2021: The Year's Best From RFE/RL's Photographers
Children on a bus during the valenki (felt boot) festival in Kukmor, Tatarstan, Russia, on January 5.
Serbians celebrate Orthodox Christmas Eve at the Temple of Saint Sava in Belgrade on January 6.
A man wears a costume during the celebration of the Malanka winter holiday in the village of Krasnoyilsk in western Ukraine on January 14.
A man submerges himself in icy water for the Epiphany celebration in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on January 18.
Police arrest a man during a march calling for the release of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia, on January 31.
A man lights a candle during a day of remembrance for victims of communism in Sofia, Bulgaria, on February 1.
Belarusian journalists Katsyaryna Andreyeva (right) and Darya Chultsova on trial in Minsk, Belarus, on February 9. They were jailed for two years for "organizing public events aimed at disrupting civil order." The sentence was widely seen as a politically motivated response to their reporting on anti-regime protests in Belarus.
A man lights a candle in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 18, at a monument honoring the "Heavenly Hundred," the 104 people killed by security forces during anti-government protests in 2014.
An activist is confronted by police officers during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on February 28.
The Mother Armenia monument in Yerevan, Armenia, on March 5.
Women at a march for gender equality on International Women's Day in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 8.
A skier performs a dramatic jump during the 18th Freestyle World Ski Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on March 11.
Wooden crosses mark the burial places of 42 prisoners killed during a 1953 uprising at the Vorkuta forced-labor camp in Russia.
A medic checks a patient in a hospital that is overcrowded with COVID-19 patients in Lviv, Ukraine, on April 6.
A Ukrainian soldier pets a dog in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on April 17.
A man in the remains of a house in Batken Province, Kyrgyzstan, on May 4, after deadly armed clashes along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
A woman on Mount Chatyr-Dag in Crimea, Ukraine, on May 16. Crimean Tatar youth climb the mountain every year to honor the memory of those who died during the deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944.
A medic performs a swab test for COVID-19 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on May 24.
Catholic faithful at a forest chapel near the village of Dubok in Belarus on July 4. The chapel is open just once a year.
A rally at the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, in support of an LGBT Pride event, on July 6. Far-right activists attacked some Pride events in the city, resulting in the death of a cameraman and dozens of injuries.
People at a protest called "Flowers of Ukraine" in Kyiv on July 12. Activists were demonstrating against the demolition of a modernist late-Soviet building.
A man sells a sheep at a livestock market on the Kurban Ait holiday in the Almaty region, Kazakhstan, on July 20. The festival, also known as Eid al-Adha or the Feast of the Sacrifice, is celebrated at the end of the hajj.
A soldier and a young girl watch the Independence Day march in Kyiv, Ukraine, which marked 30 years of statehood on August 24.
Teenagers try to catch a signal to go online in the village of Chebotarevo, in the West Kazakhstan region, on August 27.
Soldiers take part in a parade marking the 30th anniversary of Kyrgyz independence at Ala-Too Square in Bishkek, on August 31.
Ukrainian Paralympians are welcomed at Kyiv airport as they return from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games on September 5.
Hasidic Jews attend Rosh Hashanah celebrations in Uman, Ukraine, on September 8. Around 30,000 pilgrims from more than 10 countries gathered for the event marking the Jewish New Year.
Two girls sit in class in Bishkek as schools reopened in Kyrgyzstan on September 15.
Preparations for a ceremony in Babyn Yar, Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 29. The 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre, one of the largest mass slaughters of Jews during World War II, was commemorated this year.
Afghan women collect saffron flowers in Herat, Afghanistan, on November 11. The plant has been seen as an alternative to poppy cultivation in the country's impoverished rural regions.
Georgians rally in support of Mikheil Saakashvili, who was on hunger strike in prison, on November 15 in Tbilisi. Saakashvili, Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, was arrested shortly after returning from self-imposed exile in Ukraine.
Afghans fleeing their homeland after the Taliban takeover cross into Pakistan at the Chaman border-crossing point on November 17.
The Bajgora Wind Park, Kosovo, on November 18. Kosovo gets just 3-5 percent of its energy from renewable sources, and is one of many Balkan countries that has faced energy shortages this winter.
The National History Museum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, reopened after renovations on November 19.
Thousands of miners halted work at Bosnia-Herzegovina's coal mines on November 23 and protested outside the seat of government in Sarajevo to demand better working conditions and higher salaries.
A Ukrainian soldier at the front line facing Russia-backed separatists in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, on December 7. Tensions are rising in the region as Russia has massed around 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine.
A snowy day on Wilson's Lane in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on December 13.