Here are some of the most compelling photographs from the 21st week of 2023 from around RFE/RL's region. For more photo galleries, see our archive.
Photos Of The Week (May 22-28, 2023)
- By RFE/RL
1
A woman stands amid the remains of her house, destroyed during fighting, in the Ukrainian village of Bohorodychne. After a year, first being abroad, later living with her sister in the Dnipro region, she returned to her ruined home, and now lives in the cellar.
2
A Ukrainian soldier loads the bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen into a van near Bakhmut.
3
People attend a rally in support of President Aleksandar Vucic in front of the Serbian parliament building in Belgrade on May 26. The president has faced increasing pressure from opponents angered by what they see as a lack of response to two mass shootings, including one at a school, earlier in the month.
4
A worker washes a city landmark, the equestrian statue of Peter the Great by French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet, in St. Petersburg.
5
A central street is decorated with the colors of the Georgian national flag in Tbilisi on Georgia's Independence Day on May 26.
6
Special police forces officers stand next to a burning car following clashes between Kosovar police and ethnic Serb protesters in the town of Zvecan on May 26.
7
A wounded Ukrainian soldier is seen at a medical stabilization point near Bakhmut.
8
An Afghan boy works at a brick kiln in the Dand district of Kandahar Province.
9
An Afghan woman sits next to child suffering from malnutrition and other diseases while receiving treatment at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar.
10
A general view shows an installation dedicated to Azovstal POWs at Sofiyska Square in Kyiv.
11
A Romanian man reads a newspaper on a bench in front of a mural about the Ukraine war in Bucharest.
12
Kosovo soldiers march next to the Scanderbeg statue during the opening ceremony of the military exercise Defender 2023 in Pristina.
13
A Pakistani boy cools off at the Angori Dam to beat the heat in Islamabad.
14
Iranians shop at the Grand Bazaar in Tehran.
15
Afghan girls fill canisters with drinking water on the outskirts of Kandahar.
16
Pakistani security personnel with ballistic shields escort a vehicle carrying former Prime Minister Imran Khan as he leaves after appearing before an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad on May 23.
17
Ukrainian soldiers look out from their tank as they drive toward their positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine.
18
Men who signed up for contract military service embrace their loved ones before heading to assigned units in Volgograd, Russia.
19
A Taliban fighter stands guard as Afghans wait in line to receive aid rations in Kabul.
20
An orthodox icon is drawn on an armored plate with a bullet hole taken from the flak jacket of a Ukrainian soldier who survived, at St. Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv.
21
Members of the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade Edelweiss, a unit of the Ukrainian ground forces, rest at an undisclosed location in the Bakhmut area.
22
Poppies bloom in a field at Oroshaza, southeastern Hungary.
23
About 100,000 Russian cyclists attend the Moscow Spring Bicycle Festival.
24
An Afghan vendor pushes a cart of footwear through a street as it rains in Kabul.
25
A mynah feeds its chicks inside a nest in a tree in Islamabad.
