Reuters)
14
Afghan women wait to vote at a polling station in Mazar-i-Sharif on April 5. The presidential election, marking the first democratic transfer of power since the fall of the Taliban regime, led to a run-off vote that brought Ashraf Ghani to power. (Zohra Bensemra, Reuters)
15
Hungarian women vote in Veresegyhaza, near Budapest, in parliamentary elections on April 6 that gave Prime Minister Viktor Orban another four years in office. (Laszlo Balogh, Reuters)
16
Armenian demonstrators in Yerevan set fire to a Turkish flag during a march marking the anniversary of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire on April 23. (Hayk Baghdasaryan, Photolure)
17
Iraqi women flash the sign for victory with ink-stained fingers after voting in Iraq's parliamentary elections in Baghdad on April 30. (Sabah Arar, AFP)
18
Transvestite singer Conchita Wurst speaks to the press in Vienna on May 11, one day after winning the Eurovision Song Contest as Austria's contestant. (Georg Hochmuth, AFP)
19
A man kisses his son who was rescued after an explosion caused a coal mine to collapse in the western Turkish city of Manisa on May 13. Scores of miners were killed in the disaster. (Bulent Kilic, AFP)
20
A fireworks show marks the opening of a new mosque in Argun, Chechnya on May 16. The Haja Aymani Kadyrova Mosque is named in honor of the mother of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. (RFE/RL's Radio Marsho)
21
A front loader helps evacuees escape from their flooded houses in Topcic Polje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, during the region's worst floods in more than a century. (Dado Ruvi, Reuters)
22
Fred Glover, formerly of the British 9th Parachute Regiment, watches a parachute drop at Ranville in Normandy, France, on June 5, during 70th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. (Andy Rain, epa)
23
Planes stand near a damaged section of Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 10, after an attack by Taliban militants left at least 27 people dead. (Athar Hussain, Reuters)
24
A boy dives into a crater filled with water in the al-Shaar district of Aleppo, Syria, on July 10. Activists said the pit was the result of bombing by government forces. (Hosam Katan, Reuters)
25
Mourners visit a cemetery in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the anniversary of the July 11, 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb troops. (Midhat Poturovic, RFE/RL)