Here are some of the most compelling photographs from the 18th week of 2021 from around RFE/RL's region. For more photo galleries, see our photo gallery archive.
Photos Of The Week No. 18
- By RFE/RL
1
A Kosovar Muslim offers prayers on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan ahead of Eid al-Fitr celebrations at a new mosque in Pristina on May 7. (AFP/Armend Nimani)
2
Russian female police cadets march during a general rehearsal for a Victory Day parade on Dvortsovaya Square in St. Petersburg. (epa-EFA/Anatoly Maltsev)
3
Hot-air balloons in Crimea, Ukraine (RFE/RL/Yevhen Zhuk)
4
A boy surveys damage to a house that was hit by flash floods in the village of Ziaratjah in Afghanistan's Herat Province. (epa-EFA/Jalil Rezayee)
5
People line up to get vaccinated and to be one of 100 people to receive shopping coupons along with their inoculations in the Usce shopping mall in Belgrade. Serbian authorities are looking for incentives to boost vaccination rates. The government has also promised a payment of around 25 euros to everyone who gets vaccinated by the end of May. (AP/Darko Vojinovic)
6
Russian Army servicemen walk past decorations on Red Square in Moscow ahead of the 76th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany during World War II. (AFP/Alexander Nemenov)
7
An Afghan boy pushes a wheelbarrow through floodwaters after heavy rainfall in Kabul on May 5. (AP/Rahmat Gil)
8
A nun walks past a shell-damaged Ukrainian Orthodox Church on her way to an Easter Service at the Iversky Monastery outside Donetsk. (AP/Alexei Alexandrov)
9
A girl walks amid the debris of a house that was destroyed in flash floods in a village in Herat Province, Afghanistan. At least 46 people died and another 15 remain missing after heavy rains and flash floods hit 15 of the country's 34 provinces. (epa-EFE/Jalil Rezayee)
10
A man refills oxygen cylinders as demand for supplies rises due to a surge in COVID-19 patients in Peshawar, Pakistan. (epa-EFE/Bilawal Arbab)
11
A Kyrgyz woman stands in front of her destroyed house in the village of Maksat on May 2. Kyrgyz Deputy Health Minister Aliza Soltonbekova said a total of 36 Kyrgyz citizens died, 189 people were injured, and 58,000 were evacuated during violence that erupted on April 28 and lasted for almost three days, Kyrgyz officials say, over a Tajik move to install surveillance cameras on a disputed part of the border. (AFP/Danil Usmanov)
12
An Iranian girl prays during a religious ceremony called Laylat al-Qadr during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, outside the Sadegh mosque in Tehran on May 3. Laylat al-Qadr (Arabic for Night of Destiny) is believed to be the night when the first verse of Islam's holy book, the Koran, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. (epa-EFE/Abedin Taherkenareh)
13
Members of nationalist movements attend a rally to commemorate the seven-year anniversary of deadly clashes that killed dozens of demonstrators in Odesa, Ukraine, on May 2. A total of 48 people died in the 2014 clashes between Ukrainian government supporters and pro-Russia protesters, including dozens who died in a burning building. (AP/Felipe Dana)
14
A Muslim worshipper peers through the curtains of his section while he observes "Itikaf," which requires staying in seclusion in a mosque to read the Koran and pray during the last 10 days of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, at a mosque in Karachi, Pakistan, on May 3. (AP/Fareed Khan)
15
A man with a tattoo depicting former Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito stands during a wreath-laying ceremony in Belgrade on May 4. People flocked to Tito's grave to mark the 41st anniversary of his death. (AP/Darko Vojinovic)
16
A priest sprinkles holy water on a believer during an Orthodox Easter service in the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on May 2. (Reuters/Alexander Ermochenko)
17
A Ukrainian soldier points at a passing helicopter as he stands in a trench on the line of separation from Russia-backed separatists near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. (AP/Felipe Dana)
